Blue Hawks drop final NSAA road matches

Sagan Osborne – Sports & Marketing Information Director

Madison, S.D. – Dickinson State dropped their final two NSAA road matches over the weekend, falling by identical 3-0 scores to #8 Bellevue and (RV) Dakota State. The Blue Hawks have two games left on their regular season schedule, traveling to take on NCAA Division II Minot State on Tuesday before taking on #2 University of Jamestown in Scott Gym in the regular season finale on Thursday.

Dickinson State was unable to get much going offensively without leading hitter McKenzie Moser, who is out with an injury, against Bellevue, getting a team high five kills from Cameron Gouw and four apiece from Madi Wahl, Scarlette Schwindt and Makyah Albrecht. Despite the tough day hitting, DSU put up a good fight against the nationally ranked Bruins, scoring progressively more points in each set. The Blue Hawks took their only lead of the match on a kill from Gouw early in the third set, and battled all the way to a 21-21 tie before BU finished the match with four straight points.

Against Dakota State, the offensive was able to get into a better rhythm, getting 9 kills from Abby Suiter, eight from Schwindt, and seven from Wahl, but 33 hitting errors proved costly in the loss. Rylee Kogolshak dished 31 assists in the match, and DSU was everywhere on defense with five players in double digits for digs (Schwindt, Abigail Beddes, Haydin Henschel, Kogolshak, and Aubrey Allison).

Despite the close scores in each of the three sets, Dickinson State never led after falling behind 6-5 in set number one.