by Dax Larson
November 08, 2005
Seesaws are usually found in playgrounds. Saturday night, there was one in the Taylor Center. In an intense five-game match with Augustana, the Maverick volleyball team came up short.
“We're never happy when we lose,” head volleyball coach Dennis Amundson said. “I thought it was a pretty evenly fought match on both sides today.”
On the bench after Game 3, the Mavericks looked disappointed and somber. The team was quiet and in deep thought. The reason was because they were down 2-1 in the match. They had just dropped the last two games and lost game three 29-31. In Game 4, MSU surprisingly came out strong and took a 12-6 lead before Augustana took a timeout. Now on the bench the team was smiling and there was chatter, something absent before the game started. The team looked different from the previous three games. They were executing all their blocks, passes and kills.
“We go up and down, up and down,” Amundson said. “We got to survive those peaks and valleys and even them out a little bit.”
Although the Mavericks let the Vikings back in the game, they were able to close it out with multiple kills, including the game-winner, from senior Tiffany Graham. Game five was no different than the previous four. MSU and Augustana traded points as they went back and forth. With the game at 12-13, the Mavericks knew they needed a little extra to win, unfortunately Augustana stayed strong and MSU lost the deciding game 15-13.
“We needed to dig more balls,” Graham said. “One of our goals right now is to out dig our opponents.”
Just like the match score, the Mavericks came up just short of their opponent's dig total. MSU had 89 and Augustana had 90. Junior Mandy Reuter led MSU with 19 kills and 19 digs. Freshman Ashley Nachreiner added 17 kills with 25 digs. Sophomore Stef Sandstrom had a career-high 64 assists on the night, which puts her 11th all-time in assists in a match.
The loss put the Mavericks at 11-14 overall and 5-5 in the conference. MSU completes its season at home next weekend in two conference games. Friday the Mavericks will face off against North Dakota at 7:30 p.m. and finish against Nebraska-Omaha Saturday 7 p.m.
