Woes Continue At Wachs

September 18, 2007	1	2	3
South Dakota	30	30	30
Northern State	17	24	10

 

ABERDEEN, S.D. - A season low hitting average and a rough night serve receiving brought Northern State's losing streak to three matches and gave the volleyball team their first home loss of the season. The University of South Dakota (15-1) swept the Wolves (7-5) in three games at Wachs Arena on Tuesday night, 30-17, 30-24, 30-10.

Although the Wolves made a few short scoring runs at the Coyotes, they struggled the majority of the match in both hitting and passing. NSU's -.047 hitting average and 24 kills in the match were both lows on the season, while their nine serve receive errors tied the highest mark of the year.

Northern played their best volleyball of the night in the second game, when they scored 24 points. The team fell behind 1-7 early on, but battled back to a score of 13-16 using serving aces from Kelsey Aden and kills from various players. With a mix of NSU errors and USD kills, the Coyotes pulled back ahead 16-25. The Wolves showed determination, however, and kept battling. They won six of the next eight points to bring the score to 22-27, putting the ball down five times with kills. A USD block and two kills from Kathleen Hruska gave the Coyotes the game point and a 2-0 lead in the match. They opened the third game with an 8-0 run and never looked back, downing the Wolves 30-10 for the win.

Northern received eight kills from Aden and six from Emily Knaeble. Stephanie Nygaard tied USD's Laura Slagter for most digs in the match with 16. Megan Gilbraith had her third double double of the season with 18 assists and 11 digs. Northern had 60 total digs on the night. Aden and Nygaard also had three serving aces each against the Coyotes.

South Dakota was led by Hruska on offense with 12 kills, the only player in the match to post double figures in hitting. Setter Gina Baldwin assisted 34 of USD's 40 match kills. The Coyotes hit .250 in the match, with a high hitting performance of .375 in the final game. The team had eight blocks, including four assists and a solo block from Hruska.

The Wolves return to NSIC play this weekend, host the University of Mary on Saturday afternoon. The match will get started at Wachs Arena at 4:00 pm.