Volleyball comes up short in Big Sky Challenge

BUTTE- The Dickinson State Volleyball team (0-4, 0-0) finished out their season opening weekend in Butte, MT falling twice on Saturday. The Blue Hawks dropped a heartbreaker, 3-2 (25-27, 21-25, 25-13, 25-15, 15-9), to Carroll College (3-1, 0-0) in the 9 am match before coming up short against Northwest University (2-1, 0-0), 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-15), in the 5 pm contest.

Game 1

Carroll College jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set, but DSU responded with a 4-0 run of their own, to take a 5-4 lead on a CC attacking error. The teams would go back and forth for the remainder of the set with no team taking a lead larger than 3 points. DSU trailed 23-21 when McKenzie Moser (13 kills, 12 digs) drilled back-to-back kills to knot the score at 23. Madi Wahl then served one of her three aces of the match to give DSU the lead. The teams would trade points again bringing the set to a 25-25 tie before another kill by Moser and a block by Brooklyn Wyllie and Mary Schnell gave the Blue Hawks the set one victory.

DSU controlled much of the second set. The Blue Hawks took an early 6-5 lead and never relinquished it, taking advantage of 11 Carroll attacking errors to take a commanding 2-0 lead heading into the third set.

However, this is where the match turned around. The third and fourth sets were all Fighting Saints, as they raced out to early leads in each set and DSU had no answers. Elizabeth Heuiser led Carroll with 19 kills, nine of which came in the third and fourth sets alone.

In the fifth set, DSU fell behind early and tried to battle back, coming back within 8-6, but would never get any closer as the Fighting Saints used a strong block to stifle the Blue Hawk offense and come away with a 15-9 victory.

Bailey Pearcy had another strong outing for the Blue Hawks with 34 assists and 18 digs. Madi Wahl, Haydin Henschel, and Brooklyn Wyllie all chipped in 7 kills to help lead the DSU offense.

Game 2

Haydin Henschel had her best match of the young season with 10 kills and 15 digs, but it wasn't enough to carry the Blue Hawk volleyball team past the Eagles of Northwest University in DSU's final game of the weekend.

DSU jumped out to another quick start in set one, never trailing until an attacking error gave the Eagles their first lead of the match 21-20. The teams battled back and forth to a 26-26 tie, but NU was able to string together two points first to take the set, 28-26.

In set two, Dickinson State fell behind 10-4 early but were able to rally to tie the set at 18-18 on a kill from McKenzie Moser. Unfortunately, DSU would never gain the lead as Northwest scored the next 4 points and held off the Blue Hawks the rest of the way to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set was controlled by NU from the beginning, the Eagles never trailed and the 25-15 final score matched their largest lead of the match at 10 points.

Madi Wahl and McKenzie Moser added 7 and 6 kills, respectively, to help Henschel lead the DSU offense. Jenna Swope added 14 digs on the defensive side.

UP NEXT

The Blue Hawk volleyball team returns to action August 26, taking on Rocky Mountain College in a non-conference match at 7 pm in Billings, MT.