TULSA, Okla. – The North Dakota volleyball team bounced back Saturday with a 3-2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-23, 15-25, 16-14) win at Oral Roberts after dropping their Summit League opener in Denver on Thursday evening. Elizabeth Norris notched her second triple-double of the season with ten kills, a team high 29 assists and 12 digs. Lauren Perugini grabbed her first career double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs.
The Fighting Hawks came out flying in set number one as they hit .344 as a team in the opening frame with 14 kills and only three attack errors. Two kills from Marissa Stockman helped NoDak build a 6-2 lead early and the visitors never looked back. ORU pulled within four at 22-18 late in the set, but three straight for UND finished off the set.
ORU came out on the front foot in the second frame, with UND not taking their first lead until a kill from Paige Barber put the Fighting Hawks up 13-12. The set would seesaw back and forth, with ORU eventually jumping back up 18-15 before UND went on a 4-0 run to go back up. Lauren Perugini got back-to-back kills to cap off the run, but a tense set would go the way of the Golden Eagles.
Set number three started in a very similar way to the end of the second set, with the teams going back and forth. With NoDak up 9-8, the Fighting Hawks went on a 5-1 run to put some distance between themselves and the Golden Eagles. UND would not trail again the rest of the set, as they went up 2-1 in the match.
After the teams split the first 12 points of the fourth set, ORU took a lead with a 4-0 spurt and they would not trail again the rest of the set. UND would come back to tie the set at 14, but from there the hosts controlled the rest of the frame.
Oral Roberts rode the momentum from the end of the fourth set into the early part of the fifth set, but UND would claw back. Down 10-6, Marissa Stockman got two consecutive kills and then Perugini and Barber followed which tied the stanza at ten. The green and white got the first match point at 14-13, but ORU fought it off. But a kill from McCallister Gayle gave UND a second match-point and an ace from Teagan Timperley finished it off.
Postgame Notes
· Barber led the team with 15 kills.
· Skylar Darr set a new career high with 18 digs, as did Maddie Lipetzky with 15.
· Timperley reached double digits in assists for the 13th straight match with 21, a best mark for her young career. She also set a new high with four aces.
· Eight aces from UND is their highest mark since 12 against Montana on September 9th.
· The Fighting Hawks hit over .200 for the third time this season.
· A total of 59 kills was the second highest mark of the season to 65 against Montana.
How it Happened
First set: UND 25, ORU 18
Second set: ORU 25, UND 22
Third set: UND 25, ORU 23
Fourth set: ORU 25, UND 15
Fifth set: UND 16, ORU 14
