VERMILLION, S.D. (USD) -– Fifth-year senior Madison Harms broke the Summit League all-time career block records, but South Dakota (18-10) fell to North Dakota State in five sets in the quarterfinals of the Summit League Tournament Sunday night. Game scores 29-27, 15-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-7.

Who Stood Out
Harms’ third block of the match gave her 663 total career blocks to make her the all-time career blocks record holder for the Summit League. She had 13 kills on a .400 hitting clip. Outside hitters Kylen Sealock and Evelyn Diederich led the offensive attack with 18 and 14 kills respectively. Libero Kamryn Farris had a match-high 20 digs.

North Dakota State (18-10) advanced to the semifinal behind 17 kills from outside hitter Ali Hinze. Hinze added 13 digs to record her 18th double-double of the season. Middle blocker Alexis Boling followed with 13 kills on a .296 hitting clip with two blocks.

Turning Point
Set one was a back-and-forth battle that went into extra points and set the tone for the match to come. The Coyotes handily took sets two and three but set four proved to be the turning point for NDSU. The Bison bounced back from hitting negative in set two and swinging .000 in set three to hit .235 in set four and extend the match to a deciding set. NDSU took the momentum shift from winning set four and carried it through set five, hitting .500 while holding USD to a .200 hitting clip. The Bison doubled up the Coyotes in kills in the final set 10-5 and held USD to just seven points in the final set.

Notable

  • Diederich’s added a career-high 6 digs to go with her career-high 14 kills.
  • Freshman setter Avery Van Hook dished out 47 assists to go with eight kills and 11 digs.
  • Middle blocker Brynn Paumen had 10 kills on 23 attempts to hit .304 and added four blocks.

Quotable
“Obviously not the outcome that we wanted, but definitely the type of match that we expected,” said head coach Leanne Williamson. “The atmosphere was incredible, the volleyball being played was high-level, and it went to five sets. I thought we had our moments where we were really good and moments where we lost it and NDSU did really good things. You have to give NDSU credit, they played a good game, especially in sets four and five.

“It hurts, it’s not something that’s easy to feel right now and our team is hurting because they wanted it really badly. It was a high-level volleyball match that just didn’t go our way.”