GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Junior Tamara Merseli notched her team-high seventh double-double of the season, generating a match-high 16 kills to go along with a career-best 30 digs in host North Dakota's 3-1 win (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-18) over Portland State Saturday afternoon in Big Sky Conference play at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. She was one of four players with double-digit kill totals for the Fighting Hawks, who improved to 5-1 in league play to remain atop the conference ledger.
Redshirt freshman Alivia Fraase added 33 digs in the win, a new career high as well. Junior Sydney Griffin tallied 51 assists with junior Faith Dooley recording an impressive double-double with 11 kills and 10 total blocks. Julia Kaczorowska chipped in 15 kills and Chelsea Moser added 10 for the home team. Sophomore Denae Dominguez had a career-best four service aces for UND.
"Today we hit really well in sets one and two, but we weren't really effective on offense in sets three and four. Luckily, our defense really shined today," UND head coach Mark Pryor said. "Portland State does a lot of things that can stretch us out defensively, but to our players' credit, we were able to really anticipate a lot of off-speed shots and we were able to control their two left sides, which was a major key for us.
"Faith Dooley played well today both on offense and on defense. She really opened things up for our pin hitters. Tamara Merseli was just fearless offensively and in the back row playing great defense. She had 55 swings and 16 kills and only three hitting errors. It was one of the smartest outside hitting performances I've seen since I've been at UND."
Dominguez got things started for North Dakota, generating three service aces in the first 15 points to give the home team a quick 15-10 edge. Her back-to-back aces in the middle of that set forced a Portland State timeout, but the Vikings (10-9, 2-4) were never able to recover, falling 25-19 in the opener.
It was another quick start to propel UND in front again in the second set as Sydney Griffin and Faith Dooley were in on a block to cap a 13-5 spurt off the bat. PSU answered with its own run of 13-5, knotting the score at 18-all until the Fighting Hawks rattled off seven of the final eight points, including two of Kaczorowska's six kills in that set alone for another 25-19 win.
After intermission, the road team was able to take a see-saw third set that saw nine tie scores and four different lead changes before a 25-23 Viks' win. UND would put the match away in the fourth as the defense stiffened. Merseli and Fraase each recoreded a dozen digs while Dooley had five of her block total in that final set, including a exclamation point solo block on the final point for the win.
North Dakota remains at home next week, hosting the Montana schools. The Bobcats of Montana State are the opponent Thursday with Montana invading the Betty on Saturday afternoon.
