Augustana College in South Dakota is a perennial contender in NCAA Division II women’s volleyball.
The Vikings are currently receiving votes among the best teams in the nation and they put their skills on display Saturday in the Permian Basin.
After earning a tough five-set victory against Eastern New Mexico in its first match of the day, Augustana faced host UTPB in a matinee contest at the Iceman Invitational.
Though the Falcons made the Vikings work throughout, Augustana was able to earn a 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19 victory at the Falcon Dome.
“We knew they’d be tough,” UTPB coach Tim Loesch said. “We had a few streaks where we just gave away a bunch of free points.
“We have some new kids and are still figuring stuff out. We’re not quite as fast on the learning curve as we’d like; we played really well at times and really bad at times.”
The Vikings improve to 4-0 on the season, while the Falcons drop to 2-1.
Kia Kriener led Augustana with 11 kills, with Piper Asche adding 10 in the victory.
Setter Avery Thorson finished with 36 assists, doing a nice job of distributing the ball to her teammates.
The Vikings also served well, finishing with 11 aces, including one on set point to win the third set and take control of the match.
Aquincia Strambler led the Falcons (2-1) with a match-high 12 kills, while Stephanie Sanchez added 11 in the loss.
The Falcons were blocking well for most of the match, finishing with four solo and 18 assisted blocks.
Chandra Reed had three solo and five assists, with Taurie Magee and Strambler each adding four assists to the total.
Setters Devin Alcoser and Maya Detwiler had 19 and 10 assists, respectively, as UTPB is looking for a court general ready to take control of the offense.
Detwiler left the match in the third set after injuring her ankle on a collision under the net.
“We have three setters that are all battling,” Loesch said. “We are probably going to run a 6-2, but haven’t found who connects with who and can run our offense the way we want.
“So that’s part of the challenge. But our passing isn’t there and obviously some of our hitters aren’t there yet.”
Augustana (4-0) used Thorson’s experience at setter to keep the Falcons’ front row guessing throughout the match.
Thorson is a graduate-student playing her COVID year.
She is a two-time all-conference player and finished last season with 1,190 assists in 30 matches.
Her court sense allowed her to consistently find teammates against solo blocks or key back row attacks, while also dumping the ball over the at times to catch the Falcons’ defenders out of position.
>> Follow Lee Scheide on Twitter at @OALeeScheide
