Hays, Kansas - The Cowgirls split Friday's action at the Tiger Classic losing to Augustana 3-1 in the first match of the day. They closed out the tournament with a 3-2 win over Northwestern Oklahoma State to even their record on the season at 4-4.
The Cowgirls fell to the Vikings 25-13, 19-25, 25-18, 25-23 to open the day.
Aziza Morris led NMHU with 13 kills and
Arianna Jamerson (10) and Jayley Gonzales (10) were also in double figures.
Naya Dornic had 19 assists while
Abby Carlsen logged 18.
Defensively,
Naya Dornic had 18 digs and
Yuli Favela led the Cowgirls with six blocks.
The Vikings jumped on NMHU early and took the first set. The Cowgirls came back to win set number two but could not hold off the Vikings and lost the final to sets to close out the match.
Augustana out hit the Cowgirls .219 to .176. They also had 17 service aces against NMHU.
Friday's second match saw the Cowgirls win a back-and-forth contest 25-11, 26-24, 24-26, 17-25, 15-5.
Once again three Cowgirls had double-digit kills led by
Arianna Jamerson's 16.
Aziza Morris and
Meg Pfannerstill each added 13 kills.
The Cowgirls had 20 service aces in the match, led by career highs from
Naya Dornic (6) and
Meg Pfannerstill (5).
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the match, the Cowgirls had a chance to close it out in the third as they led 24-22 but allowed the Rangers to score four straight points to extend the match. NWOSU then took the fourth set to force a deciding fifth set. The Cowgirls never trailed as the won the final set going away.
"Happy that we ended the weekend on a high note! Playing tougher competition this weekend was good for us to see what we need to work on before we start RMAC play on Friday," said Coach
Meg Grose. "It is a good feeling going into conference 4-4 and getting to open up our conference schedule in front of our fans."
NMHU hosts Westminster on Friday at 5:00 pm and nationally ranked Colorado Mesa on Saturday at 7:00 pm.
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