The Sioux Falls volleyball team knew the position it was in entering today's regular season finale at Minnesota State-Moorhead. In order to accomplish what has been a season-long goal of qualifying for eight-team Northern Sun tournament, they simply had to win.
The Cougars (19-11, 10-10) cleared the final step in that process today, outlasting the Dragons in a five-set thriller (25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 18-25, 17-15) to secure seventh place in the final NSIC standings and earn the right to face Minnesota-Duluth next Wednesday night in the opening round of the conference tournament.
The loss was the Dragons' second straight and dropped them out of contention for an NSIC postseason berth, as Minnesota Crookston held onto eighth and will face No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul in the first round.
Junior Kate Hart pounded 19 kills to match her career-best while Emily Johnson floored 11 kills and tallied 10 digs for her fifth double-double of the season, in 11 kills and 10 digs. Senior setter Alexa Reed also posted a double-dip, dishing 52 assists and chipping in 10 digs. Michelle Ritland had 12 kills.
Freshman Jordan Calef paced the defensive attack for the Cougars, registering a career-high 11 block assists, while Hart and Ritland added five apiece.
Kaitlin VanWinkle paced the Dragons with 16 kills and Maggie Gruber added 13 terminations.
Sioux Falls surprised the Dragons by mixing up their attack on the front line with dinks, tips, bumps and kills, to both keep MSU-Moorhead off-balance and avenge a 3-1 loss to the Dragons earlier in the season.
Sioux Falls led game one 2-0 with a combo-stuff from Calef and Ritland but the Dragons followed with a quick 4-0 run to jump front 4-2. Down 15-13, the Cougars registered their own 4-0 spurt to lead 17-15 and force the Dragons into a timeout. A stab from Hart gave the Cougars a 23-20 lead, but a Kaitlin VanWinkle tip followed by two USF errors evened things at 23. Hart gave USF set point with a terrific parallel shots from the right side and she and Calef teamed up for a block to give the Cougars the first set.
USF out-hit the Dragons in the frame, .214-.143.
The Dragons roared out to a 7-4 advantage in set two, but behind five Moorhead errors (including two ball-handling hiccups), two Hart terminations and an ace the Cougars roared back to lead 13-9. All seemed right with the Cougars, who led 20-16 after a Hart/Calef stuff, but the fiery Dragons snagged six of eight points to tie the set at 22. A VanWinkle spike put the Dragons back on top and this proved enough of a margin for MSUM to notch the 25-23 win.
Game three was never really in doubt, thanks to a strong Cougar net game that included five blocks, complemented by five Hart spikes and two aces, USF led by as many as seven but settled for a 25-22 win.
But the effectiveness of a multifaceted MSU-Moorhead attack enabled the Dragons to yet again keep pace with the Cougars. Holding a 19-17 lead in the fourth set, the Dragons rattled off five straight points before committing an attack error, followed by a USF service error to square matters at two sets each.
USF scored the first point of the tie-breaker with a Ritland kill but MSUM countered with a termination and the sides were still tied at 8-8 after trading the next 16 points. The Dragons moved in front 11-9 with back-to-back USF errors but the Cougars cut the distance to 11-10 inspired by the spike from Hart and then Reed added an ace and MSUM committed an error for the 12-11 score in favor of the Cougars. The Dragons earned sideout with a termination and the sides battled through four more ties to stand knotted at 15-al and force the match past regulation. At 15-all, a Dragon attack sailed long and Samantha Lovell and Johnson blocked Moorhead's final attack to clinch the match for USF with the 17-15 set five win.
With the victory, the Cougars have doubled their NSIC win total from a year ago. USF went 14-16 overall (5-15 NSIC) during its inaugural 2012-13 NSIC campaign.
