GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Junior Tamara Merseli's career night boosted North Dakota to a 3-1 win in Big Sky Conference play Saturday evening. The win kept UND atop the league ladder with two matches to go as UND remained perfect at home in conference play (7-0).
Merseli hammered home a season-best 21 kills and added 18 digs for her team-leading 11th double-double of the season in the win. Junior setter Sydney Griffin had a stat line of 48 assists, 13 digs and six kills for North Dakota.
"What was great about tonight was that we really played steady throughout most of the match," UND head coach Mark Pryor said. "Idaho had a good run in the second set, which we couldn't recover from, and they also had a nice run of points in the middle of the fourth. They got up by three and we really locked in defensively to slow them down, and we were able to transition well to tie it up, and then we had a couple big stops at the end to seal the win.
"I thought that Chelsea Moser-- our one senior-- played a very smart game. She really scored for us in the front row, but she was also great at the service line. She has been a great player for us during her time here and we are really going to miss her once she graduates in December.
"I thought that at times our blocking and defense was not as solid as it usually is, but our offensive game was really aggressive tonight, and that aggressive mentality really carried us. With two matches left, it looks like we can finish from anywhere from fourth to first. I know that there is one of those places that we prefer, but it is going to take a lot of work over the next seven days. I know that these young women will be up to the challenge. There is a lot of fight in this team, and hopefully we can unleash that next week."
North Dakota cruised to a relatively easy win in the opening set, 25-18, after racing out to a 9-3 start. UND led throughout in that frame as Merseli totaled seven of her kills in that set alone. The second set saw Idaho (9-17, 4-10) continue to be a thorn in UND's side, rallying for a 25-21 win to knot the game at one-all at the intermission. It was a long run mideay through the third set that gave North Dakota a convincing 25-14 win and then in the fourth, UND rallied from being down with a set-ending 9-1 spurt to place it in the win column, 25-19.
UND (21-9, 12-2) has won 14 of its past 16 matches and goes into the final week of the regular season in the driver's seat in the race for the league's top seed. North Dakota faces a huge showdown Thursday at Northern Arizona, the other team tied atop the standings with North Dakota heading into Saturday' action, in Flagstaff, Ariz.
