Match Stats
- #3 Minnesota (6-1) defeats North Dakota (7-6) – 3-1 (25-12, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18)
North Dakota went on a run through sets 2 and 3, but #3 Minnesota ultimately overpowered their rivals from across the border 3-1 in Minneapolis.
The Gophers won the opening set, but North Dakota surged to a win in set 2, then jumped out to an early 13-11 lead in the third. But the Golden Gophers stormed back and nabbed the set on one of Hannah Tapp‘s 20 kills.
Sam Seliger-Swenson racked up the assists, notching 59 over the four sets, and Danlianliz Rosado had 16 digs for the Golden Gophers.
There are no moral victories, but this was still a breakthrough performance for UND, which fought hard right down to the bitter end.
Chelsea Moser had 13 kills and hit a brilliant .542 for the match, while Tamika Brekke (12 digs) and Teo Tepavac (11 digs) had big games.
Press Releases
Minnesota
The No. 3 University of Minnesota earned a 3-1 win over North Dakota, tonight, at the Sports Pavilion as it hosted the annual Diet Coke Classic. In the Golden Gophers’ home opener, Minnesota won, 25-12, 25-21, 20-25, 25-18, in front of 4,271 fans. Minnesota improves to 6-1 on the season as the Fighting Hawks fell to 7-6.
Hannah Tapp led the team with a match-high 20 kills and hit .500, Molly Lohman hit .300 with nine kills in 20 attempts, while Paige Tapp had seven kills in 16 swings. Sarah Wilhite and Alexis Hart added 14 and 13 kills respectively. Samantha Seliger had 59 assists, while Dalianliz Rosado added a match-high 16 digs.
Minnesota plays two matches tomorrow to conclude the Diet Coke Classic. The Gophers play Toledo at 10 a.m., and Green Bay at 7 p.m.
Set 1: The Gophers hit .424, while it limited UND to .034 to take a 25-12 set win. Wilhite provided six kills in 13 swings, while H Tapp and Lohman added two blocks. Minnesota jumped out to a 10-4 lead after back-to-back aces by Katie Schau. The aces forced the Fighting Hawks to use their first timeout, but Minnesota came out of the break with a block from Hart and P Tapp. After a North Dakota sideout, Minnesota went on another run off the serve of Hart. The Gophers added another four points off two Wilhite kills, while P Tapp and Seliger-Swenson each added one. Minnesota later pushed the score to 18-9 off a Wilhite kill, while H Tapp gave the Gophers their 20th point at 20-11. A UND attack error put the Gophers at set point, while P Tapp finished off the set with a kill.
Set 2: Minnesota hit just .103 to UND’s .257 as it fell, 25-21. After a 9-9 tie, North Dakota took a 14-9 lead as the Gophers called a timeout. After trailing 15-9, Minnesota strung three straight off an Alyssa Goehnerkill, and back-to-back Lohman kills to cut the UND lead to 15-12 as the Fighting Hawks called a timeout. UND, however, pushed the lead to 20-14 before Minnesota responded with a block. H Tapp gave the Gophers their 18th and 19th points of the set off kills as Rosado pushed the score to 23-20 off an ace. North Dakota called a timeout and gained a kill for set point before Minnesota called a timeout but UND closed out the set off a kill to tie the match at 1-1.
Set 3: Minnesota rebounded with a 25-20 third set win. The Gophers hit .400 in the set when it had 18 kills, committed four errors in 35 swings. North Dakota opened the set with a 7-5 lead as Minnesota called a timeout. The Gophers tied up the set at 9-9 and later took a 13-11 lead off a Lohman kill. UND, however, came back and took a 15-14 lead off a kill. Minnesota took an 18-15 lead off a UND attack errors as the Fighting Hawks called a timeout. Minnesota took a 22-18 lead off a kill as North Dakota called its second timeout of the set. H Tapp put the set at 24-20, and followed with a kill to win the third, 25-20.
Set 4: Minnesota took an 8-5 lead off a H Tapp kill. After back-to-back kills by H Tapp and a 12-6 advantage, UND called a timeout. The Gophers pushed the lead to 18-6 off back-to-back Hart kills. The Gophers took an 18-6 lead off another Hart kill, followed by a block by Seliger-Swenson and P Tapp. The 19-9 lead forced UND to use its second timeout, but Minnesota came out of the break with another Hart kill for a 20-9 advantage. Wilhite added two kills for a 23-11 lead as Minnesota finished off the match with a H Tapp kill for match point. With the score at 24-13, UND fought off five match points for a 25-18 win.
North Dakota:
MINNEAPOLIS– North Dakota gave third-ranked Minnesota fits as the Gophers pulled out a 3-1 win in their home opener during the first day of the Diet Coke Classic. UND dropped the first set, 25-12, but roared back with a 25-21 set-two win and forced Minnesota to hold off a pesky Fighting Hawk squad to earn the win in the fourth.
“Tonight was a loss, and that’s nothing to be satisfied with, but I saw some good things,” UND head coach Mark Pryor said. “First of all, when Chelsea Moser hits like she did and whenJordan Vail hits like she did, we proved to ourselves that we can sideout with anybody. Second, when we continued to battle a team like that, I think that’s a good sign for the future.”
Senior Chelsea Moser paved the way for UND statistically, generating a team-best 13 kills on just 24 swings without an error. Jordan Vail added nine kills while Sydney Griffin chipped in 37 assists.
Minnesota, who advanced to the NCAA Final Four last season and was opening its home schedule tonight, had a crowd of 4,271 in a frenzy in the first set and rode that wave to a convincing 25-12 win in that opening frame.
But, UND (7-6) was unfazed, turning a 9-7 deficit into a 15-9 lead with eight straight points in the second set. North Dakota would not look back in that set, eventually winning, 25-21, as Moser and Vail combined for eight kills on just 15 swings without an error in that set alone.
The teams battled through 11 tie scores and the lead changed hands seven times in a tight third set, but Minnesota persevered to grab a 25-20 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Minnesota had to fend off one final UND rally as it was 23-11 but a 7-1 spurt forced the Gophers to exhaust a timeout before winning the set and the match, 25-18.
“Now comes the really hard part. We have set the bar higher now,” Pryor said. “Now we have to achieve that level of detail, of effort, of energy every time we play. It’s easy to get up for matches like that. The real test will be how we come out tomorrow.”
North Dakota (7-6) will play Green Bay and Toledo tomorrow to finish off the Classic.
Leave a Reply