North Dakota State took a break from Summit League play Tuesday as the Bison took on state rival University of North Dakota to open up a four-match homestand. NDSU led the series with UND 78-15. UND had the upper hand last year, winning 3-0 in Grand Forks.
North Dakota’s Julia Kaczorowska had a match-high 14 kills while Faith Dooley had 11 kills and five blocks as UND defeated the Bison 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 30-28) Tuesday in front of 1,289 spectators at the Benson Bunker Fieldhouse.
UND outhit the Bison .270 to .131 and had a commanding 13-3 advantage in team blocks. Dooley hit for a match high of .476 followed by Kaczorowska hit .467. Chelsea Moser joined in with 5 blocks of her own as Sydney Griffin added four.
When asked about how UND was able to outhit the Bison, Coach Kari Thompson had these comments.
“They only made 12 attack errors and we made 23. They blocked really really well, that was the biggest difference. They took control of the net and forced us into tipping situations and we weren’t prepared to take control of the ball,” Thompson said.
In the first set, the Bison saw a small 11-8 lead slip away. UND went on an eight-point run to take the lead 16-11. After this, UND didn’t look back as they took the first set 25-16.
The second set, which consisted of 10 ties and five lead changes, started out a back and forth match. The Bison once again saw a small lead slowly slip away as UND made a score of 16-18 to 24-16, another eight-point run.
With the fast starts in the first two sets and how UND where able to come back, Jessica Jorgensen had these comments, “What they did well was go to their outside. Their outside was really effective. On our side, our right side and middle block wasn’t the best beginning. We got better, but they were just effective on their outsides.”
The Bison fought back several times of a five-point deficits with the last being 14-19 to tie the third set at 20-all, the first tie since the beginning of the set. The set would go back and forth with seven more ties with the last being at 28-all before UND took the set 30-28 to win the match.
“It is definitely a confidence builder moving forward. It shows what we can do in other games and the potential that we could easily beat other teams with that intensity.” Jorgensen on the fight the team had in the third set and confidence moving forward with the rest of the season.
Jorgensen and Hadley Steffen each had 11 kills. Mikaela Purnell came up with a match-high of 16 digs, tailing double-figure digs in 12 of the last 13 matches played. Jorgensen reached double-figure kills for the first time since September 23.
NDSU (7-16, 5-4 Summit League) is scheduled to host Western Illinois on Friday, October 28 and Omaha on Saturday, October 29. Both these matches start at 7 p.m. at Benson Bunker Fieldhouse.