Story Headlines- The Northwest Missouri State University volleyball team beat Minnesota State-Crookston, 3-2, but fell to host Augustana, 3-0, on the first day of the Augustana Showcase in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Friday.
- The Bearcats move to 5-1 on the season and will play a pair of NSIC teams tomorrow to close out the weekend.
- The 5-0 start marks the best opening to a Bearcat volleyball season since 1998 when the team begain the year with 6-0 mark. That team went on to finish the year 21-12 overall.
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Miranda Foster had a team-best 22 kills in the day's two matches.
Match One Key Statistics (Northwest def. Minn.-Crookston 3-2; 25-18, 19-25, 22-25, 26-24, 16-14)
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Shelby Duren had a team-high 15 kills to go along with six digs and two blocks to lead the Bearcats.
- Freshman
Maddy Bruder had 12 kills and a team-high 25 digs defensively. She also recorded five blocks.
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Jackie Becker had 11 kills and four blocks while Foster tallied 10 kills and 10 digs defensively.
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Sarah Dannettell had 52 assists with 11 digs, a service ace and a block.
- Libero
Aarika Wittenburg tallied 20 digs for Northwest.
- Northwest's best set came in the fifth and final set, hitting .208 as a team. The Bearcat defense held the Golden Eagles to a -.024 attack percentage in the first set and a .108 overall percentage for the match.
- The Bearcats fought off a match point in the fourth set to take the match to five, where they would eventually win.
- Northwest improved to 5-0 on the year with the win while Minnesota-Crookston fell to 3-2.
Match One Key Sequences- Down by two in the fourth set, 24-22, Northwest faced a critical match point. The Golden Eagles committed a service error, bringing the set to 24-23 Crookston. Another Golden Eagle error tied the set, 24-24, prompting a Crookston timeout. Duren again came up with a big kill from Dannettell to give Northwest a set point, 25-24. On the next play, Duren and Becker got a block on an attack to give the Bearcats the set and force a fifth and deciding set.
- In the fifth set, Duren delivered a kill off an assist from Dannettell to give Northwest a match point. But the Golden Eagles battled back, tallying two straight points to tie the match, 14-14. On the next play, Duren came up big again with a kill to make it 15-14. Bruder would score the decisive point, tallying the match-winning kill on an assist from Dannettell.
Match Two Key Statistics (Augustana def. Northwest 3-0; 20-25, 16-25, 17-25)
- Foster led the team with 12 kills, hitting .348 for the match. She also had six digs, two blocks and a service ace.
- Wittenburg tallied a team-best 14 digs defensively.
- Dannettell had 28 assists with seven digs.
- Northwest dropped to 5-1 on the year with the loss while Augustana improved to 5-1 overall.
- The Bearcats' best set came in the first, hitting .219 with 11 kills. Augustana tallied a .262 attack percentage for the match and had six service aces.
Match Two Key Sequence- Down early in the first set, 14-11, Northwest went on a 4-0 run to claim an early lead. Foster got a kill off a Dannettell assist to make it 14-12. After an attack error by Augustana, Becker got a kill to make it 14-14. Foster would add a kill on the ensuing point on an assist from Wittenburg.
Up Next- The Bearcats will play Minnesota State-Moorhead at noon and Northern State University at 6 p.m. on the final day of the Augustana Showcase in Sioux Falls, S.D.
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