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Bulldogs Stunned By North Dakota; Fall 3-1
Sept. 23, 2009
SPOKANE, Wash. - The Gonzaga University began its match against the University of North Dakota clicking on cylinders, leaving the Fighting Sioux in its dust with a 25-15 first set victory. Everything changed once the Bulldogs stepped onto the court for set two as North Dakota rattled off three straight victories, including a commanding 25-14 set two victory, to claim the match victory over the stunned Zags on Wednesday at the Martin Centre. "We had an excellent game plan, but we decided to not stick with it and go away from it, which didn't service us well," explained first year head coach Dave Gantt. "The question for us is do we have the capacity to sustain a decent level of play? Right now we are struggling to find some emotional muscle to carry us through this little valley we create for ourselves and until we find that and are disciplined enough to keep it, we are going to ride this rollercoaster. No matter how many lineups I could be out there, until they choose to compete as a cohesive group from beginning to end, the numbers on the lineup sheet and tactical things we do, go out the window." North Dakota, who played to a five-set victory over Seattle University just yesterday, improved its record to 9-5 with the win, while Gonzaga has now lost three-straight and is 3-9. The Bulldogs used a nearly perfect offense to easily win the opening set by 10 points. Gonzaga finished with 16 kills and only three errors on 34 total attacks for a strong .383 hitting clip. With the set tied at 6-6, the Zags rattled off a 12-7 run to claim a commanding 18-13 advantage. Senior Michelle Boevers was huge during this run, tallying three of her five kills during the outburst. The Fighting Sioux only scored two more points as the GU blocked two UND attack attempts and forced three errors, while hammering home three kills of its own.
It was a completely different Bulldog and Fighting Sioux teams that took the court in set two. The Bulldogs fumbled their way through the set, collecting more attack errors than kills. Gonzaga had seven total kills and nine errors on 27 attempts for a -.074; a far cry from the nearly .400 it hit in set one. North Dakota, who hit only .111 in set one, finished the second set with a .212 attacking clip. It ran out to a 23-8 lead; which forced the Bulldogs to use their two timeouts early. Gonzaga starved off multiple set points, even putting a small scare in the Fighting Sioux, by rattling off a 5-1 run, but UND's Devin Trefz had the final kill to secure the set two victory. It was a more evenly played third set. Gonzaga jumped out to a 7-3 advantage to only have North Dakota rally back to take the 12-11 lead. The set tied two times before the Fighting Sioux earned some breathing room at 21-17 after an attack error by GU's Kaprina Goodwin. Layne Broksy cut the lead to three points but the Fighting Sioux controlled the final plays, scoring four-straight points to take the lead in the match at 2-1 with the 25-18 win. The fourth set was again a battle from start to finish. North Dakota held the 17-13 lead, but Gonzaga, feeling the match slip away, clawed its way back into the set by tying it at 22 apiece. It was senior Emily Johnson and junior Kelsey Bashaw who made it their mission to battle back as Johnson had two kills and Bashaw, switching back and forth from setter to outside hitter, tallied two kills and dished out three assists. A questionable four hit call on Gonzaga followed by a block by the Fighting Sioux forced Gonzaga into a timeout. The Zags couldn't stop UND's momentum as Britta Hanson hammered home the final kill to give the Fighting Sioux its second victory in as many days. Boevers led the way for Gonzaga with 13 kills, with Johnson adding nine and Brosky chipping in seven. North Dakota had two players finish with double-digit kills, including Trefz with 13 and Erin Joki with 10. UND held the advantage in kills at 50-45, while GU had the edge in both blocks (15-14) and digs (60-55). Gonzaga will be back in action on Tuesday, Sept. 29 when it welcomes the University of Montana to the Martin Centre. Match time is set for 7 p.m. |
