(Madison, SD) –
Dakota State University's volleyball-playing Trojans (5-9) snapped an
eight-match losing string Tuesday, handing Morningside College (13-8) a
3-2 loss in the DSU Field house. The Trojans
earned the match win with a 15-13 fifth-game victory.
"Playing at a consistently high level finally
came together for the Trojan volleyball program," said DSU Cynthia
Henning. "We have struggled to play at a high level throughout our
matches, and that was the big focal point for us on Tuesday evening. I
felt we played very well for the entire match."
DSU won the first two games 30-26 and 30-17 before Morningside's
Mustangs won the next two games 30-19 and 30-25.
"Morningside has a very good team, and we knew after we took
games one and
two that they would come out very strong and
very aggressive at us," added Henning.
Stacy Dunklau, Sandy Smith and Vicki Kaul patrolled the net, coming away
with double-figures kills.
Dunklau spanked across 22 kills and Smith and Kaul added 15 and 13
kills, respectively. The Trojan women pounded across a total of 65
kills.
Smith contributed five solo blocks and helped other Trojans on six
different plays.
"I was especially pleased with the play of Vicki, our outside hitter,
who made her first start for us last night," Henning said Wednesday.
"She wasn't our kills leader, but her play made Morningside have to
defend another strong hitter, and that took some pressure off of Stacy
and Sandy, which, in the long run, helped them be more effective,
allowing our team to be more effective."
Katie Bassett helped get the ball to the hitters, garnering 51 of the
Trojans' 54 assists in the match.
On defense, libero player Stephanie Nygaard led the way with 28 digs.
Other double-digit defensive efforts came from Laura Lanoue, Rachael
Jensen and Bassett, who had 15, 11 and 10 digs, respectively.
"We are continuing to see daily improvement from all of our players, and
that is one of our biggest goals for the year," concluded Henning. "With
having so many underclassmen play significant roles, we need to see that
continued growth and improvement from all of our players. Last night we
saw that from our team in all areas and from all of our players."
For Morningside, Cassie Cheever had 16 kills and Andra Pedersen 14.
Cheever also had three solo blocks and four assisted blocks.
Kristin Westergaard contributed 12 digs. Amber Bohnker had a career-high
11 digs and Jericho Johnson had 10.
DSU stays at home this weekend, hosting Mayville State on Friday and
Valley City State on Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.
Nick Huntimer,
Dakota State Sports Information Director
