OMAHA, Neb. – The University of North Dakota volleyball team battled on the road, but fell, 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-11, 28-26), to Omaha on Friday evening.
 
"I know we lost, but for 90% of the match I really loved how we were playing," said Head Coach Mark Pryor. "I actually thought we played better tonight than we have since conference play began."
 
The Fighting Hawks (12-9, 4-2 Summit League) fall to 0-2 in Omaha during the Division I era (2008-present) and see their three-match winning streak come to an end.
 
Jordan Vail, the reigning Summit League Offensive Player of the Week, led UND and tied for the match lead with 16 kills. The senior needed only 33 swings to accomplish the feat to hit a team-high .333 on the evening. The conference's leading rejection artist added three block assists and a solo rejection to help pace UND's 11 blocks in the loss.
 
Ashley Brueggeman finished as the second of three Hawks to reach double digit in kills as the junior recorded 10. The Eden Prairie native has now hit .200 or better in 14 contests this season. Brueggeman led UND with four block assists and a solo rejection.
 
Brynn Nieukirk became the third UND player to tally at least 10 kills with another strong performance. Her 10 kills marks the fifth time over the last eight matches that the true freshman has reached the 10-kill plateau.
 
On the defensive side of the ball, Taliyah Flores led the Hawks again with 20 digs for her 14th consecutive contest with at least 10 digs. Junior defensive specialist Alivia Fraase finished second on the team with 11 digs while Tamika Brekke just missed a double-digit game with nine.
 
Making her first start at the collegiate level, Darian Chwialkowski provided a solid game with eight digs and a service ace. The true freshman also chipped in a pair of kills and a block assist.
 
The nation's leading distributor, Roosa Rautio chalked up another 39 helpers to add to her total on the season. The Finland native has now tallied at least 39 assists in seven of her last eight matches.
 
The opening set saw both sides trade points to begin the contest, reaching the midway point of the frame deadlocked at eight; however, Omaha jumped out on a 5-0 run to quickly grab a 13-8 lead and force a UND timeout.
 
The Mavericks continued to build off the momentum from the home crowd to build an advantage as large as six and continued to maintain their cushion as the hosts posted a 25-19 victory and took a 1-0 match lead.
 
While dropping the first set isn't always an indicator of how the match will play out, the numbers have not been kind to North Dakota when it happens as the Hawks were 0-6 this season when falling behind 1-0 entering Friday.
 
After both sides traded 3-0 runs to open the second, neither UND nor Omaha could distance themselves from its opponent as there were 13 tied scores throughout the stanza.
 
With the set even at 20, the Hawks exploded for five straight points to grab control of the frame and capture a 25-20 triumph to even the contest at 1-1. Brueggeman started the run with a kill from the right side before Nieukirk and Lydia Rutten teamed up for a massive block in the middle to make it 22-20. Moments later, the duo went back-to-back with a pair of kills to push the visitors to set point where Brueggeman and Rutten ended the period with a double block for an exclamation point on the victory. UND finished with a match-high .441 hitting percentage in the set, recording 16 kills to just one attack error.
 
Omaha (10-7, 5-0 Summit League) responded in the third set in a big way, recording a team-high .364 attack percentage while holding the Hawks to just .038 to roll to a 25-11 win and grab a 2-1 lead in the tilt.
 
UND didn't panic, however, facing the same situation just a week prior in the 3-2 victory over Oral Roberts and came out attacking to begin the fourth. The visitors opened up a 7-4 lead but the Mavs answered with an 11-2 run to flip the score to a 15-9 UNO lead and force UND to call timeout.
 
The green and white inched closer and closer in the set before eventually taking an 18-17 lead off a Nieukirk slam. UND never trailed for much of the remainder of the frame, grabbing set point following a Vail kill at 24-21. Omaha rallied again, however, with three straight of its own to send the frame into extra points tied at 24. Both sides exchanged the next four to push the stanza to a 26-26 deadlock, but the Mavericks recorded a block and a kill to complete the comeback and escape with a 28-26 win.
 
"At one point in the fourth set, there were five freshmen on the floor and there were some flashes of great play," stressed Pryor. "We had a chance to get it to five, but we just weren't able to pull it off."
 
North Dakota doesn't see the matches get any easier, returning home to host another undefeated foe in Denver on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. The Pioneers have won the last four Summit League titles and will enter Sunday with 13 straight victories.
 
"We knew this next stretch was gonna be rough," said Pryor. "We showed progress, but now the goal is when we play them [Omaha] again, how much have we improved? I look forward to seeing that improvement."