GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Despite winning set three and putting up a battle in set four, North Dakota dropped a four-set decision (17-25, 18-25, 25-22, 17-25) to St. Thomas (3-20, 2-11 Summit) in women's volleyball action at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Saturday afternoon.

Lexi Ahrens led UND (1-24, 0-13 Summit) in both kills and blocks with 11 K's and five rejections (one solo, four assisted), respectively. Ashlyn Olson recorded the second-most kills for the Fighting Hawks with 10. Abi McGlynn piled up a new career-high with seven kills.

Elizabeth Norris paced the offense with 19 assists and was one dig shy of her fourth double-double of the season. Peyton Sewell also dished out 17 assists to go with seven digs.

Defensively, Madi Hart led the team with 26 digs, trailed by Darian Chwialkowski adding 10 digs.

Four different Hawks had service aces with Hart, Sewell, Julz Carlat and Maddy Hornyak all with one ace apiece.

St. Thomas controlled the match with advantages in kills (54-47), aces (9-4), and assists (50-44). North Dakota held the edge in both total blocks (8-7) and digs (79-78).

The Tommies built their lead up to 13-5 midway through set one before the first run of the afternoon for the Fighting Hawks. Following that point, UND fired off four consecutive points, powered by kills from Kelly Wahl, Carlat, Olson and a service ace from Hornyak. North Dakota continued its run and cut the lead down to 14-12 shortly after before St. Thomas ended the match on an 11-5 run to take set one.

UST bounced out to an 11-5 early advantage in set two before consecutive Tommie attack errors and kills from Hornyak and Wahl trimmed the lead to 11-9. North Dakota was unable to string together consecutive points after that score and fell in set two, 25-18.

After the break, North Dakota came out firing and recorded its first lead of the day to go up 12-10 after stringing together five points in a row. UST climbed back in the set following an UND attack error and a pair of kills to claim the lead at 13-12. Kills from Ahrens and Albinson put the green and white back up at 14-13. St. Thomas once again reclaimed the lead at 15-14 before North Dakota put down five-straight kills, paired with a Tommie attack error to put the Hawks up 20-15. UST had two runs late in the set, but a Taylor Pribyl termination ended the set, giving North Dakota the 25-22 win in set three.

St. Thomas stormed out to a 16-7 lead in set four before a kill from Olson, a UST attack error, an Ahrens kill, and Hart's ace cut the tally to 17-11. The teams traded points and pairs of points in the final frame before two Tommie kills ended the match and set four at 25-17.

North Dakota will now turn its attention to Denver. The Hawks will visit the Pioneers on Thursday, Nov. 4, with opening serve set for 8 p.m. (CT).