The M State lady Spartans participated in the NDSCS Volleyball Tournament on Friday and Saturday in Wahpeton, North Dakota. M State won their first match, 3-0 (27-25, 25-13, 25-14) over Iowa Lakes Community College and lost to Iowa Central Community College 3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-15) in their second match on Friday. On Saturday, the lady Spartans lost 3-1 to Dakota State JV (25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21) and 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-9) to Des Moines Area Community College.
The Spartans showed a balanced attack at the net in the win over Iowa Lakes with Kendra Emery leading the way with 9 kills. Faith Marion and Kaleigh Sip had 8 kills each, Kaleigh Peterson had 6 kills, Cassie Dahl finished with 5 kills and Ariana Noplos also had 5 kills. Dahl distributed 33 set assists. Noplos and Sip each delivered a solo block, while Noplos and Emery contributed block assists. Top servers were Dahl (14/14), Avery Knutson (10/10), Marion (14/15, 3 aces) and Foss (16/17, 3 aces).
Defensive leaders were Maddie Ballweg and Madi Foss with 14 and 10 digs, respectively. Dahl added 8 digs and Emery had 6. On the serving line, Foss and Marion had 3 aces, while Peterson also had an ace.
In the loss to Iowa Central CC, Dahl and Marion led with 4 kills and Emery added 3. Dahl had 8 assists. Marion delivered 3 ace serves. Dig leaders were Dahl (8), Ballweg (7), Marion (6) and Foss (5). Noplos had 2 solo blocks, while Emery, Peterson and Marion each had one. Serving leaders were Marion (12/12, 3 aces), Foss (8/8, 1 ace) and Knutson (6/8).
Against the Dakota State JV team, Marion and Emery provided double digit kills with 17 and 12, respectively. Peterson added 9 kills and Dahl had 6 kills to go along with 34 set assists. Noplos had a team high 3 solo blocks, while Foss and Emery each had one. Defensively, Marion had 21 digs, Emery 19 and Foss 17. Serving leaders were Marion (20/21, 5 aces), Foss (17/18, 1 ace), Peterson (16/18, 1 ace) and Ballweg (12/13).
In the match with Des Moines Area CC the Spartans were led by Sip (8 kills), Peterson (6 kills, 6/6 serving, 1 ace), Dahl (16 set assists, 3 kills, 7 digs), Sydney Schaefer (10/10 serving, 1 ace), Ballweg (8/9 serving, 14 digs), Foss (6/7 serving, 1 ace, 7 digs) and Emery (3 kills, 5 digs).
M State will host Western Technical College on Friday night and Century College on Saturday at noon.