Oct. 8, 2011

Box Score

Photo Gallery

ROCHESTER, Mich. - Alli Kirk had a career-high 38 digs and Meghan Bray had 12 kills and 12 digs as the Oakland volleyball team (10-7, 5-3) beat South Dakota (10-10, 5-4) in four sets. Oakland won with set scores of 25-12, 25-18, 24-26 and 25-18 Saturday night in the Athletic Center O'rena.

"I thought our team came out with a lot of intensity and were ready for the task at hand," said head coach Rob Beam. "South Dakota is a very good, physical team and are very well coached and it took a lot of effort by our team to get the win tonight."

Kirk's 38 digs is the second-most in school history and three other Golden Grizzlies had double-digit digs including Bray (12), Taylor Humm (10) and Alissa Valentine (10). Bray led with 12 kills followed by Jenna Lange with 11 kills hitting .370 for the match and Humm with 10 kills. Ashley Nevelle and Valentine both combined to run the offense earning 21 and 19 assists respectively.

"Alli Kirk was very disciplined tonight with her positioning on the court," said Beam. "She was so good fundamentally tonight that she was in the way of their hitters all night and that was a big key for us."

Oakland started off the match strong hitting .393 as a team in the first set led by Brittany Holbrook who had four kills on five attempts. OU won 10 straights points to win the set 25-12. In the second set, OU showed their strong defense as they held USD to a -.049 hitting percentage as Kirk had 15 digs in the set to win 25-18.

USD took the lead 24-20 in the fourth set but the Golden Grizzlies fought back to tie it at 24-24, but lost the set 26-24. Oakland rebounded quickly in the fourth set as they jumped out to an early 15-4 and never looked back winning the set and the match 25-18.

Oakland's next match will be at IUPUI on Tuesday Oct. 11 starting at 7 p.m. Oakland returns home next weekend as they take on IPFW on Friday at 4 p.m. on Dig Pink Breast Cancer Awareness night.

-OAKLAND-