Bison Take It to Western Illinois

The magic number was fourteen Saturday night in Macomb, Ill. Byrnn Joki and Megan Lambertson had 14 kills apiece and were the key parts to the NDSU 3-1 win over Western Illinois in a Summit League volleyball contest.

The Bison won the first two sets, 25-22, 25-21, but then lost the third set 18-25, and rallied to finish off their opponent 25-19 in the final set.

Danielle Dombeck had her second straight double-double and had a career-high 11 kills and a total of 10 digs for her the Bison. NDSU now are three games under .500 and have a record of 10-13 overall and is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Summit League with a record of 6-5. 
For Western Illinois Samantha Fournier had 16 kills and teammate Mallory Gibson had 9 blocks, she also had five solo stops. The Fighting Leathernecks now have a record of 9-14 and sit at 3-9 in the Summit League.

NDSU closed the first set on an 11-1 run. The score was 22-19 and Lambertson had a pair of kills to tie it up, teammate Joki had two kills out of the Fighting Leathernecks timeout to make it 24-22, Western Illinois made their only two attacking errors of the set during NDSU’s six point run.

In the second set the Bison got after it and started the set up 5-1 and then never trailed. The score was 22-20 before Joki and Lambertson had back-to-back kills to reach the set point. Lambertson hit .600 with her six kills and no errors during that second set.

NDSU never quite recovered from the 4-1 deficit in the third set. The Fighting Leathernecks led by nine at the 19-10 point and then a four-point NDSU run, and the NDSU closed the gap, 21-17 on a Joki kill and a Lambertson ace to force a Western Illinois timeout. 
Catherine Yager and Carissa Whalen had a pair of kills to break a 16-16 tie in the fourth set and light fire under the Bison and they went on a 7-1 run to put the match against Western Illinois away. The Fighting Leathernecks hit -.027 with seven kills and eight attacking errors in the final set.

Catherine Yager had her seventh double-double of the year with 48 assists and 10 digs and the Bison outhit the Fighting Leathernecks by a .242 to .190 margin. The Bison’s libero, Andrea Henning had 17 digs.

The Bison are scheduled to host the Summit League leader Fort Wayne at 7 p.m. Friday and then the fourth-place team Oakland at 7 p.m. Saturday.