Lady Indians win conference and home opener in two

By DONN ADAMSON
Daily Journal Sports Editor

BISMARCK — The Bismarck Lady Indians used a strong attack at the net to dispose of the visiting Lady Warriors of Valle in two straight games 25-19, 25-18. It was the Lady Indians’ first match at home and also their first conference match of the season.

Bismarck hammered down 21 kills over the two games which kept the Lady Warriors constantly on defense (62 digs). Valle was not able to mount any type of constant attack as their passing broke down in trying to just keep the ball alive and often times sending the the ball back across the net as a ‘free ball’.

Tori Henson served the Lady Indians out to a 5-1 lead with 6’0” Brooke Taylor crushing three kills on her teammate’s serve. Taylor recorded eight of her 11 kills in the first game. 

The Lady Indians’ passing game gave sophomore setter Balee Lorenz plenty to work with in setting up the net attack. When Taylor was not at the net, Harley Cadwell took over at center court with four kills in game one.

The Lady Indians went on another run of points with Holly Blunt serving three straight to give Bismarck a 14-7 edge, and Valle called time to regroup. Libero player Ericka Wade served two points while making perfect digs of Valle’s spikes in between to keep her serve alive.

A run of points by freshman Allisyn Dalton for Valle, with two going for aces, gave notice that the Lady Warriors were not going to fold.

A hard kill by Taylor on Lorenz’ serve was answered by a Valle time-out with the score 22-16. Lorenz served another point after the time-out which the Lady Warriors could not handle.

Valle was able to score twice on Brittany Klump’s serve, but the Lady Indians were able to trade out serves for their last points and the win.

Valle was able to hold Bismarck in check for most of the second game as the Lady Warriors broke the Lady Indians serve seven of the first nine tries. At the start, the Lady Indians were only able to score on serve with Megan Counts at the service line, but that would soon change.

With Valle ahead 12-9, Henson strung together three straight service points to tie the game. Two serves later Lorenz put Bismarck into its first lead of the game, and capped it off with an ace for a two-point lead.

Valle would tie the game at 16, but the Lady Indians took over from there with Blunt serving Bismarck to a 20-16 lead, and Valle coach Nancy Fischer, sensing a Bismarck run, called time.

The Lady Indians did let the time-out faze them as Blunt went on to serve four more points with her last serve going for an ace to give Bismarck match point. A Valle hitting error closed out the win for Bismarck.

Cadwell had six kills to go along with Taylor’s 11 for Bismarck. Blunt served a total of 10 points, and Henson served seven.

Dalton led Valle in serving with six points on her serve. Kelsey Abt made 19 digs and Hannah Kuenzel had 14. Kuenzel, Abbie Bergtholdt and Dalton made three kills each.

Bismarck, 2-1, will play next in the B.A. Classic Tournament starting this afternoon, Valle, 2-1, will host St. Pius on Monday.