KANSAS CITY, MO. – North Dakota racked up six service aces and battled the entire night, but fell in a 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-17) decision to Kansas City (16-6, 7-3 Summit) inside the Swinney Center on Thursday night.
Lexi Ahrens was the most productive Hawk (1-21, 0-10 Summit) with seven points, six kills, one assist and two blocking assists. McCallister Gayle was second for UND with 6.5 points to go with six kills, one blocking assist and three digs. Ashlyn Olson rounded out the top-three in scoring production for North Dakota with five points, three kills and four blocking assists.
Maddy Hornyak led the team behind the line with three service aces, followed by Darian Chwialkowski recording two and Kortney Carney adding one service ace.
Carney paced North Dakota with 10 assists, while Madi Hart was the top defender for UND with 15 digs. Elizabeth Norris also pitched in 10 digs to go with seven assists.
In the match, North Dakota recorded a hitting percentage of .070. Comparatively, Kansas City hit a .231 at the clip. The Roos also had a 41-25 advantage in kills and held the edge in digs (53-47), assists (39-23) and blocks (8-5). Both teams piled up six service aces in the match.
UND opened set one with a 4-2 lead, powered by Carney’s service ace to knot the score up at 2-2 and back-to-back kills from Ahrens. KC quickly evened the game up at 4-4 before the teams started trading points to the 7-7 spot. Olson’s first kill of the night put UND up 9-7. Kansas City reclaimed the lead with a 6-0 run before North Dakota could climb back in the match, trailing 13-12, following two KC service errors and Ahrens’s third kill of the night. Set one concluded with a 12-3 run from Kansas City.
The Roos led 7-5 early in set two. UND then went on a 4-0 run, sparked by a kill from Wahl and then back-to-back service aces from Hornyak to put North Dakota up 9-7, after an attack error from KC. The Fighting Hawks held the lead up until the 16-14 mark when the set took a shift in momentum with on 7-1 scoring run from the Roos to put them up 21-17. Wahl ended the KC run with her third kill of the set to trim the lead to 21-18. Kansas City responded with another kill and then an Olson kill and pair of attack errors from the home team pulled UND within one at 22-21. Three straight errors from North Dakota ended the set and gave KC the win at 25-22.
Kansas City opened the third set up 6-1 early. A pair of Darian Chwialkowski service aces shortly after pulled UND within two at 6-4. Kansas City held the lead up until 10-8 when a pair of attack errors from the Roos and Hornyak’s third service ace of the night gave North Dakota an 11-10 lead. KC clawed its way back into the set but UND continued leading 15-13 after a Hornyak kill. The tide turned shortly after with Kansas City scoring six unanswered points to reclaim the lead and hold the 20-15 advantage late into the set. The match ended with a 5-2 run for the Roos to give them set three and the match by a tally of 25-17.
North Dakota will conclude its four-match road trip with Oral Roberts. Opening serve between the Fighting Hawks and Golden Eagles is scheduled for 1 p.m. (CT) on Saturday.
*Tyler Wells, UND Athletics
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