Women's volleyball falls at No. 12 Jamestown

JAMESTOWN, N.D. – The Mustangs made the long trek north to take on No. 12 Jamestown Wednesday night, falling to the Jimmies in straight sets, 25-22, 25-22, 25-15. 

"I'm extremely proud of us on this trip," head coach Jessica Squier said of her group Wednesday night. "We made Jamestown beat us instead of erroring ourselves out of the win. That's a big culture shift for us and I know it's all because of our players' buy-in."

The Mustangs matched the Jimmies on kills and errors in the first set, as both teams had 15 kills to five errors. The score was just as close, as the Jimmies were able to sneak out the 25-22 win. 

"Our serve-receive allowed us to keep a nice tempo offensively in the first two sets," Squier said. "Their middles made some adjustments of who they keyed in on and it changed our rhythm."

The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead in set two, but a Jimmies run in the middle of the set made it a one point game, 14-13. The Mustangs held off Jamestown until the Jimmies took a 21-19 advantage and held on to win the set. 

Jamestown was the one to jump to an early lead in the third set. Morningside scored seven points in a row to tie the set at 14, but the Jimmies took things from there, scoring 10 in a row to win the set and match.

Morningside had 18 errors to Jamestown's 17 on attacks, but the Jimmies had 46 kills to Morningside's 32. Morningside had fewer serving errors, 5-3, but Jamestown had more aces, 7-3.

"I would have liked to have seen us be more aggressive on the service line," Squier added. "Offensively, I would have liked to have seen more sharp action, but their serve controlled what we did offensively."

Payten Lode totaled eight kills to go with 12 digs for Morningside.Sydney Marlow totaled 11 kills and Aleksandra Dalach 27 assists. Payton Shoquist led the Mustangs with 15 digs and Aureana Bernales added 11 digs.

"We unfortunately put too much pressure on ourselves and it showed up in our serve-receive and defense," Squier said. "Helping the players take the pressure and utilize it is what we will focus on more moving forward."

Morningside has two matches remaining in the regular season, at Briar Cliff Saturday and at home Tuesday against Dordt. Morningside is seventh in the GPAC standings, but has locked up a postseason berth. The only thing to be determined over the final two matches is seeding, as the Mustang could finish sixth, seventh, or eighth depending on results.

Morningside is at Briar Cliff Saturday at 7:30 p.m.