Box Score
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (November 17, 2016) – Turns out travelling here isn’t the only thing daunting about playing North Dakota. Behind its usual balanced recipe and a rowdy home crowd, the top-seeded Fighting Hawks earned a sweep of No. 8 Idaho in the Big Sky Volleyball quarterfinals Thursday night.
The 2016 Big Sky Volleyball Championship, presented by Red Lions Hotel Corporation, had a back-and-forth day between five-setters and sweeps with the home squad providing the latter. Faith Dooley finished with 11 kills, five blocks and a .474 hitting percentage, Big Sky MVP Sydney Griffin added 27 assists with five kills and three blocks and fellow first-team teammates Tamara Merseli (seven kills, 10 digs) and Chelsea Moser (six kills, four blocks) contributed to the balanced attack.
UND hit .224 as a team with 10 blocks to Idaho’s three, improving to 7-1 all-time against the Vandals and avenging its lone loss from last season’s quarterfinals. Alivia Fraase toted a team-high 21 digs while Ashley Brueggeman added six kills.
In the opening set, UND used a 7-2 run to take control, with Brueggeman, Merseli, Dooley and Julia Kaczorowska each grabbing kills to go up 17-10. Idaho pulled within two late, only to see UND score the last five points with Dooley grabbing two of her five kills in the set to win 25-18. The Fighting Hawks hit .306 in the first set with 15 kills.
North Dakota turned on the defense in the second set with a 6-0 run, as Griffin and Dooley each had a hand in two blocks and Dooley added two more kills to go up 19-14. The teams traded points back and forth, before UND scored three of the last four points with kills from Kaczorowska and Moser along with an Idaho attack error ending the set 25-20.
A 5-0 run capped by a dump kill from Griffin started off the third set with the score 6-3, while another 3-0 spurt made it 12-7. UND worked towards a seven-point lead late, and ended up limiting Idaho to negative hitting in the final frame, with Merseli capping off the 25-17 victory for the match.
Idaho was held to .078 hitting with a 35-35 kill-error ratio. Kaela Straw paced the Vandals with 11 kills and three blocks while lone senior Terra Varney finished her career with a match-high 23 digs.
Coming into the tournament as the favorites, North Dakota picked up its second tournament win since joining the Big Sky. The Fighting Hawks came into the match with a 1-4 overall record, but are looking to get back to .500 and earn an NCAA bid. UND will host No. 5 Idaho State Friday night at 7 p.m. CT with a spot in the championship on the line. ISU outlasted UND in five sets in Pocatello in the teams’ lone meeting during the regular season, handing the Hawks one of their two league losses.