MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University volleyball team (3-3, 0-0 Big 12) faltered to North Dakota, 3-2 on Sunday afternoon with scores of 20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 16-25 and 8-15 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The Mountaineers performance was highlighted by redshirt junior outside hitter
Cassidy Tanton who produced a career best stat line of 22 kills, while hitting .357 percent. The outside hitter notched her fourth career double-double, adding 11 digs versus the Fighting Hawks.
West Virginia counted 68 digs, with graduate student's libero
Sydney Reed and setter
Lauren DeLo collecting 15 and 14 digs each, respectively.
North Dakota kicked off the first set with an early 7-0 lead. WVU responded with a 4-0 scoring running, trailing 8-6. The Mountaineers trailed throughout the rest of the set, as UND capitalized with 3-0 run to take the first, 25-20.
The Fighting Hawks once again held an early advantage, 8-2 over West Virginia in the second set. A pair of kills from Tanton and sophomore middle blocker
Maddy McGath closed in on UND's 10-8 lead. With the score knotted at 17, a go ahead kill from Tanton gave WVU the lead for the first time in the match, 18-17. The Mountaineers persisted on as Tanton added the Mountaineers last three points of the set, for a 25-22 set two win.
UND led 7-3 in the third set, as sophomore setter
Alexis Finnvold added a kill to lighten the Fighting Hawks advantage. North Dakota went on to hold the lead until the until the 17
th point, as DeLo laid down a kill to give WVU the 18-17 advantage. The score went on to be tied five times, before a 3-1 WVU run took set three, 25-23.
West Virginia looked optimistic as they led, 3-1 early in set four. The Mountaineers held the advantage until the score was tied at five, promptly followed by a 4-1 UND run. WVU would trail throughout the rest of the set, as the Fighting Hawks captured set four, 25-16.
After a pair of errors from North Dakota, West Virginia led 2-0 in set five. The Fighting Hawks put up seven unanswered points, as WVU trailed 9-4. A trio of kills from Tanton and a kill from senior outside hitter
Hailey Green wasn't enough to slow UND, as they captured the fifth and final set, 15-8.
Next up, WVU will travel to the Liberty Tournament on Sept. 13-15 which will be held inside the Liberty Arena in Lynchburg, Virginia. West Virginia will compete in a double header on Friday, facing off against Virginia at 10 a.m. ET, followed by a match with ETSU at 4 p.m. The Mountaineers conclude the tournament against Liberty at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUVolleyball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
