Trojans Go 3-4 in Homestand; 8-11 Overall Record

For over a week now, the DSU Lady Trojans had a seven match home stand. During that time the Trojans went 3-4, won 12 sets, scored a total of 579 points, and had a total of 337 kills.

The Lady T’s started it off by sweeping Concordia in three sets 26-24, 25-23, and 25-16. Then the Trojans played Mount Marty and won 3 sets to 1 with scores of 25-17, 21-25, 25-20, and 26-24. DSU then hosted the Independent Volleyball Jamboree and was 1-4 in the Tournament.

The Trojan first played Ashford and defeated them in 3 sets to 2 the scores being 16-25, 25-20, 12-25, 25-23, and 15-12. The next game Valley City swept DSU in 3 sets 29-27, 25-20, and 25-21. Following that match was the DSU vs. School of Mines; the Hardrockers also swept the Trojans with scores of 25-23, 25-14, and 25-21.

The last game of the tournament was against Mayville State, where the Lady T’s lost 1 set to 3 the scores were 22-25, 25-23, 25-22, and 25-16. The final game of the tournament was against in-state rival Dakota Wesleyan, where the Trojans lost a close on 2 sets to 3 with the scores being 25-18, 25-21, 25-17, 25-23, and 19-17.

Coach Amy Veenhof commented, “I think we have our ‘Wow!’ moments. Both good ‘Wow!’ and bad ‘Wow!’ We really need to start playing at a more consistent level and minimize our unforced errors. I’m very happy with our freshman outside hitter, Allison Thielsen. She is doing amazing! I’m also pleased with Kristen DiPaola’s overall play.

“Kristen is a senior outside hitter for us and she is leading the NAIA in total kills in a season as well as kills per set. She is on track to finish her career at DSU with over 1,000 kills, which is unheard of since she’ll only have played here for two seasons because she was a junior college transfer.

“Volleyball is the ultimate team sport. We’ve found out that we are not going to win matches if only one or two players play to their ability. It takes more than that. The teams we play are too good and volleyball is such a big momentum game. Things can go really good or really bad in a hurry.

“We need to improve on the mental aspect of the game and become a more consistent team if we want to win matches and make it into the conference tournament.”

The team travels up to Morris, Minnesota on September 29th, for the Morris-Minnesota Triangular, where DSU will play two matches. The first one will be against Northland College (Wisconsin), while the second game will be against the University of Minnesota Morris.

Team Leaders:
Kristen DiPaola leads the team in aces with 21; she also leads the team and NAIA with 391 kills and 5.3 kills per game. Stacey Schuller has 698 assists for the Trojans. Leading in digs is Katie Green with 327. Taylor Mosco leads in blocks with 54.

Featured photo of Stacey Schuller. Photo provided by DSU Athletics.