Balanced Offensive and Defensive Effort Leads IPFW to Four-Set Win

Sunday, November 6

Vermillion, S.D.

3:00 PM

Purdue Fort Wayne

19-8, 12-4

South Dakota

13-17, 6-10

IPFW

South Dakota

Photo by: Lucas Carter

Balanced Offensive and Defensive Effort Leads IPFW to Four-Set Win

11/6/2011 5:13:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE

VERMILLION, S.D. - The IPFW Mastodons put three players into double-figure kills, and five total into double-figure digs as the IPFW Mastodons topped the Coyotes of South Dakota in four sets, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 25-14.

For the third consecutive match, the offense was paced by freshman Kendall Wienkes, who finished with a game-high-tying 17 kills, while classmate Emily Spencer had 14 kills, and Jessie Manwaring, a junior, finished with 14 kills. Haley Emenhiser and Alli Hook just missed out on the double-figure dig plateau with nine and seven, respectively.

Megan Steenhuysen dished out 56 assists, while digging up a career-high 23 kill attempts for her 35th career double-double. Tessa McGill had a match-high 27 digs, tied for the 16th highest four-set total in program history, while increasing her streak to 35 straight matches with double-figure digs. Wienkes added 17 digs for the double-double, the fifth of her career while Jen Milligan and Spencer each had 16 digs. The double-double is the 19th of the year for Spencer, the seventh highest single-season total in program history.

IPFW (19-8, 12-4 Summit League) never trailed in the opening set; however, its largest lead was just four, early at 10-6. The Coyotes kept things close, using a 4-0 run to turn the aforementioned 10-6 lead into a 10-10 tie.The teams were tied at 11, 12, and 17, before IPFW scored four in a row following the final tie to lead 21-17. USD closed once again to within one at 23-22, but a Manwaring kill and an Coyote attack error closed the door on the 25-22 opening-set win.

The second set had four lead changes throughout, and all four coming before either team reached 10 points. With the Mastodons ahead 8-7, South Dakota scored eight of the next nine points to lead 15-10. IPFW was able to fight back to tie the score at 19 apiece, and trailed by one at 24-23; however, freshman Kendall Kritenbrink knocked down one of her 17 kills in the match to give the hosts the 25-23 second-set win.

The Mastodons jumped ahead 3-0 early in the third set and never trailed, despite nine tie scores, the final coming at 23-23 before Spencer finished with a kill, followed by a Kritenbrink attack error, to give the Mastodons the narrow 25-23 third-set win.

The fourth set was all IPFW, as the 'Dons jumped out to a 10-2 lead, leading by as many as 14 at 21-7, before the Coyotes fought back, but could only climb to within 11 at 25-14 for the match-deciding set.

Kritenbrink's 17 kills were tied for the match-high, while Tahnee Reed added 10 for South Dakota. Carol Logato had 24 digs, while Riley Haug added 20.

The Mastodons, who have already clinched a berth into the 2011 Summit League Championships, hosted by IPFW, return to the Gates Center for the regular season's final weekend, hosting the Leathernecks of Western Illinois on Friday, November 11, with first serve slated for 7 p.m.

~Dons~