Sept. 19, 2009
Box Score
ROCHESTER, Mich. - Senior Adrienne Leone notched 18 kills, sophomore Ashley Nevelle dished out 41 assists, and junior Brittany Dunn turned in 16 digs, but it was not enough for the Oakland University volleyball team (8-2, 3-1 Summit League) as the Golden Grizzlies dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker to North Dakota State (8-2, 4-0 Summit League) on Saturday night at the Athletics Center O'Rena.
"I think that we see where we are against the standard for our league," said head coach Rob Beam. "I think that we had a good chance to win the match. We need to be more aggressive going into the fifth set. We made some tentative plays and those contributed to the errors. We're close. We need to keep working on it, make some corrections, and hopefully get them next time."
The Golden Grizzlies won a thrilling 27-25 decision in the opening set before NDSU came back to knot the match with a 25-22 score in the second set. OU rallied to take a 25-19 win in the third set, but the Bison dealt OU a 25-19 setback in the fourth set before winning the decisive fifth set 15-8.
"I'm proud of our team's effort," said Beam. "We played hard and had a lot of players contribute. I think we made a lot of good plays, and we had our chance to win the match, and we're going to just keep getting better."
The Golden Grizzlies were led in hitting percentage by Jenna Lange, who hit .429 with 11 kills and four blocks, one solo and three assisted.
"Not only does Jenna get to be aggressive and hit the ball, she plays a very smart game. I thought she was key for us. When we were good, she was really good. She was obviously a big contributor to the match tonight."
Joining Lange and Leone in double-digit kills were freshmen Meghan Bray and Brittany Holbrook, who posted 11 and 10 kills apiece, respectively. Bray also posted 12 digs, while Nevelle and sophomore Ashleigh Slemmer both added 11. NDSU held a .259 to .174 advantage in hitting percentage, while OU turned in nine total team blocks.
The Golden Grizzlies will return to action on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as they travel to Bowling Green, Ohio for a non-conference matchup with Bowling Green. The match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.
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