DENVER – The fifth seeded University of North Dakota volleyball team fell, 3-0, to No. 4 seed Purdue Fort Wayne in the opening match of the 2018 Summit League Volleyball Championship in Denver, Colo. on Friday afternoon.
 
UND ends the season with a 14-18 mark, its lowest win total in the Division I era (2008-present) and fewest overall since 2007. The Fighting Hawks also fell for the third time this season to Purdue Fort Wayne, failing to claim a set against the Mastodons.
 
Playing in her final match at North Dakota, Jordan Vail finished with a team-high nine kills on just 17 swings for a .471 hitting percentage. The All-Summit League First Teamer finished with a trio of block assists and a solo rejection to record at least one block in every match this season but one.
 
The Mastodons saw a trio of players reach double figures in kills, led by Madelyn Wurster's 14. Nicole Rightnowar and Elizabeth Fuerst each collected 12 as Purdue Fort Wayne outhit the Fighting Hawks, .248 to .160.
 
Ashley Brueggeman and Darian Chwialkowski each tallied five kills for the Hawks, while Lexi Ahrens recorded six. Brueggeman was strong on the defensive side of the net, recording five block assists while Ahrens collected a trio of rejections, and Chwialkowski had one.
 
Tamika Brekke, a senior playing in her final match at UND, just missed a career-high in digs on Friday as the senior tallied a team-high 15 for the Hawks. Junior Alivia Fraase notched another double-digit dig performance to her belt, recording 11 in the loss.
 
UND's final senior, Maggie Smith, saw action in a pair of sets, collecting two kills and a pair of digs.
 
It was a slow start out of the gate for UND as Purdue Fort Wayne scored five of the opening set's six points to take an early 5-1 lead. The Hawks kept fighting, however, clawing back in the frame before eventually evening the score at 13 on a Vail kill.
 
The Mastodons kept their lead, but UND continued to rally throughout the stanza. The Hawks cut the deficit to just a single point, 24-23, after a service ace from Taliyah Flores and back-to-back kills from Chwialkowski, but the Mastodons held on for a 25-23 victory and a 1-0 match lead.
 
It was North Dakota who had the strong start to the second set, jumping out to a 7-4 lead after a huge double block by Vail and Chwialkowski before Purdue Fort Wayne answered with three straight of its own to bring the score to a 7-7 deadlock.
 
UND exploded out of the tie, scoring four straight points sparked by a Taylor Riedl kill and a trio of Mastodon attack errors to force a Purdue Fort Wayne timeout and grab an 11-7 advantage.
 
The theme of runs continued in the frame as Purdue Fort Wayne pieced together a spurt to even the score before eventually pulling ahead 19-17. UND responded right back with four straight thanks to a pair of errors by the Mastodons sandwiched between kills by Brueggeman and Ahrens to restore the lead for the Hawks, 21-19.
 
In keeping with the theme, Purdue Fort Wayne had the last spurt as the Mastodons scored six unanswered points to stun UND with a 25-21 victory and took a commanding 2-0 lead heading into the intermission.
 
The third set started strongly for Purdue Fort Wayne, scoring 11 of the first 15 points in the stanza to grab an early stranglehold, 11-4. UND battled back, cutting the deficit to four on three-different occasions, but it wasn't enough as the Mastodons held on for the 25-16 victory and the sweep.
 
The Summit League Volleyball Championship continues tomorrow with semifinal action before the championship match on Sunday afternoon.