VALLEY CITY, N.D. – Valley City State Volleyball hosted Carroll College in a Frontier Conference matchup. The Saints came away with a 3-0 win in the match, winning 25-13, 26-24, 26-24. It was the first event in the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse since early January.
The Vikings are now 4-10 overall and 2-5 in the Frontier Conference. The Saints improve to 11-3 overall and 6-1 in the conference.
The Saints jumped out to an early seven-point lead in the opening set. A kill my McKaila Balcom made it 8-1 Saints. After a Viking timeout, a service error by Malia Allen made it 8-2 Saints, that was as close as the Vikings would get in the set. The Vikings did rattle off three straight points towards the end of the set on kills by Bryn Sorenson,
Molly Bjorneby, and
Eden Carrier, but the Saints would win the set 25-13.
Sets two and three were very close and went to extra points. In set two, there were six ties in the first twelve points. VCSU would go on a 5-1 run to take a three-point lead. A service ace by
Madden Bogenreif made it 10-7 Vikings. A kill by
Ellie Lucas made it 11-8 VCSU before Carroll rallied with a 5-0 run to take a 13-11 lead. Valley City State used its own 5-0 run to retake the lead. An attack error on Carroll made it 19-17 Valley City State. The Saints came back with a 5-1 run to take a 22-20 lead. An ace by
Gracie Schumacher pulled the Vikings even at 24-24 before Carroll would score the last two points to take the set 26-24.
The third set was very similar with three ties early. Then the Vikings used a 3-0 run to take a two-point lead. Kills by Sorenson and
Kadie Kocka made it 5-3 VCSU. Carroll would retake the lead with a 5-0 run themselves. An ace by Lauren Fox made it 8-5 Saints before VCSU took a timeout. The lead reached five points at 17-12 before the Vikings went on a 10-5 run to tie the set. Kills by Mady Geist, Carrier, and an ace by
Annika Pulju made the score 22-22. The two teams would alternate the next four points to make it 24-24. The Saints would then take the next two points to win the set 26-24 and take the match 3-0.
Molly Bjorneby led the Viking offense with ten kills and a .381 hitting percentage. Mady Geist had nine kills,
Ellie Lucas had five and
Eden Carrier added four with a .444 hitting percentage. Gracie Schmacher had 16 assists and
Madden Bogenreif had 14.
The Vikings hit the road this weekend in conference play. Friday they will be in Madison, South Dakota to take on Dakota State, Saturday they will be in Nebraska to face conference leading Bellevue.
