Jackrabbits bounce Bison 3-1

BROOKINGS, SD -- South Dakota State closed its match with North Dakota State on a 34-10 run over the last set an a half, en route to a 3-1 win over the visiting Bison in front of a Sunday afternoon crowd of 597 at Frost Arena.

The Jackrabbits, who won by the set scores of 21-25, 25-22, 25-15 and 25-9, improve to 9-3 overall and 2-0 in The Summit League. The Bison fall to 4-8 overall and an even 1-1 in league play.

"I think our defensive focus was sharp tonight. A couple of NDSU players put up big numbers tonight, but our focus was to make sure that their supporting cast didn't beat us," head coach Phil McDaniel said. "I love the way we served tonight, and I love the way we bounced back after the first set and played aggressive defense."

Kaitlin Klingemann led a balanced Jackrabbit attack with 14 kills, with three of the team's eight service aces, four digs and a pair of block assists. Kelli Fiegen rebounded from a slow start to finish with 12 kills and a match-high five block assists. Bailey Philippot added seven kills and four blocks, while Margit Hansing finished with six kills and four aces.

Shay Birath led the Jackrabbit defense with 27 digs, while Kelly Herrmann finished with 14 digs to go with her five kills and one block assist.

Brynn Joki led the visitors with a match-high 20 kills, Megan Lambertson added 11 and Carissa Whalen 10 kills in the loss. Andrea Henning led the Bison defense with 18 digs.

The Jacks opened the match with an early 9-5 lead, but the Bison answered with a 5-0 lead to go on top 10-9. SDSU would come back to tie the set three more times.

SDSU would never lead again in the set, but made a late run to get within one at 22-21, but the Bison scored the final three points in the set to win it 25-21.

South Dakota State led by as many as four points at 9-5 early in the second set, but the Bison would battle back to take a 14-12 lead, a lead they would hold until the Jacks regained the lead at 19-18. The Bison would tie the set three more times, but did not regain the lead, as SDSU hung on to win the set 25-22 and tie the match at 1-1.

After a trio of early ties and a pair of lead changes in the third set, the Jackrabbits took control of the match. Up 16-14 in the third set, SDSU scored two more to make it 18-14, drawing a time out from the NDSU bench.

The Jacks scored the next three points out of the break to take a 21-14 lead, forcing a second timeout from the visitors.

SDSU again scored the next three points after the break for an 8-0 run and only allowed NDSU to score one point, which gave the Jacks a 9-1 run to end the third set with a 25-15 SDSU win.

The running continued into the fourth set, when the Jacks opened on a 6-0 run, on their way to a 25-9 fourth set win and a 3-1 win in the match.

The Jackrabbits return to action next weekend at home against IUPUI on Friday and against Western Illinois on Saturday at Frost Arena. Both matches begin at 7 p.m.

Courtesy:  South Dakota State University