GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Host North Dakota used a very efficient attack to race past Montana State 25-17, 25-11, 25-12 Thursday evening in Big Sky Conference play at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. UND tallied just four attack errors as a team-- a season low-- to remain atop the league's North Division at 6-1.
Junior Julia Kaczorowska led UND with 13 kills on just 22 swings without an error. Ashley Brueggeman and Tamara Merseli each added eight kills while Sydney Griffin handed out 35 assists in the sweep. North Dakota hit .432 as a team, including .625 in the final set alone.
"When your left sides have zero hitting errors for the match, you are going to be hard to beat," UND head coach Mark Pryor said. "When your middles have one hitting error between them to go with those left sides, you are really hard to beat. When you have four hitting errors total for a match, you may as well just chalk up a W.
"I don't think today was indicative of Montana State. They are a young team, but they have some great pieces. They will only get better, and we have to play them again in two weeks. It's crucial for us to enjoy this tonight, but to understand that this Montana State team will be light years better when we play them in Bozeman in a couple weeks.
"What's interesting about tonight is that our pin hitters led us in kills. Ashley Brueggeman had 8, along with Tamara Merseli, and Julia Kaczorowska had 13. When we can have multiple players step up and score, it definitely alleviates the stress on everyone else. That balance is what we are striving for daily."
UND had just one attack error in the opening set and it was from its setter on a dump kill attempt. The Fighting Hawks rattled off six straight points midway through the frame to lead comfortably, 13-5. The first frame ended with North Dakota winning, 25-17.
The second set was a runaway after MSU (4-12, 2-5) actually led, 3-1. From there, North Dakota scored seven consecutive points and ended the frame on an 11-4 run to take get to the locker room with a 25-11 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third, it was all North Dakota, with the home team hitting .625 as a team and the final point coming on a service ace by freshman Steph Ziegler for a 25-12 victory.
The Fighting Hawks look to extend their winning streak to six overall and will aim for their 12th straight win over Montana when they host the Griz Saturday at noon.
