Wolves Sweep NSIC Matches In Weekend Play

September 22, 2006	1	2	3	4
Minnesota-Crookston	30	20	17	25
Northern State	24	30	30	30

September 23, 2006	1	2	3	4
Bemidji State	30	25	13	25
Northern State	22	30	30	30

 

ABERDEEN, SD – The Northern State volleyball team claimed wins in both NSIC matches played this weekend at Wachs Arena, the first NSU homestand of the 2006 season. They defeated both Minnesota-Crookston (4-15, 0-6 NSIC) and Bemidji State (6-11, 2-5 NSIC) in four games to push their season record to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in the conference.

The Wolves began the weekend by knocking off MN-Crookston, keeping the Eagles winless in the league. Crookston took advantage of an NSU slow start and took the first game of the match, but the Wolves rebounded to finish off the Eagles in the next three games. They performed the best in the third game, claiming a 30-17 win with a .351 hitting average. In that game, NSU strung together at least three points on six occasions. Game scores were 24-30, 30-20, 30-17, 30-25.

Emily Knaeble led the team with 16 kills and 12 digs. Odemaris Diaz and Kelsey Aden followed with 15 and 12 kills, respectively. Kellie Heier had 42 assists and led the Wolves with 20 digs. The Wolves hit .198 on the night.

The Eagles had three players finish the match with double figures in kills, led by Theresa Crance with 18. Heather Foreman topped all players with 26 digs. UMC hit .183 in the four games.

Saturday’s match against Bemidji State went much like Friday night’s match, with the Wolves dropping the first game due to bad hitting and sub-par defense. As with the night before, however, Northern improved their game the remainder of the match and battled back to claim the win. Their hitting average in game 1 was just .041, while their best showing came once again in Game 3, when they posted a .250 average. Game scores were 22-30, 30-25, 30-13, 30-25.

Aden and Diaz led the team with 13 kills each, while Knaeble followed with 10. Defensively, the Wolves had four players with 10+ digs, led again by the quarterback of the team, Kellie Heier, with 21. Heier also had 38 assists. Jill Rasmussen had four block assists on the night.

For the Beavers, Brie Groskreutz came up with 14 kills and 26 digs, leading the team in both categories. Four other BSU players posted digs in double digits. Although they gave Northern a run for their money with strong attackers pounding away at the NSU defense, 43 attacking errors by Bemidji resulted in a hitting average of just .031 on the night.

The Wolves will host one more home match on Tuesday, Sept. 26 against South Dakota at 7:00 pm before returning to road matches next weekend. They will make the trip to Upper Iowa on Friday for a 7:00 pm match before heading to Concordia-St. Paul for a 3:00 matinee on Saturday.