Tonight was parent’s night at the Athletics Center O’Rena as members of the Oakland Women’s volleyball team honored their parents on the court prior to their match.   However, the Golden Grizzlies lost to defending Summit League tournament champion North Dakota State (NDSU) in three sets.

With the loss, OU is now 6-6 for the season (1-2 Summit League).

“Unfortunately, when you combine a good team (like NDSU) that’s at the top of our league with a less-than-best effort (from our team), then you’re going to get the three set result,” said Rob Beam, head coach.

The first set was even before NDSU pulled away to win it 25-18, and then dominated the second set 25-14.

Beam substituted in several players during the second and third sets that helped the Grizzlies mount a comeback in the third set.

“We did a better job of keeping the ball in play and serve receiving,” Beam said, “All of them did a good job of coming in and handling the first contact and that allowed us to get the ball to some of the other players that were scoring.”

Twice during the third set the Grizzlies were able to come within one point, trailing 18-17 and later 22-21.

“What we did well was at the end fighting back because we got in a rut in the beginning,” Allison Bell, senior said.

Beam also said that the team has a lot of fight, as well as depth on the roster which was shown in the third set.

“We got the score within one or two a couple times,” Beam said, “We couldn’t quite get over the hump and I think that was because we started out so far behind and it’s hard to make up that many points against a good quality opponent.”

In the loss, Jenna Lange, senior, led OU with 11 kills while Bell had seven.

“Tonight Allison Bell and Jenna Lange played very well, they really were carrying our offense,” Beam said, “Unfortunately, we just didn’t get enough production from the other positions on the floor to compete tonight.”

The Golden Grizzlies will look to get back on track as they face South Dakota State tomorrow night at the O’Rena at 7pm.

“Our team is certainly of the mindset that we can perform at a higher level and we’re going to give South Dakota State our best effort tomorrow,” Beam said.