Dragons fly over MSU volleyball
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When Minot State volleyball last played Minnesota State Moorhead on Sep. 2, the Beavers walked away from that match feeling good about themselves.
MSU ultimately fell 3-1, but nearly took two sets from the Dragons and knew they were capable of playing with them. Needless to say, when Moorhead returned to the MSU Dome Thursday, the Beavers had the match circled on their calendar.
Thursday didn't go quite as well as MSU hoped, though, falling to the Dragons in straight sets.
Set scores were 25-17, 25-22, 25-12.
"I think we have to start realizing the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose," MSU coach Dana Cordova said. "The first time we played them, we were still trying to find a little bit out about ourselves, so we just played. This time, I think we played really tense and weren't our excited selves. We didn't play Minot State volleyball (Thursday)."
Moorhead raced out to a 12-3 lead in the first set and never gave the lead back, cruising to a 25-17 win. MSU rallied in a second set that featured six lead changes, but the Dragons pulled away late in a 25-22 victory.
"We still didn't play a great set, but we stuck more together and we didn't let mistakes follow us," Cordova said. "We talked a little bit about when you make a mistake, you need to let it go. In the second set, we did that very well."
The Dragons opened the third set by scoring the first six points and faced little resistance in a 25-12 win.
"We came out and they were hyped and ready to go, then sometimes when you get so hyped, they forgot to play," Cordova said. "They started making some mistakes and then they got down. We just need to control our emotions as a young team. We need to have some swag and a chip on our shoulder. Once we develop that, hopefully we can string some wins together."
Shelby Spuller led the Beavers with 12 kills, while Hayley Swain and Jeanne Brenner each had eight. Karli Koza and Kelsey DeWulf had 14 digs, while DeWulf also had 33 assists.
MSU is back in action at 5 p.m. Saturday in Aberdeen against No. 24 Northern State. With the sweep Thursday, MSU (3-6, 0-1 NSIC) has now lost 14 straight sets.
"We have to figure out what our identity is," Cordova said. "When you have girls and a big group of them keep remembering their last year, well, they need to worry about this year now. The past is behind us and we have to figure out what our identity is. If they would just play the way they do in practice and translate that to a game, we'd be in a lot of these games if not walking away with a win."
Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge.