BEMIDJI, Minn. (BSU Gymnasium) - The Bemidji State University volleyball team dropped a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tilt to St. Cloud State University, 3-0 (30-28, 25-17, 25-17), Saturday afternoon at the BSU Gymnasium.

Freshman Melissa McNeely (OH, Burnsville, Minn.) led the Beaver attack with a career-high nine kills while hitting a team-high .364 (9k-1e-22at) to pace the Beavers offense. Jennifer Janckila (Sr., MB, Appleton, Wis.) chipped in seven kills and a career-high seven blocks (0bs-7ba) to hold down the net for BSU.

Courtney Bitter (Fr., S, Bemidji, Minn.) recorded her eighteenth 20-assist performance of the season with 21 in the match.

Errors continue to haunt the young Beaver squad as they committed eight more errors than the Huskies (40-32), which proved to be the difference in the match.

The Huskies’ Ashley Shields and Kristen Stott paced SCSU’s offense each recording double-digit kills. Shields had a match-high 12 kills while Stott added 10. Erica Beacom netted a team-high .462 hitting percentage (7k-1e-13at).

Andreana Pieper led all players with 23 digs while Kiersten Mormann added a match-high 38 assists.

As the match got underway, BSU drew first blood on a kill by Laura Slinger (Fr., OH, Faribault, Minn.).

SCSU would come back and tie the score (1-1) on a kill by Stott. With the score tied at 2-2, BSU pushed its lead to 4-2 off two attack errors by Kayla Tschida. SCSU went on a 8-to-3 run to push its lead to 10-7 off a service ace by Chelsea Nagle.

The set continued to go back and forth and the Beavers eventually regained the lead at 15-14 with a kill by McNeely. BSU eventually had three set points (24-22) but was unable get the one elusive point to take the set. Chelsea Nagle eventually put the set away with an ace to give the Huskies a 30-28 first set win.

Game two started as more of the same for the Beavers. BSU scored the first point of the set and pushed its lead to two at 3-1 off a attack error by the Huskies Kristen Stott. The set went back and forth as neither team was able to take full control of the set until the Huskies rattled off nine consecutive points behind the serving of Chelsea Nagle to put the set out of reach, 18-9. SCSU cruised to the set two win, 25-17, to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission on the verge of its first NSIC win since rejoining the league in the fall of 2008.

At the beginning of the third set, SCSU was awarded a point by the official for a delay of game by Bemidji State to go up 1-0. BSU rattled off the next two points to take its only lead of the set at 2-1. The Huskies then took control of the set and put the Beavers away, 25-17, to take the set and the match, 3-0 for their first NSIC win of the season.

With the win the Huskies improve to 3-15 and 1-9 in the NSIC, while the Beavers fell to 6-16 overall and 2-8 in conference play. The Huskies also snapped a two-match losing skid to the Beavers and improve their record to 40-16 all-time versus BSU.

The Beavers are currently on a five-match losing skid and have dropped their last fifteen sets. The last time the Beavers have had a fifteen set losing skid was in 2006 (Oct. 10 - Oct. 21).

Bemidji State (6-16; 2-8 NSIC) will attempt to put an end to its current five match losing skid on Oct. 17-18 when it travels to Aberdeen, S.D. to take on the Northern State University Wolves on Friday night at 7 p.m. and will wrap up the weekend with a 4 p.m. tilt versus the University of Mary on Saturday in Bismarck, N.D.

Bemidji State University, located in Bemidji, Minn., is an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

--beavers--