BEMIDJI, Minn. - Less than 24-hours after taking one of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conferences' top teams to five games before loosing, the Bemidji State University volleyball team needed only three games to defeat one of the leagues lowest ranked teams. The Beavers swept the Wolves from Northern State University Saturday 3-0 (30-21, 30-14, 30-26) the BSU Gymnasium.
The BSU offense led by senior setter Kristin Smith was arguably played it best three-game span in the match hitting .206 as a team and collecting at least 14 kills in each game. Smith who served as the team's spark plug this afternoon collected a match-high 27 assists to go with four kills, six digs and a .250 hitting percentage. After sitting out the majority of the third game, she returned with the Beavers trailing 26-24 to single-handedly account for a 4-0 run putting BSU back in the lead for good. She posted a kill in her first moments after returning then served the next three points including a pair of service aces. Smith finished the game with four aces in all tying a career-high set Sept. 14, 2004 versus Michigan Tech.
The Beavers and Wolves were neck-and-neck for most of the first game but after trailing 9-8, BSU would take advantage of three NSU miscues to take the lead for good. Freshman Brittney Burns got the Beavers out of the gates recording kills on three of BSU's first four points. She would total five kills in game one to lead the team followed closely by senior outside hitter Kristine Engman who collected four of her five kills in game one. Freshman Alicia Beaman was a catalyst late in the game posting three services aces and an a kill as BSU scored nine of the final 14 points to close the game out and take an early 1-0 lead in the match.
Game two was all Bemidji State as the Beavers would jump out to an 11-3 lead on a with freshman middle blocker Brittney Carlson collecting two of her seven kills and forcing a NSU timeout just minutes into the game. The Beavers extended that lead coming out of the time out as Smith did a bit of everything collecting a service ace, a block and a kill along with making a pair of assists to put BSU up 20-9. With a 25-14 advantage, BSU scored the final five points of the game consecutively to win the game 30-14 and take a 2-0 lead.
The Wolves, however, would not lay down for the beavers mounting quite a comeback in game three. Trailing 3-1 early, NSU scored seven of the next eight points to force a BSU time out. BSU would respond to tie the game 12-12 but the Wolves would continue to pull ahead and stay in the lead until BSU head coach Kim Falkenhagen called a time out with her squad trailing 24-21. BSU went on a 9-2 scoring run out of the time out led by Smith, wining the game (30-26), the match (3-0) and extending Northern State's losing streak to eight while the team has failed to win a single game during that span.
Burns led the Beavers with 12 kills while Carlson topped the team with a career-high .545 hitting percentage (7k-1e-11att). Senior middle hitter Heather Haugen found herself one kill short of a double-double for the second straight day totaling nine kills while sharing the lead for digs with sophomore Kathryn McCannell who came in off the bench to get 13.
The team's serving game was as good as it has been all season. Collecting a season-high 14 services aces, the Smith led the team four while sophomore Lindsey Bromenshenkel, Beaman and Haugen each finished with three and McCannell recorded one.
The victory boots Bemidji State's overall record to 5-8 while the team is 2-2 in NSIC play. Northern State falls to 3-14 overall and 0-4 in league play. BSU will be back in action Sept. 28th when it travels to Superior, Wis. to battle the University of Wisconsin-Superior in a 7:00 p.m. non-conference tilt. The match marks the beginning of six-match road swing spanning more than two weeks.
