VALLEY CITY – The Valley City State volleyball team took a 3-1 victory over Waldorf to improve to a 2-0 conference record Friday night.
VCSU took the win with final scores of 25-14, 25-13, 28-26 and 25-18. Valley City State moves to 5-10 overall and 2-0 in the NSAA while Waldorf drops to 7-6 overall and 0-2 in the conference. Valley City State recognized its four seniors – Katie Juarez, Makayla Wetzel, Kallene Klever and Jakenda Short – with a brief ceremony following the match.
"Our seniors stepped up and played really well. I thought the entire team played for their seniors and the seniors wanted to take it tonight." said head coach Brigitte Greywater. "Every day we get better and in every single match. Today we did it again."
The Vikings outplayed the Warriors in the major stat columns including kills (55-40), digs (60-57), assists (48-36), blocks (12-6) and service aces (11-6). The Warriors hit just .113 Friday night and totaled 25 errors in the match.
VCSU's four seniors paced much of the game Friday night as Katie Juarez tallied 12 kills, 13 digs and six service aces. Kallene Klever totaled a team-high 17 digs and Makayla Wetzel added five kills and a team-high five blocks for VCSU. Jakenda Short finished with five digs and a pair of service aces Friday.
Bailey Nelson led the Viking attack Friday night with 14 kills and a .480 hitting percentage while Caitlyn Fischbach added 11 kills for VCSU. Sadie Hansen finished with 42 set assits and 14 digs for her sixth straight double-double.
The Vikings breezed through the first two sets, hitting .400 as a team in set one and leading by as much as 14 points in set two en route to 25-14 and 25-13 victories.
In the third set, neither team led by more than three points the whole way. The Vikings held a 23-20 advantage that would turn into a 23-23 tie as Waldorf scored the next three points, including a pair of service aces from Juliet Karlen. With the final tie at 26-26, kills from Waldorf's Alisha Schaefer and Annie Stotlar kept the Warriors alive as they took the set, 28-26.
VCSU then took a big 9-1 run midway through the fourth set, capped by a kill from Bailey Nelson, to lead 21-11. The Warriors could never recover as a final service error gave the Vikings a 25-18 victory in the set and a 3-1 win in the match.
Waldorf's Annie Stotlar finished with 15 kills while Kaitlyn Bakke added 33 set assists Friday. Kaylee Kidd finished with 20 digs for the Warriors.
UP NEXT: The Vikings host No. 3 Viterbo on Saturday for Parent's Day at 1 p.m. in Graichen Gym. VCSU will finish the weekend with a non-conference match against Morningside on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
