Kansas City
North Dakota State
UMKC Falls In Four Games To North Dakota State On Senior Night
11/3/2007 11:00:00 PM | Volleyball
Kansas City, Mo. - The UMKC volleyball team fell in four games to North Dakota State on Saturday night at the Swinney Recreation Center. The Kangaroos dropped the match to the Bison by the scores of 27-30, 30-32, 30-28 and 17-30. Prior to the match, the Kangaroos honored their three seniors - Sarah Johnson, Lauren Starks and Kylee Stephenson - prior to the first serve.
The two teams traded points during the early portion of the first game as the score was 11-10 in favor of the Bison through 21 points. North Dakota State then scored 8-of-11 points to go up 19-13, before stretching its lead to eight points at 24-16. Kills by Caitlin Koenig and Kelly Gettinger brought the Kangaroos back to within five points (24-19), and the team continued fighting as it got to within three at 28-25. After a Christy Stuewe kill gave NDSU the 29-25 lead, the Kangaroos cut their deficit to two points at 29-27, but the Bison went on to claim the game, 30-27.
NDSU started the second game quickly by jumping out to a 6-1 lead, but Jamie Hagerman and Koenig helped even the score at eight all. The Kangaroos continued their solid play, as they built their advantage to 19-13 behind kills by Gettinger and Johnson. The team then stretched its lead to seven points at 26-19 before NDSU would begin its comeback. With the score 27-20 in UMKC's favor, the Bison scored six straight points to climb to within a point before it evened the match at 29. After trading four straight points, NDSU got a Kristen Hille kill and a Kangaroo attack error to claim the game, 32-30.
North Dakota State jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead in the third game before kills by Holly Schmidt and Koenig brought the Kangaroos back to tie the game at nine all. NDSU then scored three of four points to go up 13-10 before UMKC fought back to even the score at 14 all. For the remainder of the game, the margin never got any larger than two points for either team. With the score 28 all, an NDSU attack error gave UMKC the 29-28 lead. On the following point, Koenig and Johnson registered block assists on a Hille attack to propel their team to the 30-28 win.
The action continued to be tight at the beginning of the fourth game, as the score was 7-5 in North Dakota State's favor through 12 points. The Bison then scored five of six to take a 12-6 advantage before they stretched their lead to 10 at 18-8. UMKC managed to get the game to within eight points at 21-13, but North Dakota State was too much, as it claimed the game and match by the 30-17 count.
The Kangaroos finished the match with 58 kills and a .154 hitting percentage, while NDSU had 70 kills and a .229 hitting clip. UMKC also had 58 assists, 75 digs and 12 blocks in the match.
Johnson paced the team with 13 kills on the night to go along with six block assists. Hagerman also added 12 kills for the squad. Koenig, meanwhile, tallied a double-double in the match with 45 assists and 12 digs. She narrowly missed a triple double, as she also tallied nine kills. Redshirt junior Mandy Tipton led the team in digs with 28, which ties her match high this season.
UMKC (5-25, 2-12) will close out the season next weekend on the road. The Kangaroos will open play with a game at Oakland on Friday.
