Final Stats

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota State's Jenni Fassbender recorded 21 kills and 13 digs to lead the Bison past South Dakota volleyball 25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 25-18 in the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon.

The Bison (12-14, 6-6) took advantage of 25 South Dakota attack errors in the match and held advantages in blocks (12-4) and aces (9-5). Fassbender finished the day with a .410 attack percentage and led the Bison in digs. Hadley Steffen added 10 kills, Monica Claxton tallied 35 assists and Emily Miron finished with eight blocks.

Five Coyotes (15-10, 9-3) recorded at least eight kills with Sydney Dimke's 13 leading USD's attack. Kendall Kritenbrink added 12 kills and Audrey Reeg had 10 kills to round out the Coyotes with double-digit kills. Brittany Jessen had 47 assists and eight kills while Riley Haug led USD defensively with 19 digs.

NDSU, who has won five-straight matches, had a .370 attack percentage in the first two sets of the match. The Bison tallied 29 kills and six errors on 62 attacks in the first two sets, while USD had 27 kills and 14 errors on 76 attacks during that stretch. Fassbender led NDSU with 11 kills while Miron had six blocks. Melissa Firtko led USD in those sets by recording six of her nine kills in the match.

South Dakota took set three behind six kills from Reeg and five from Dimke. The Yotes recorded 17 kills, had a .400 attack percentage and led by as many as seven in the frame. Fassbender tallied another six kills for NDSU.

NDSU took the final set by tallying 13 kills, four aces and just one attack error. USD had 16 kills in the set but aided the Bison with eight attack errors. Fassbender had four kills in the final set while Steffen added three. Jessen and Kritenbrink had four kills each in the final set for USD.

With the loss, South Dakota dropped to third place from a first place tie with Denver and IUPUI in the Summit League standings. Denver swept Western Illinois to move to 10-2 in league play while IUPUI was off on Sunday.