BOZEMAN, Mont.-- Sophomore
Faith Dooley recorded 17 kills and nine blocks to pace visiting North Dakota to a 25-23, 25-23, 18-25, 25-20 win at Montana State Friday evening in Big Sky Conference play. A UND win at Montana Saturday or a Portland State loss would clinch a bid into the eight-team postseason league tournament with a week remaining in the regular season.
Courtney Place registered her 12th double-double of the season with 14 kills and 10 digs while
Chelsea Moser added 14 kills and seven blocks.
Sydney Griffin had 41 assists in the win while
McKenzie Hart chipped in 21 digs to inch within 36 of school record for career digs.
"We fought hard, and we represented ourselves and the university well tonight," UND head coach
Mark Pryor said. "It was not pretty at times, but we just battled and battled and finally we were able to break away in that fourth set. Tonight this team showed some grit. I love seeing that. That's a great sign for us.
We've got another tough one tomorrow so buckle up."
North Dakota (18-12, 6-7 Big Sky) tallied a season-high 18 total team blocks in the win. After jumping out to a 7-4 lead and building a 15-9 advantage, UND had to fend off the Bobcats with the home team rallying for five straight points to re-tie the score at 19-all. From there, Dooley registered one of her team-high 17 kills while her and Place finished the set with back-to-back kills and UND won the first set, 25-23.
In the second, the script was flipped with MSU (3-18, 1-12) grabbing the early edge, 10-4, before six straight points on the service of
McKenzie Hart to level the score at 10-apiece.The score would be tied nine more times in that set, including a 22-22 score. Place had two kills book-ending a block for another 25-23 UND victory and a 2-0 lead in the match heading into intermission.
MSU outhit North Dakota, .229-.167 in the third set to make it 2-1 but North Dakota held off a late rally in the fourth set to finish the match, 25-20. In that fourth frame, UND led late, 23-16 until a quick 4-0 Bobcat run made it tight at 23-20. North Dakota survived to win its second straight road match (3-2, at Southern Utah, Oct. 24).
UND plays at Montana Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Central.
