The University of Sioux Falls volleyball team saw its three-match winning streak come to an end this evening, as the Cougars fell to No. 22 Northern State in set scores of 25-19, 25-22, 26-24 at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, S.D.
Emily Johnson and Michelle Ritland paced the Cougars with 11 kills each, while Ritland also hit .381 (11-3-21) to take match-high honors. Jordan Calef and Kate Hart each contributed six terminations while Samantha Lovell had three.
Alexa Reed set up all 36 of the Cougars' assists and added seven digs, two kills and an ace. Libero Andrea Odbert dug out 13 Wolves attacks and Abby Folk tallied six digs. Becky Wessel served up a pair of aces for the NSIC's top serving team, as USF owned a 4-2 advantage in aces.
The Cougars out-blocked Northern State 5.0-4.0, with Lovell (3) and Calef (2) leading the charge at the net.
The Wolves' Kelsey Chambers led the match with 15 terminations, hit .375 and posted nine digs to just miss a double-double. Northern hit .198 as a team and held USF to a .167 (39-20-114) hitting percentage.
The Cougars (18-11, 9-10) remain in seventh place in the NSIC standings and are in a dogfight with eighth-place Minnesota Crookston (14-13, 9-10) and ninth-place MSU-Moorhead (15-12, 8-11) for the last two spots in the US Bank/NSIC Postseason tournament. Crookston defeated the Cougars 3-0 on Oct. 25 and as a result owns the tiebreak over USF. Moorhead knocked off the Cougars 3-1 on Sept. 27.
USF closes out the regular season at MSU-Moorhead tomorrow with postseason implications on the line. First serve from Alex Zemnek Fieldhouse is set for 4 p.m.
