The UND volleyball team faced rival South Dakota in the DakotaDome in Vermillion, South Dakota Monday night.

The Green and White snapped their nine-match set win streak in a 3-1 loss to USD. The Coyotes have already beaten five other Big Sky Conference teams this season.

UND pulled out a close win from behind in the first match. The team started off slow, getting themselves in a 6-2 deficit. However, the team rebounded and went on a 13-5 rally, hitting .455 in the first set.

The Coyotes service aces tied up the set at 20 while UND battled back to win the set.

Four kills were registered by the offense, all from different UND players; all of this without an attack error.

Senior middle blocker Lisa Parlich helped UND rally a quick 4-0 score that gave it a 10-7 advantage in the second set. USD responded by rallying seven of the next nine points that forced UND to take a timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, sophomore outside hitter McKenzie Hart’s ace tied up the score 19-19. USD held on to win the set, 25-19.

USD won the third set in a similar fashion. Starting from behind, tied it up at 16 and snatched the victory by piecing together a 9-3 stretch for the win.

In the fourth and deciding set, USD had momentum and the lead. The 5-1 start gave the Coyotes control. UND fought hard, but could not come closer than three points within USD throughout the set. The team was able to make the Coyotes sweat in the final minutes of the game by breaking two match points and forcing USD to take a timeout with the score at 24-21. USD sophomore Kelsey Biltoft finished the match with her 10th kill of the game.

Despite the loss, North Dakota had three players with 10+ kills. Parlich recorded 15, senior Ronni Munkeby scored 11 and junior Lexi Robinson had 10. The night’s game also called for some changes on the UND career assists list. Junior Nikki Husfeldt had 43 assists on the night, moving her up into fourth place all-time.

UND just couldn’t muscle out a win.

“We ran into a good block tonight from USD,” UND head coach Ashley Hardee said. “That, coupled with their serving numbers was too much to overcome.”

UND will be looking for a win when Big Sky Conference play starts Friday and Saturday at Montana State and Montana.

Allison Moore is a something for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at allison.h.moore@my.und.edu.