North Dakota State
26-8
Oral Roberts
20-10
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Roberts | 17 | 21 | 23 | 0 |
| North Dakota State | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
Bison Sweep Oral Roberts, Advance to NCAA Tourney for Third Time in Four Years
11/19/2011 11:54:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Tournament MVP
Jennifer Lopez had 34 assists and 10 digs as top-seeded North Dakota State
advanced to its third NCAA tournament in four seasons with a 25-17, 25-21,
25-23 sweep of No. 3 seed Oral Roberts on Saturday, Nov. 19.
Megan Lambertson got 12 kills, Chrissy Knuth had 11 kills, 16 digs and three blocks, Brynn Joki had nine kills, and Lauren Cammack added seven kills off the bench for the Bison (26-8), who won their 10th straight match.
NDSU's offense got kills on five of its last six points, but it was timely blocking that stood out, highlighted by Knuth and Janna Deyle stuffing ORU's Olivia Ophus on the final point.
Deyle, with zero kills and only one block in the first two sets, was part of the late spark NDSU needed to hold off an emotional ORU team that rallied past IPFW in five sets Friday.
Her second kill of the night capped a 9-1 run that gave NDSU an 11-4 lead, but Oral Roberts took advantage of four Bison errors and scored the next six in a row to make it interesting again.
Deyle and Cammack carried the Bison through the back-and-forth third set. The duo was part of three blocks and two kills that pushed NDSU's lead to 17-11 and forced ORU to burn its final timeout.
The Golden Eagles responded with a 7-1 run to tie the match, taking advantage of two aces and three NDSU attacking errors. It was tied six times before Knuth's kill and the block by Knuth and Deyle ended it.
NDSU outhit ORU by a .220 to .145 margin, had 45 kills to ORU's 30, outdug the Golden Eagles 67-55, and had an 8-3 advantage in total blocks. Bison libero Andrea Henning made a match-high 22 digs.
Oral Roberts, playing in its last
Summit League tournament before moving to the Southland Conference next year,
finished its year 20-10. ORU's last title came in 2006 - its seventh in a 10-year span - before NDSU joined the league with South Dakota State and IPFW in 2007.
Joana Gruber had 12 kills and 12 digs for the Golden Eagles, who dropped six of their last seven matches after winning 19 of 20 earlier in the season.
NDSU will await the announcement of the 64-team NCAA tournament bracket on ESPNU television at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 27. First and second round play will be Dec. 1-4 at campus sites to be determined.
Summit League All-Tournament TeamMeghan Bray, Oakland
Joanna Gruber, Oral Roberts
Chrissy Knuth, North Dakota State
Megan Lambertson, North Dakota State
Jennifer Lopez, North Dakota State (MVP)
Tessa McGill, IPFW
Bruna Silva, Oral Roberts
