St. Paul, Minn. – The Northern State University volleyball team dropped a five set heartbreaker at No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul. The Wolves and Golden Bears battled throughout the match, however moved to 16-7 overall and 9-6 in the league.
The Wolves opened the afternoon with a 25-22 set defeat of the Golden Bears. The two team's continued to battle through the second set, however CSP came away with the 29-27 extra point defeat of NSU. NSU bounced back for a 25-22 third set victory, after a 5-0 point run to close out the set win. The Golden Bears came back in the fourth set to take the 25-14 victory over the Wolves and force the decisive fifth set. The two teams took it to extra points yet again in the fifth, however the Wolves dropped the set 17-15 and fell in the match.
Northern hit .296 as a team with 68 kills, 62 assists, 70 digs, seven service aces, and seven blocks, while the Golden Bears hit .328 with 84 digs, 78 assists, 74 digs, five service aces, and eight blocks. NSU hit .300 or better in three of the four sets including a .400 mark in the opening bout.
Kellie Schmit led the Northern offense with 17 kills, hitting a team second best .433 in the match.
Lexi Lockhart and
Lauren McCafferty followed with 13 kills each, while
Jenna Reiff notched another 12.
Holly Vancura hit a team leading .667 in the match and added four kills, while
Tori Biach rounded out the team total with eight.
Ashley Rozell broke the 1,000 assist mark for the season with 57 total in the match. The Wolves setter averaged 11.4 assists per set, and dug a team second best 14 balls.
Jaiden Langlie also tallied 14 digs on defense, while
Holly Vancura led the team with 16. McCafferty was the final Wolf in double-digit digs with ten in the match. Biach led the Wolves at the net with five block assists, followed by Rozell with three and McCafferty and Schmit with two each.
The Wolves will return to Wachs Arena next weekend in their final home games of the regular season. Northern will face-off against No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State on Friday at 7 p.m., and return for a 6 p.m. match with Sioux Falls on Saturday.
