The University of Minnesota Crookston Volleyball team struggled in the first set but won the next three in dominating fashion as they defeat the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds in four sets (19-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-19) in their first match of the day at the Black Hills State Tournament in Spearfish, SD.
SET ONE –
UMC started the match playing relatively even, with the help of major kills from Lexi Scharold and Maya Jones. ENM were able to open up an 11-8 lead later in the first set, capitalizing on four Golden Eagle service errors in the set, and multiple kills by Sophia Valdez. After UMC fought back to cut the lead down to one, a Randi Crandall ace sparked a rally for ENM, and after the score hit 20-19, ENM scored the final five points of the set to take the first one 25-19.
SET TWO-
The second set began the same way as the first set, with teams alternating points all the way up to 7-7. Then, kills by Megan Schoenfelder and Carizma Muth capped off a 4-0 UMC run to give the Golden Eagles a 10-7 lead, prompting an ENM timeout. Out of that timeout, the Greyhounds fought back, and went on a 6-3 run to even the score at 13 apiece. UMC refused to let the lead slip, however, and proceeded to go on a 6-0 run, taking a 19-13 lead with the help of kills from Muth, Emma Malek, and multiple Greyhound errors. The lead hovered at 6 points from then on; ENM went on a mini run to cut the lead to 4, but yet another Muth kill ended the set at 25-20, evening the match at 1-1.
SET THREE –
The third set kicked off with a Maya Jones kill, as UMC looked to continue their positive momentum. As was the case with the first two sets, neither team were able to pull away at the start. A Darcy Dodd ace tied the match at 6, but then UMC scored 5 of the next 6 points with the help of two more Muth kills to make it 11-7. After a timeout, a Kailey Waasdorp service ace continued the offensive onslaught, making it 15-8. The lead stayed at 7 all the way until a mini ENM run made it 21-17, but the late surge wasn’t enough as the Golden Eagles held on to win the third set 25-19, and take a 2-1 set lead.
SET FOUR-
Unlike the first three sets, a team got on a run early, as UMC scored the first 5 points before a quick ENM timeout, but that didn’t seem to do much of anything for the Greyhounds as UMC began to dominate offensively and defensively to open up a 12-2 lead. Madison Carsten added two kills in this scoring surge, and since the score became 12-2, the lead remained at 10 points or more until ENM scored 5 of 6 points to cut the lead to 20-13. The Greyhounds were able to get the lead trimmed down from 11 to 6 with the help of great Imahni Brown serving, but the Greyhounds eventually ran out of gas, succumbing to the Golden Eagles by a score of 25-19, winning the match 3-1.
UMC drops to 1-23 on the year and Southwest Minnesota State improves to 20-7 on the year. UMC will wrap up the year at the University of Sioux Falls on Saturday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Minnesota Crookston | 19 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Eastern New Mexico | 25 | 20 | 19 | 19 |
For UMC:
Kills- Carizma Muth 15, Emma Malek 13
Blocks- Carizma Muth 2
Digs- Kailey Waasdorp 34
Assists- Baily Teveldal 42
Aces- Kailey Waasdorp 3, Carizma Muth 2
