South Dakota Mines overpowers Dickinson State en route to 4-set victory

• Shaunda Dvorak

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson State senior Shaunda Dvorak, right, sends a kill past South Dakota Mines junior Justine Blade, left, and sophomore Carsyn Garcia on Tuesday night during a nonconference volleyball match at Scott Gymnasium.

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South Dakota Mines head coach Tiffany Mastin-McCampbell said she respects the job Jennifer Hartman is doing as Dickinson State’s interim head volleyball coach.

On the other hand, she wants to win matches too.

The Hardrockers got the job done Tuesday night, bouncing back from a third-set loss to close out a 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 25-15 nonconference victory at Scott Gymnasium in a match between two former Dakota Athletic Conference foes.

“They are so great defensively,” Mastin-McCampbell said of the Blue Hawks. “But ultimately, we knew if we just overpowered them, they would break down eventually. Overpower them with serves, overpower them with middles.”

After three tight sets, Mines did exactly that to win the match. The Hardrockers (12-17) used a six-point run and broke free from an 11-11 tie and forced DSU into attacking and return errors to seal the win.

The late letdown came after a gutty third set that the Blue Hawks (3-21) controlled early and pulled together to win late, beating back a barrage of kills from Mines 6-foot-1 junior Justine Blade — she had a match-high 19 kills — and clinching the win after on DSU junior Priscilla Frias’ overpowering one-handed block of Carsyn Garcia at the net.

“They’ve been in that position before, so I was proud of them for finishing a game,” Hartman said. “We’ve just got to get over that hump just once. Then if they get that taste of it, this team will be unstoppable and it will come right at the perfect time, for the conference tournament.”

Hartman said, despite the loss, it was a momentum-building match for the Blue Hawks, who will try to win their first Frontier Conference match this weekend when they host the University of Great Falls (Mont.) at 5 p.m. Friday and Montana State-Northern at 2 p.m. Saturday.

The Blue Hawks are 0-12 in league play and are guaranteed the No. 9 seed in the Frontier Conference Tournament and a spot in the play-in game on Nov. 8 in Butte, Mont.

DSU played from behind the first two sets, surrendering several points at the net to Blade and Janelle Strampee, who had 13 kills.

“Our whole motto is swing as hard as we can whenever we get the ball and eventually they’ll break down that way,” Mastin-McCampbell said.

But, the Blue Hawks always seemed to fight their way back.

Seniors Ebony Sanders, Sarah Zeibig and Shaunda Dvorak were big up front while junior setter Melissa Avila was her all-around self.

Sanders had 16 kills and a pair of blocks, Zeibig had eight kills and three blocks while Dvorak added six kills and four blocks. Avila had nine kills, 25 assists, 13 digs, three aces and three blocks.

Mines led 23-22 in the first set before locking up the win on a Strampee kill and a DSU hitting error.

The Blue Hawks kept the second set close too, rallying from a 17-12 deficit, closing the gap to within two points four times before a return error gave Mines the win.

“Honestly, it’s just a couple points here and there,” Hartman said. “If we can clean those up, we got it.”

SDM 25 25 24 25 — 3

DSU 22 22 26 15 — 1

Kills: SDM, Justine Blade 19, Janelle Strampee 13, Brittney Ladue 7, Jenna Kreuzer 6, Hannah Benedix 4, Carsyn Garcia 1. DSU, Ebony Sanders 16, Melissa Avila 9, Sarah Zeibig 8, Shaunda Dvorak 6, Linaya Schroeder 4, Priscilla Frias 3.

Blocks: SDM, Blade 4, Kreuzer 3, Benedix 2, Garcia 2, Strampee 2. DSU, Dvorak 4, Avila 3, P. Frias 3, Zeibig 3, Sanders 2, Schroeder 1.

Aces: SDM, Garcia 2, Ladue 2, Kayla Marchus 2, Rachel Pekarek 1. DSU, Avila 3, Kelly O’Connor 2, Chelsea Seibel 1.

Digs: SDM, Marchus 16, Pekarek 16, Strampee 13, Garcia 12, Hannah Glocke 9, Ladue 4, Jocelyn Mormann 3. DSU, Seibel 14, Avila 13, O’Connor 13, Katelyn Christensen 10, P. Frias 7, Rebecca Johnson 7, Sanders 2, Schroeder 2, Zeibig 2.

Assists: SDM, Garcia 45, Strampee 2, Pekarek 1. DSU, Avila 25, O’Connor 15, P. Frias 1, Johnson 1, Seibel 1.

Records: SDM 12-17, DSU 3-21.

Tags: college volleyball, blue hawks, sports, volleyball