The UMD volleyball team invaded North Dakota over the weekend and easily conquered the state in a pair of road battles against Minot State and Mary to remain one game back of conference co-leaders Concordia-St. Paul and Southwest Minnesota State. To no surprise, the second-ranked Bulldogs had little difficulty taking down the Beavers and the Marauders in straight sets.
It took a combined two hours and 21 minutes to win both matches, about a tenth of the time it takes to travel roundtrip to North Dakota.
“Every team in the conference has to go through it,” said Kate Lange of the trip to Minot and Bismarck. “It can be ridiculously long. We can only worry about us — get into that mindset and be mentally and physically prepared.”
Over the weekend, the Bulldogs (18-1 overall, 8-1 NSIC) statistically overpowered their competition. The Bulldogs amassed a .424 hitting percentage compared to .088 for their opponents. The defense also played a vital role, out-blocking Minot State and Mary 17-4 combined, and holding an 11-4 advantage in serving aces.
Setter Ashley Hinsch served up 80 assists, with the majority of her setups running through Lange and Monica Turner, who had 38 and 19 kills, respectively. Julie Rainey and Kate Ledwell were both stout defensively, compiling double-digit digs each night. Elizabeth Benusa racked up seven of the team’s 11 aces and Jessica Zieman accounted for nine of the 17 total blocks.
Since falling to Concordia-St. Paul in five sets Sept. 27, UMD has won 18 consecutive sets and six straight matches.
“We just have to keep on working on the little things and get progressively (better) week by week,” said Lange, who won NSIC Player of the Week honors Monday for the second time this year. “We have a great offense and we rely on our defense to make it even more efficient.”
The offense has been there all season, but the Bulldogs have been upgrading a few other aspects of their game. UMD has cut down the mistakes by nearly a point per set. They have also dug the ball at a better rate, lowering the opposition’s attack while slightly increasing their attacking numbers.
“We want to serve tougher and get teams out of (their) system,” Lange said. “We are also looking at winning the pass battle, whether it’s on serve, receive or digging. We are able to dictate the game when we are in position defensively, and we can make good passes to keep ourselves in system and spread out the offense.”
The postseason is about a month away for the Bulldogs and will draw closer this Friday with a home matchup against Minnesota State-Moorhead. The game, which is set for 7:00 p.m., will be the annual “Dig for a Cure” night. T-shirts and silent auction items will be available during the match with all proceeds going to help support the Essentia Health Foundation.
BY EVAN SMEGAL smega001@d.umn.edu