V-Hawks Claim Another Road Victory

MITCHELL, S.D. – The Viterbo University Women's Volleyball team, ranked #6 in the most recent NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll, topped (RV) Dakota State (SD) 3-1 (25-17, 25-17, 19-25, 25-15) in an NSAA battle on Thursday evening. The V-Hawks improve to 16-2 (3-0 NSAA), while the Trojans fall to 7-8 (0-2 NSAA).

Grace Rohde had the first kill of the match for Viterbo, but it would be Dakota State errors that kept the V-Hawks in the match early. After DSU went up 8-10, Rohde put down another kill that sparked a 7-1 runs, highlighted by two kills and a solo block by Jada Mitchell. Rohde continued to lead the offense with more kills and a service ace, and a block by Kenzie Winker and Martina McGrath brought the score to 20-13. McGrath added a kill to bring it set point, and Rohde ended it 25-17.

McGrath and Marissa Kleman paced the scoring early in the second, with a combo blocks and kills for each. Even more errors by DSU helped extend the V-Hawks lead to 13-9, followed by kills for Mitchell and Saide Treptow. McGrath had another block and a pair of late kills, leading to Rohde's second set-winning kill.

The Trojans would lead to begin the third set, but Kleman started a quick run to tilt the advantage back to the V-Hawks. Dakota State responded with a  run of their own, scoring six straight to build a 10-15 lead, and despite an ace from Winker and a variety of Trojan errors, they would not relinquish the lead and took the set 19-25.

Winker and McGrath recorded kills to start the fourth as teams traded points, but after Mitchell assisted back-to-back blocks, one with Treptow, the other with Kleman, the V-Hawks dominated the rest of the match.  Their match-ending 16-4 run was fueled primarily by kills from Winker and Rohde, and two errors ended the set.

Rohde led all players with 16 kills, while Winker added 14. Cailie Kowal recorded an 18-assist, 11-dig double-double, Maddie Connor posted a match-high 24 assists, and Kenidi McCabe had 22 digs. Brooklyn Grage had eight kills and Maddi Langerock had 16 assists for the Trojans.

The V-Hawks return to action on Tuesday, September 26^th as they host #3 Northwestern College (Iowa).