Women’s Volleyball Defeats South Dakota 3-2

Saturday, October 20

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

20-4, 9-2SL

South Dakota

9-14, 3-8SL

South Dakota

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

Women’s Volleyball Defeats South Dakota 3-2

10/20/2012 10:02:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score

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FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The IPFW women's volleyball team won the first two sets, but South Dakota came back to tie the match at 2-2. The Mastodons were able to improve their overall record to 20-4 overall and 9-2 in the Summit League by winning the fifth set 15-12.

IPFW cruised to a 25-13 win in the opening set and went into the break with a 2-0 advantage by winning 25-23. The Coyotes sent the match to five sets by winning three and four 25-22, 25-16.

Four Mastodons reached a double-figure kill total on Saturday night. Sophomore Emily Spencer led the team with 19 kills and 14 digs. Middle hitters Jessie Manwaring and Hailie Ripley impacted the match in a big way ending the night with 14 and 11 kills respectively. Ripley and Spencer tied for the team-high with seven blocks against South Dakota.

Megan Steenhuysen set up the IPFW offensive attack with a match-high 59 assists on Saturday night. Tessa McGill was once again the staple of the IPFW defense as she recorded a season-high 30 digs.

The Mastodons were serving aggressive against the Coyotes as they ended the match with nine service aces. Spencer led the team with three while the duo of Steenhuysen and Wienkes were close behind with two each. Wienkes put together a great all-around performance adding 13 kills and 14 digs.

Kendall Kritenbrink was the star for the visiting South Dakota Coyotes (9-14, 3-8 SL). Kritenbrink led the Coyotes to a 3-1 victory over Oakland last night and she responded on Saturday by posting a match-high 25 kills to go along with 16 digs.

The serve of Emily Spencer set IPFW up to go on a 7-1 run to begin the opening set. A Jessie Manwaring kill pushed the lead to 10-3 and Wienkes hit the Coyotes with her first service ace of the night to keep the IPFW scoring streak alive. IPFW led 15-5 and 20-9 before taking the first set 25-13.

The second set was much closer from start to finish as the game was officially tied up at 18-18. IPFW had opened up a 14-9 run, but it was South Dakota that got on track to form a comeback. A crucial turning point in the set came after back-to-back errors from South Dakota. The Coyotes pushed IPFW to a tie at 20-20, but the errors but them in a hole they would not be able to climb out of. Emily Spencer got the Mastodons to set point and a kill from Hailie Ripley pushed the IPFW advantage to 2-0.

The 'Dons got off to a slow start in the third set as they trailed 3-8 early. Four-straight IPFW points got the team within one point, but the Mastodons were never able to lead in this game. They tied the game at 20-20, but a kill from Kendall Kritenbrink put South Dakota back on top. Kritenbrink came back to get South Dakota to match point at 24-22 and Sydney Dimke ended the set with a kill off an assist from Riley Haug.

Set number four was a wild ride for IPFW as the team got off to a 7-3 start, but found themselves down 9-20 moments later. Kim Bulaga and a handful of IPFW errors led to the change in momentum as South Dakota would go on to tie the match at 2-2 winning 25-16.

The fifth and deciding set featured IPFW getting out to a 3-0 start and South Dakota once again climbing back into the action to tie the game at 4-4. The turning point in the match was when IPFW turned a 6-6 tied score to an 11-6 lead. Spencer came up big during that run by recording back-to-back kills in that stretch. South Dakota got within two points at 12-10, but Kendall Wienkes slammed the door on the comeback by recording three clutch kills to seal the win.

The Mastodons will return to action with a pair of road matches against North Dakota State and South Dakota State.

~ Feel the Rumble ~