Oct. 16, 2010

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ROCHESTER, Mich. - Sophomore Meghan Bray had 22 kills and 19 digs, junior Katie Horling had 15 kills and hit .400 and senior Brittany Dunn had 28 digs as the Oakland University volleyball team (11-11, 6-5 Summit) saw its comeback bid fall short, 3-2 (27-25, 25-23, 22-25, 18-25, 16-14) to South Dakota State (9-11, 5-6 Summit) Saturday evening at the O'Rena.

"South Dakota State came out and played really well," said head coach Rob Beam. "They had lost a five-setter last night and came out really motivated. Obviously we used a lot of emotions in out win last night and it took us awhile to get going. Once we did, we played really well. We just fell a little short."

In the first set, Oakland jumped to an early 10-6 lead. South Dakota State responded with a 9-5 run to tie the set at 15-15. After that the teams traded points back and forth until the score was tied at 23-23.

Freshman Audrey Wilson slammed the ball home down the middle to make it 24-23. The Jackrabbits got a kill from Kelli Fiegen to tie at 24-24. Sophomore Brittany Holbrook smacked the ball down the line to make is 25-24. SDSU came back with three straight points to take the set 27-25.

In the second set, the Jackrabbits came out like gangbusters jumping to a 13-2 lead. Oakland called timeout and came back on the floor and got a bomb from Horling. That was the beginning of a 16-5 run, culminating in an error by South Dakota State to tie the set at 18-18.

SDSU went on a 4-1 run to go up 22-19. The Golden Grizzlies refused to roll over and got kills from Horling, junior Allison Bell and Bray to tie the set at 22-22. The Jackrabbits forced two errors to get one point away, 24-22. Bell recorded another kill before Bailey Philippot bounced the ball off the blocker to win 25-23.

In the third set, OU pulled out to a 15-10 lead. Five times, South Dakota State cut the lead to two, the last at 24-22. Holbrook then found a hole and drilled the ball through to take the third set, 25-22.

The fourth set was all Golden Grizzlies. Oakland stormed out to a 17-9 lead and SDSU could get no closer than five points. OU hit at a .343 clip with 15 kills and just three errors while the Jackrabbits hit just .206 with six errors and were blocked three times.

In the fifth set, South Dakota State took an early 9-6 lead. Following a timeout, the Golden Grizzlies got kills from Bell and Holbrook and block assist from Bray and Holbrook. That tied the set at 9-9.

SDSU then forged ahead 13-11 before a kill and a solo block from Horling tied it at 13-13. The teams traded points, and then the Jackrabbits got two kills to end the match.

For Oakland, Bray had her second straight double-double performance and Holbrook had 14 kills and four blocks. Junior Ashley Nevelle had 57 assists and 11 digs while Wilson had nine kills.

Dunn recorded her 19th straight double-digit match, 21th of the season and now ranks 17th in career digs in The Summit League with 1,304. Horling led the team with five total blocks.

"I was ready to play tonight," said Horling. "We just needed something to get us going tonight. I'm always there cheering the team on, trying to pump us up from the sideline. I thought I would bring that out onto the court and I was able to do that."

For SDSU, Fiegen had 21 kills and hit .378, Ellyce Youngren had 16 kills and Kaitlin Klingemann had 12 kills and hit.308.

Oakland closes out the non-conference portion of the season, Tuesday, Oct. 19 at home against Valparaiso. The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

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