FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Junior Janae Vander Ploeg became the 12th player in school history to reach 1,000 career kills, joining her teammate senior Sydney Kemper who accomplished the feat a week ago, in Northern Arizona volleyball's four-set victory over Eastern Washington on Thursday. The Lumberjacks defeated the Eagles, 25-23, 19-25, 25-16, 25-15, and clinched a spot in the Big Sky Championships in the process improving to 9-4 in Big Sky play and 18-6 overall.

"We have good leadership on this team and in the locker room during intermission we realized that we weren't playing with the right energy," said head coach Ken Murphy. "Eastern was working harder than us and we take a lot of pride in the fact that we outwork the team across the net from us. Our leaders took it to heart and changed the momentum of the match."

With the match tied at 1-1, the Lumberjacks turned it up coming out of the intermission to secure the victory. NAU took advantage of three errors by Eastern Washington during a 4-0 run that forced an Eagle timeout at 6-2 to begin the third set. The Eagles hung around trailing 12-9 before junior Payton Bock was instrumental during a 5-0 run with two blocks and a kill. The spurt gave NAU a commanding 17-9 lead it would not give up heading into the fourth set.

In the fourth set, the Lumberjacks played their best set of the season offensively hitting a season-high .606 totaling 20 kills without committing an error. The percentage was the team's fifth-best single set clip since 2001 as NAU attacked Eastern Washington from every angle. Led by sophomore Lauren Jacobsen's seven kills on just nine swings, the Lumberjacks led wire-to-wire to nail down the match victory. Vander Ploeg's milestone kill – her team-best 13th and final kill of the night – gave NAU a 21-12 lead in the fourth set.

"It's such a huge honor and the biggest thing is that it's so awesome to join Sydney up there," Vander Ploeg said of joining the 1,000 kills club. "Sydney is such an amazing player and to be a part of that is an honor. I wouldn't have been able to do this without my teammates, without the sets and the passes leading up to it. It's an team accomplishment tonight."

The last two sets were in contrast to the first two as NAU had to rally to take the 1-0 lead to begin the night. Eastern Washington led 16-11 midway through the opening stanza, before sophomore Jensen Barton tied the score at 20-20 with a kill. The 'Jacks would use a 4-0 run to turn a two-point deficit into a 22-20 lead and closed out the set with Vander Ploeg's fifth kill.

The second set was dominated by the Eagles as they used an early 8-1 lead to spark them to even the match. The Lumberjacks never led in the set, but did manage to close to 20-17 late before a corresponding 4-0 run by Eastern Washington put the set out of reach. Although the Eagles took control of the match for one set, it would be all Lumberjacks from there to end the night.

Barton recorded 51 assists running NAU's attack with high efficiency as the Lumberjacks finished the match with four players in double-digit kills, marking the first time they have done that since Sept. 5. NAU hit .326 as a team, led by its middle blocking tandem of senior Taylor Stephens and Bock who hit .438 and .435 respectively.

"Lately we've been a little one-dimensional so it was nice to see our other hitters respond when they were containing Sydney a little," Murphy said. "For the last month, that's been our attention and it was nice to see tonight. By the end of the second set, our hitters were getting nice sets to hit from Jensen and it kept Eastern off balance. We were a tough team to defend tonight."

Vander Ploeg recorded her 12th double-double of the season with her 13 kills and 13 digs. Jacobsen (12 kills, 13 digs) and Kemper (12 kills, 11 digs) both notched double-doubles as well. Bock finished with a season-high 11 kills.

NAU continued its blocking prowess of late, holding a 12.0-5.0 advantage over Eastern Washington, led by five blocks each from Bock and Stephens. Stephens' four solo blocks are the most by a Lumberjack this season.

The Lumberjacks conclude their home schedule on Saturday, hosting Southern Utah at 7 p.m. The match will be Senior Night for Kemper, Stephens and Hannah Hill, who will be honored pre-match in their last home matches of their careers.