by Josh Berhow
Issue date: 9/25/07
Section: Womens Sports
Most of the time, the team that wins the stat sheet will come out with a win, but that wasn't the case Saturday night at the Taylor Center. The Minnesota State Volleyball team lost a hard-fought, five-game match to No. 13 Augustana 24-30, 30-15, 33-31, 24-30 and 10-15.
The loss, No. 15 MSU's second-straight, brings the Mavericks overall record to 12-3 and 2-1 in the North Central Conference. This was the first conference loss and home loss of the season for the Mavericks.
"We were bringing it tonight; we won the stat sheet. We just have to win the match," said head coach Dennis Amundson.
MSU lost the first game but rebounded and won the second convincingly 30-15, as Amanda Beekman, Ashley Nachreiner, Megan Stroud and Dana Ostertag dominated the net. Stroud and Ostertag combined for 14 blocks in the match.
The Mavericks had a long, tough third game but prevailed, taking the game 33-31. Ashley Nachreiner had a great game, playing well after 25 points and finished the match with 26 kills and 21 digs. Danielle Zimmermann finished the game off with a block to give the Mavs a 2-1 lead.
The Mavericks, however, could not close out the deal as they lost games four and five, losing a heartbreaking match.
"As a team I thought we served pretty well and took some good swings," said Amundson. "We did a lot of things well at times."
"We can compete. Everything on the stat sheet says we should have beaten them," said senior setter Stef Sandstrom.
Sandstrom had a very good night for the Mavs with a season high 62 assists and career high 31 digs. Sandstrom left it all on the court with her all-out play, and had a handful of acrobatic digs. Her sister, Kelly, added 29 digs.
It was a great night for the Mavs to pat their stats if they weren't coming away with the victory. A lot of players had good nights individually. Stroud, Nachreiner and Zimmermann all had hitting percentages over .320. Stroud had a career high 15 kills and Beekman added 16. Zimmermann finished the game with 13 kills and gave the team some extra energy when she was on the floor.
"I thought Danielle (Zimmermann) played really well for us tonight," said Amundson. "I was really pleased with Megan (Stroud), too; she got after it tonight."
"We can't play scared. We beat ourselves tonight," said Sandstrom.
MSU travels to Winona, Minn. today to play Winona State University in a non-conference match at 7 p.m. MSU is 0-1 on the road this year. Winona State is 9-7 on the year and coming off a three-game losing streak.
Josh Berhow is a Reporter staff writer
