FARGO, N.D. - Senior Amy Sauerwein tallied her seventh double-double of the season, but it was not enough for the Western Illinois volleyball team to earn a victory on the road at North Dakota State as they fell 3-1 (27-30, 30-23, 26-30, 26-30).

The Belleville, Ill., native tallied 14 kills and a season-high 27 digs for Western. The amount was more than enough to push her into the No. 2 spot on Western's all-time digs lists past Sue Orstrom. Sauerwein now has 1,415 career digs, 11 more than Orstrom (1,403).

"Sue Orstom's record is a big record for a left side hitter to surpass," said head coach Kym McKay. "With Orstrom being the only player in Western history to have her jersey retired is puts into perspective the level of player that Amy is."

The Westerwinds (5-10, 2-2 Summit League) started out game one down 5-1. The Bison (12-4, 4-2 Summit League) expended their lead to as many as seven points through most of the game until Western started an eight-point run at 9-17 to tie. The rest of game one was close, with six tie scores before NDSU broke the tie to go up 27-26. The Bison then rolled off three-straight points that lead them to victory.

Game two started out as a tug-of-war for an advantage, with no team leading by more than one point until the Westerwinds took an 8-6 lead off two-straight kills by senior Ashley Baker. Western would keep the lead for the remainder of the game and did not allow the Bison to get closer than one point. The Westerwinds pulled out to lead by as many as eight points before knotting the match at one game apiece heading into the 10-minute break.

"We did a lot of great things as a team in game two" McKay said. "We executed well we were very successful."

The difference between games one and two was hitting percentage, as Western rebounded from a .111 (16k10e-54ta) mark in the first game to a .333 (19k-3e-48ta) in the second. The Westerwinds also held a slight advantage in the blocking column in game two, after not allowing the Bison to record a block to Western's solo total block.

The third game started out with another battle for the lead. The Bison broke the stalemate early, going on a four-point run to go up 8-4. NDSU held the lead by at least two until Western started a four-point run of its own to tie the game at 13. The Westerwinds kept it close until the Bison were able to push ahead after the 18-18 tie. NDSU lead by as many as four, but by no less than two for the rest of the game.

The battle resumed at the start of game four before Western jumped out to an 8-5 advantage. The Bison tied the game at nine and the two teams then traded point runs before tying the game at 14. The tug-of-war continued until NDSU broke a 22-all tie to go up by two points. That push was all that was needed to secure the match victory.

The Westerwinds improved on their hitting percentage from Friday's match, but were out-hit by the Bison .162 (64k-28e-222ta) to .227 (74k-24e-220ta). Western was also out-blocked (10-8), but had a serving advantage. The Westerwinds recorded only five service errors to the Bison's 12 and tallied five service aces, while NDSU garnered only three.

"We had a lot of moments in the match when we played high-level ball," said McKay. "It was difficult to have those moments, but to fall short at the end."

Western will now return home for a six-match home stand that begins with conference-rival Oral Roberts, Friday, October 5 at 7 p.m. in Brophy Hall. The Westerwinds will also face Centenary, Saturday, October 6 at 6 p.m. at Waste Management Court at Western Hall.

Notes: Western had three players record double-doubles in the match...besides Baker and Sauerwein, junior Sarah Trimpe tallied 17 digs and added 53 assists for her sixth double-double of the year... Baker garnered a team-high 17 kills and added a career-high 25 digs...Sauerwein is now 32 kills away from joining the 1,000 Kill/1,000 Dig Club...she would need 928 more digs this season to surpass the career digs leader, Jennifer Alexander (2,343)...Trimpe moved up to the No. 4 position on the career assists charts at Western...she now has 2,334 assists and needs 606 more to move up to No. 3...Baker needs 15 more service aces to move into the No. 2 spot on the service ace charts at Western...the 2006 Mid-Continent Conference co-Player of the Year has 184 in her career.



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