October 14, 2023

BELLEVUE, Neb. – Dakota State (S.D.) earned their first victory in the 2023 Marvel Classic Saturday morning, sweeping Grand View (Iowa) of the Heart of America Athletic Conference in three straight sets at Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.  The tournament is hosted by North Star Athletic Association's fellow Bellevue (Neb.). 

Set scores were 25-14, 25-23, and 25-21.

Dakota State evened their overall record at 11-11 after their two-match winning streak.  Grand View dropped to 7-15 overall record.  It was their first meeting since both teams faced each other in the 2021 NAIA Women's Volleyball National Tournament Opening Round at Grand View.

DSU wraps up the Marvel Classic at 1:30 p.m., facing NAIA's nationally ranked No. 10 Montana Tech.  It will be their second meeting of the season, where the Trojans won the first meeting in the Viterbo (Wis.) Tournament in La Crosse, Wis., last month.

Dakota State (S.D.) 3, Grand View (Iowa) 0 – FINAL (25-14, 25-23, 25-21)

The Trojans erupted for eight straight points in the opening set, breaking their 2-2 tie into a 10-2 lead.  Brooklyn Grage collected three blocks, while Gwendolyn Vongkasemsiri added two blocks during DSU's scoring run.

Dakota State ballooned their lead to 17-6 after Sydney Schell's kill and never trailed for the rest of the first set.  The Trojans captured the first set at 25-14 to earn a 1-0 match lead.

DSU outhit GVU 14-9 in the first set.  The Trojans hit .243 (five errors in 37 swings) and limited the Vikings to .000 hitting percentage (nine errors in 41 attempts).

Dakota State and Grand View went through a see-saw battle through the first 30 rallies of the second set, with the lead no greater than two points.  With DSU leading 18-16, Schell and Grage smashed back-to-back kills to balloon their lead to 20-16.

The Vikings answered with a 4-0 scoring run erase their 22-18 deficit and tied the second set at 22 after a kill from Heleine Filipe. 

DSU would close the second set with a 3-1 run, highlighted by a pair of kills by Keira Murdock to secure a 25-23 victory.  The Trojans extended their match lead to 2-0.

The Vikings smashed 16 kills and hit .231 (seven errors in 39 attempts) in the second set.  DSU had 14 kills and registered a hitting efficiency of .250 (five errors in 36 swings).

Dakota State used a monstrous 8-1 scoring surge in the third set to earn a 14-6 lead after trailing 7-6.  The Vikings answered with a 7-1 scoring of their own to trim the Trojans' lead to 15-13 after Vanessa Romo's kill.

Hannah Evans ignited DSU's 3-0 scoring run to extended DSU's lead to 18-13 and never trailed for the rest of the third set.  A service error by the Vikings sealed the victory for Dakota State at 25-21.

Both teams hit .146 in the third set, with GVU outhitting DSU 13-12.

Schell paced the Trojans with a double-double of 11 kills and 11 digs.  She hit .417 in the match.  Grage added eight kills and five digs.  Evans and Vongkasemsiri each smashed seven kills.  Evans had four blocks.  Vongkasemsiri and Grage each added three blocks. 

Maddi Langerock produced 32 set assists for Dakota State.  Kate VanRooyan collected 10 digs and earned two service aces.  Julia Drietz also had a service ace.

Ellie Dougherty led the Vikings with 13 kills.  Filipe added 10 kills and hit .304.  Emily Byrd had 17 set assists and eight digs.  Peyton Cook recorded 11 assists and five digs.  Chevy Wagner-Chun had 10 digs.  Sydney Beasley and Kylie Hoben each had two blocks.

Dakota State outhit Grand View 40-38 in the match.  The Trojans hit .211 (16 attack errors in 114 swings) compared to the Vikings .124 hitting percentage (23 errors in 121 attempts). 

DSU registered nine team blocks to GVU five team blocks.