BEMIDJI, Minn. - The Bemidji State University volleyball team struggled to produce any offensive attack Saturday afternoon as they were defeated in consecutive games (30-21, 30-17, 30-28) by Southwest Minnesota State University at the Bemidji High School Gymnasium.
The Mustangs had the Beavers on their heels Saturday, seemingly throwing all aspects of the BSU offensive attack out of sync. BSU's -.025 hitting percentage was its lowest of the season and its worst since the Beavers collided with a nationally ranked Concordia-St. Paul team Sept. 20, 2003 (-.047). SMSU also held BSU to just 30 kills--a BSU total surpassing only two other matches in 2004.
The Mustangs were tough on the front line blocking a total of 10 BSU attacks, but the single-biggest reason the Beavers struggled was due to the season-high 33 attacking errors the team committed in the match.
After scoring the first point as the match got underway, SMSU rattled off six consecutive points to put the Beavers in a early hole (6-1). Bemidji State would later have a run of five points to come within 26-21, but behind a four-kill, two block game from Megan Wendorff SMSU took the first stanza 30-22.
BSU was again slow out of the gate to begin game two. Head Coach Kim Falkenhagen called timeout with her team trailing the Mustangs 14-6 and would be forced to use her second timeout just minutes later as SMSU scored 11 of the next 17 points to increase their lead to 25-12. BSU would get kills from Heather Haugen (Lanesboro, Minn.) and freshman Brittney Burns (Henderson, Minn.) after the break, but would go down 2-0 as Southwest Minnesota State took game two 30-17.
BSU started to show some fire in the third game. The Beavers minimized their errors and posted their highest hitting percentage of the match (.103). Additionally, the team stuck right with the Mustangs using a run of five points to take a 15-14 lead midway through the match. SMSU however would counter with a five-point swing of their own to regain the lead (19-15) and force the Beavers into a timeout. BSU would respond scoring six of the next eight points, with three kills from Burns, to knot the game at 21-21. The teams battled for the next few points, but on a pair of service aces from senior Kristine Engman (Virginia, Minn.) and block assists from senior Kelly Piper (Eagan, Minn.) and junior Christa Anderson (Siren, Wis.) the Beavers were serving with a 28-27 lead. SMSU had a different plan. Instead of allowing BSU to extend the match to a fourth game, the Mustangs scored three straight points, capped off with a service ace by Krystie Kaukola, to steal the game and complete the three-game sweep of the Beavers.
Bemidji State was led offensively by Burns and Engman. Burns paced the team with eight kills while Engman moved from her defensive specialist role to post the team's best hitting percentage at .308 (5k-1e-13 att). Senior setter Kristin Smith (Rockford, Ill.) lead the team with 20 assists while collecting a match-high 13 digs to record her fifth consecutive double-double (assists-digs) and the 30th of her career. Piper and Anderson each collected four blocks in the game to lead the team.
Erin Contons collected 14 kills to lead the Mustangs' hitting attack. Kaukola's 31 assists was good for a match-high, while Jennifer Otto collected 13 digs to tie Smith for the highest dig total in the match.
The loss drops BSU to 8-17 overall and 2-7 in NSIC play. Bemidji State will now hit the road for its final five regular season affairs. Tuesday (Oct. 26) the Beavers travel to Grand Forks, N.D. to battle the University of North Dakota in a non-conference affair while they will get back into NSIC play going to MSU-Moorhead Friday and Northern State University Saturday.
