Sports
Ladyjacks rise from three-game skid with MonDak sweeps
Tyler Ohmann
10/23/2012
With the Region XIII tournament looming the Dakota College at Bottineau Ladyjacks looked to fine tune their skills this past week with matches against MonDak rivals Lake Region State College (LRSC) and Dawson Community College.
First the Ladyjacks took on a tough Jamestown JV squad for the Ladyjacks final home game last Monday, Oct. 15.
The Jimmies swept the Ladyjacks winning in consecutive sets.
“Once again our Ladyjacks would play the beginning of each set with great attitudes, and relentless effort only to fizzle away mid-set all three sets,” stated head coach Cory Fehringer. “We had glimpses of solid play but were not able to string together enough winning plays.”
However, Fehringer was optimistic the team would be able to rebound from the loss, their third straight.
“This group of student-athletes has been tremendous bouncing back, and I believe this mental toughness will continue,” Fehringer stated. “If there was a good time to have a few physical/mental errors it would be now as we have two weeks to straighten up leading into the Region XIII Tournament.”
Fehringer was right as the Ladyjacks were able to achieve back-to-back sweeps against MonDak opponents.
First the Ladyjacks ran past the Lady Royals of LRSC for the fourth time on the season. DCB came out with a resilient 28-26 win in set one. The Ladyjacks used the momentum to breeze past the Lady Royals 25-14, 25-21 in the next two sets to earn the victory.
“It was by far our most competitive match with LRSC which could be expected as it was their last home match, so it was evident early on that we were not going to be given any points,” Fehringer stated.
Jordyn Sondrol led the Ladyjacks with a team-best 19 kills. Sophomore Jackie Miller had four aces to lead the serving attack, while Ashleigh Aufforth tied a season-high with 32 set-assists.
“Although we continually talk offense and scoring, it is our defense which carries us at any time we achieve success,” Fehringer stated. “As long as we our willing to play harder, longer than the opponent we will always have a chance.”
DCB followed up their sweep over the Lady Royals with another sweep over the Buccaneers of DCC on Friday.
In three closely contested matches the Ladyjacks came out the set victors in each one. In set one DCB set the tone and held on for a 25-23 victory.
In the second and third sets it was the Ladyjacks again getting the upper hand, taking home 25-22 victories in each set to complete the sweep.
The wins on Wednesday and Sunday pushed the Ladyjacks to 13-14 overall on the season, and pushed their win total to more than double of last season.
DCB looks to increase that win total beginning on Friday in Wahpeton for the Region XIII tournament.
A tournament schedule is set to be released later this week.