Battle of the Dakotas on the volleyball court

A showdown between two Summit League women’s volleyball teams on Sunday left NDSU wishing it would’ve been a closer game. South Dakota State beat the Bison 3-1 at Frost Arena. NDSU took the first set 25-21 but SDSU recovered quickly to win the next three 25-22, 25-15, 25-9. 
Brynn Joki had a match-high of 20 kills for NDSU. Megan Lambertson had 11 kills, and teammate Carissa Whalen had 10 kills. NDSU had 22 attacking errors and SDSU had only 12 attacking errors. NDSU added 6 serving errors and allowed 8 aces. 
The score was 12-12 in the first set, and Joki broke the tie with a kill and then a solo block. NDSU and Joki took the first set with that in mind. Joki finished with 8 kills and no errors in the first set. The second set went to the wire, with SDSU escaping with 25-22 set win. The two teams were tied a total of 10 times in the second set, and then were tied at 21 but SDSU finished NDSU off to make the game one set apiece. NDSU had 8 errors and hit .177 in the second set, .121 in the third, and .037 in the last set. SDSU hit .450 and four errors in the third and fourth sets. SDSU finished the third set on a 9-1 run. They then took an early lead in the fourth set, 6-0, and ran off with a lead of 20-6 and eventually winning the set 25-9. 
Andrea Henning had an 18 digs for a team-high and teammate Lauren Cammack had 10 digs for the Bison. NDSU had 43 assists by setter Catherine Yager. Brynn Joki from the Bison made history in this game becoming the 21st player in Bison history to have reached 1,000 career kills. Joki has 1,000 kills in 104 matches. 
The Bison sit at 4-8 for an overall record, and are 6th in the Summit League. Up next for the Bison is their home opener against the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks at 7 p.m. on Friday and then the Bison host the IUPUI Jaguars at 7 p.m. on Saturday.