September 3, 2003

NORTHERN FALLS TO NO. 20 JACKRABBITS IN FOUR GAMES

PIERRE, SD - The No. 20 South Dakota State Jackrabbits defeated Northern State in four games (30-20, 30-26, 28-30, 30-22) in front of a packed house in the Pierre Indian Learning Center on Wednesday night.

The Jackrabbits began the match breaking a 16-16 tie in game one to roll out five straight points and take the game 30-20. They then took game two by a 30-26 count using Wolf serving and hitting errors to their advantage.

Northern State made a rally attempt in the third game as they came back from a 26-21 deficit to win the game 30-28. But the Jacks would polish off the Wolves 30-22 in the fourth game to take the match and improve to 5-1 on the season.

Jessica Bates and Tara Engquist led the NSU offense with 14 kills each with Engquist hitting a team high .407 on the match. Tara Sauter put up 36 assists and Monica Inge led the team for the fifth straight match with 15 digs.

SDSU was paced by Sarah Biggerstaff's 18-kill performance and 15 digs by Alissa Tepley.

The loss marks the third of the year for the Wolves and their third to a ranked team.

Northern State travels to Brookings on Friday to face National American University and the University of North Dakota. They then play in Marshall, Minn. on Saturday in a match against St. Cloud State.

Complete Match Statistics