MSU volleyball unable to recover after a slow start, swept by Upper Iowa
Trending
Held to a season-low eight points in the opening set, the Minot State volleyball team got a stern talking to in the intermission between sets by head coach Dana Cordova.
Understandably, Cordova wasn't pleased with the effort the Beavers put forth to open the match.
"We were very sluggish," Cordova said. "I think we expected to just go out there and play like the way we have been playing and we realized no, we didn't (do that). Then, we had a little talk with them and came back out for the second and third (sets)."
The Beavers (9-9, 3-6 NSIC) woke up and battled Upper Iowa later on in the match, but didn't have the final burst needed to close out sets. The result was a second loss in back-to-back days to conclude a two-match homestand this weekend at the MSU Dome.
Upper Iowa (11-6, 4-5 NSIC) swept Minot State, 3-0, by set scores of 25-8, 25-22 and 25-21.
The lackluster start to the match wasn't attributed to a hangover effect of losing 3-1 to Winona State on Friday. The Beavers simply couldn't get going on Saturday.
"We couldn't get in a rhythm," said MSU junior outside hitter Shelby Spuller, who finished with a team-high 11 kills. "Our passes were off and then when our passes were on, we couldn't get a hit over the net. We were flat and went into the game not really playing. We were just there and the second game is when we showed up."
MSU had an abysmal .032 hitting percentage in the first set with six kills and five attacking errors.
On the other side of the net, the Peacocks posted a .483 hitting percentage with 15 kills and one attacking error.
The second set didn't start great for the Beavers either, as Upper Iowa quickly built up a five-point cushion to work with. But, MSU strung together a 5-1 run to get back within a point at 14-13.
"We were always playing from behind," Cordova said. "But, we kept fighting and made them work for it. And in the second and third games, they had to make some good plays and create some good things to keep the lead. We didn't play very good, but we still put ourselves in a position to challenge them in the second and third games."
Upper Iowa setter Malissa LeClaire gave MSU fits from behind the service line with three aces. The Beavers ducked out of the way of one late in the second set to fall behind 20-16. Yet, MSU fought back with five straight points to make things interesting at 23-22.
Upper Iowa capped the set win, 25-22, with a serve off the top of the net by Emily Falldorf and Spuller getting blocked by Lauren Wombles and Haley Poula.
"We needed to prove to them what we are capable of," Spuller said. "We are kind of stuck in this position where we need respect from teams, like they kind of look down on us because we are Minot State. We need to prove that we are the better team and can stick with these teams, even though our record may not show it or from year's past."
MSU, unable to get out each other's way at times, racked up 13 attack errors in the third set.
Meanwhile, Upper Iowa's Anna Winter wrapped up her afternoon with a match-high 13 kills on 27 attempts with no errors. Kaitlin Niedert also had double-digit kills for the Peacocks with 12.
"That is a really good team and we told the girls they are going to very disciplined," Cordova said. "They weren't going to make a lot of mistakes. We gave them a lot of free balls and a lot of free points from our mistakes. We started to clean it up a little bit. I'm OK with aggressive mistakes, but there was a lot of miscommunication and a lot of not trusting each other. Those are things we have to clean up and hold ourselves accountable for."
Trailing 20-13 in the final frame, MSU again stormed back and got the score to 22-20. But, Upper Iowa got its final three points on two MSU attack errors and a kill from Niedert.
MSU junior Jeanne Brenner, celebrating her birthday, put down nine kills. Libero Karli Koza had 18 digs and setter Kelsey Dewulf tossed up 31 assists.
The Beavers are back in action next weekend with a pair of road NSIC contests at Minnesota State Mankato (Friday, 6 p.m.) and No. 1-ranked, two-time defending national champions Concordia-St. Paul (Saturday, 5 p.m.).
Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.