SIOUX FALLS- The University of Sioux Falls volleyball team earned a much earned win on Tuesday when they faced in-city rival Augustana at the Stewart Center. It took five sets, but the Cougars emerged victorious (25-15, 25-23, 18-25, 18-25, 15-10) behind a career night by senior KaSandra Springer.
Springer in the first set hit .714 (5K-0E-7TA) and finished the night with a .447 hitting average (25K-4E-47TA). The 25 kills for Springer is a career-best, usurping her 20-kill performance earlier in the year against Northern State. Head coach Joel McCartney had a lot to say about Springer and her leadership, saying "offensively, but in her voice and just the way she plays the game. Such a spectacular athlete and made so many diving plays. The little things that pick a team up and give them the right type of energy, but what goes unseen with her a lot of times is how smooth she is in the first touch and getting us into systems with her passing and serving, and she was on point with that tonight.
The Cougars will now have until Friday to rest and get ready for Minnesota Crookston to come to town for a 6 p.m. first serve.
In the first set, the Cougars pounced on their opportunities, going on a 11-2 run early in the set to take a commanding 16-6 lead over the Vikings. An 8-3 run for the Cougars sealed the 25-15 set one win for USF.
The Vikings were able to start the second set strong, getting ahead of the Cougars 8-4, but the Cougars answered back with a 6-1 run to take a 10-9 lead and started a dogfight that included 11 ties and seven lead changes. The Vikings tied the Cougars at 23 a piece, but a kill by freshman Brooklynne Albrecht and a Viking attack error gave the Cougars all they needed to take a 2-0 match lead into intermission.
The Cougars got the third set tied 9-9 after falling behind as much as 7-4, but the Vikings found a groove, building up to a 22-15 lead. The Cougars got three points back from the Vikings to make it a 22-18 game, but the Vikings answered back with three points of their own to avoid the straight set sweep.
The Vikings would ride their third set momentum in the fourth set, racing to a 12-6 lead that proved insurmountable for the Cougars. With a deficit of 24-13, the Cougars showed resiliency, rattling off a 5-0 run before the Vikings got the final point of the set to tie the match 2-2.
In the decisive fifth set, the Vikings jumped to an early 4-2 lead, but the Cougars came out swinging with an 8-0 run to go ahead 10-4. With a 12-10 lead, Springer recorded a kill to get a two-point advantage before Albrecht and junior Kenzie Byers were lights out at the net, recording back-to-back block assists.
"We thought the keys were going to be the kind of pressure that we put on [Augustana] from the very beginning part of the match, and we did that with full force and a great game plan to execute enough margin to create this tempo for the match," Coach McCartney said. "The problem with that was that we were starting to slip away from that in the second set, and the wheels come off just a little bit with our confidence. And a credit to Augustana. A great opponent. It's been a great rivalry through the years. It seems to always come down to a fifth set."
