Aug. 27, 2010

Box Score

GRAND FOLKS, N.D. - The Gonzaga University women's volleyball squad ran out to a 2-0 lead on the University of North Dakota, in its second match of the North Dakota Classic, but faltered away the final three sets to drop a 3-2 decision to the Fighting Sioux, who have now won 14-straight dating back to last season. The Bulldogs, who are 0-2, fell 25-23, 26-24, 17-25, 17-25, 8-15.

"We still have a history of not a lot of success that we are trying to overcome daily," stated head coach Dave Gantt after the match. "It is going to take patience and some time. We put ourselves in some good situations this evening though. We basically were locked up tight in the third set but gave up six straight points and we just couldn't respond or recover in the next two sets."

It was a crucial moment that turned the tides for the Bulldogs. With Gonzaga leading 8-6 in the third set after a monster of a block by both senior Caitlin Cozad and sophomore Terran Poindexter, a miss hit serve by junior Kaprina Goodwin started the North Dakota swing. Five points later, which included a Fighting Sioux service ace, three kills and an attack error by Poindexter, North Dakota had gained the lead and put the Zags on their heels.

"That six-point swing hit us hard," explained Gantt. "We started the match off fine tuning our serve and receive and defense. Things were going well and it was easy to lead, but when we were in the belly of the beast in that third set, we started to shy away. We need to change that."

Despite the setback, Gonzaga had several bright spots on the evening. Poindexter finished the match with her second-ever career double-double, tallying a career-high 20 kills and a career-high 14 digs. Poindexter became the first Zag to finish with 20-plus kills in a match since Elaina Renius collected 24 against Eastern Washington University Oct. 13, 2008.

Cozad solidified herself as one of two starting middle blockers as she was the only other Bulldog to finish in double-digits kills with 11. She also added a team-high five blocks.

"One really good thing that came out of today was that Caitlin earned a starting spot in the middle," said Gantt. "She did a really nice job today, the best we have seen this fall.

"We also had solid performances from Terran, Denise [Van de Mortel] setting and Schylur [Edelman] in the middle. I also have to credit Jessie [Genger] she did a consistent solid job opposite the setter today."

As a team, the Bulldogs closed out the match with 49 kills and a .096 attacking percentage. Five Zags finished in double-figure digs. Along with Poindexter, senior libero Allyson Powell added 15, junior Laura Day had 11 and Van de Mortel and freshman Kristina Lavrisha both contributed 10.

Leading the way for North Dakota was Erin Joki and Devin Trefz who finished with 17 and 16 kills, respectively. As a team, the Fighting Sioux had 67 kills on the night and a .223 hitting clip.

UND was led defensively by Courtney Halvorson with 32 digs and Joki who had six blocks.

Gonzaga returns to action Saturday with its final two matches of the tournament. The Zags start the day off with a contest against San Jose State University at 7:30 p.m. PDT and close out the day against Cal State Bakersfield at 3 p.m. PDT.