FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Across the net was the nation's second-leading kills team and the Northern Arizona volleyball team had already been on the wrong end of a five-set loss at home twice before this season. However, the Lumberjacks were determined to not suffer the same fate a third time, and on the heels of their most team kills in more than a decade they picked up a colossal victory against the Big Sky's leader.
Sacramento State entered the Rolle Activity Center as the last undefeated team in the Big Sky Conference and winners of its last 18 conference regular season matches, but the Hornets' streak ended right there with the Lumberjacks pulling out a dramatic 27-29, 25-14, 25-21, 20-25, 16-14 victory.
"We respect Sac State for sure; they're mature and they play the game the right way," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "We didn't think of ourselves as underdogs though, and we knew were going to battle. We believe in ourselves and we know we've got a lot of good things on our side and tonight we played the way we wanted to."
The Lumberjacks won their season-best third consecutive match to climb to 10-12 overall and 6-5 in conference. Meanwhile, the Hornets suffered their first Big Sky defeat falling to 10-1. In the last calendar year, Sacramento State has dropped just three matches to conference opponents with all three at the hands of NAU – two in the regular season and one in last year's Big Sky semifinals. The Hornets' last regular season conference loss was last season on Oct. 15 in Rolle.
Sophomore
Abby Stomp ran NAU's attack to an efficient .281 clip, but more impressively she registered a career-best 62 assists on 73 Lumberjack kills. The 73 kills were the most by an NAU squad since the Blue & Gold posted 78 back on Sept. 8, 2007 in a four-set defeat of Duquense.
Three Lumberjacks – redshirt junior
Kaylie Jorgenson (26), freshman
Heaven Harris (18) and sophomore
Abby Akin (16) all recorded new career-high kill totals – as part of NAU's decade-best offensive performance.
But NAU's defense was not to be outdone as the 'Jacks tallied a season-high 98 digs to help the home team win the kills column, 73-59. Sacramento State hit only .188 for the match with junior
Jordan Anderson (28) and senior
Dani Westfall (19) setting new career-high dig totals. Jorgenson recorded 21 digs, while sophomore
Sydney Lema and Stomp also reached double-figures.
"We're figuring out how it's going to all feel when we really gelling together," Murphy said. "The distribution was right on with Abby (Stomp) setting the team the way we wanted to. Our defense was really locked in and we were seeing the game well. It gives me optimism that we're going to make even more of these plays as the season goes along."
The match came down to a decisive fifth set, and the Lumberjacks refused to go feel heartbreak again. Battling through the shortened set that was tied on nine occasions – the last coming at 14-14 – redshirt sophomore
Victoria Ewalefo and Harris stuffed Sacramento State's Shannon Boyle on NAU's second match point to seal the Lumberjacks' ninth straight home victory over the Hornets.
Ewalefo and Harris teamed up for three blocks in the fifth game, bottling up Sacramento State to only .034 hitting. In a night of career-highs, Ewalefo posted eight blocks and Harris tallied seven among NAU's 10.0 blocks for the evening.
NAU rebounded from a tough opening loss that needed extra points to decide a first set featuring 11 ties and four lead changes to win the next two sets. A huge 11-3 run broke open the second set with the 'Jacks hitting .433 in the most dominant game of the night, and they followed by closing the third set on a 5-2 run to move within a set of victory.
The league leader would not go quietly into the night though as Sacramento State overcame an early four-point deficit. Even after the Hornets lost the momentum they gained with a 7-0 run when Stomp tied the fourth set at 20-20 with a kill, Sacramento State gathered itself to run off the last five points, setting the stage for the final set.
The win was just the latest example of the Lumberjacks' growth as they dug deep to prevail in a five-set match against a veteran-laden opponent. Of NAU's six starters and libero, five were underclassmen. Meanwhile, Sacramento State had six upperclassmen announced in the starting lineup.
"We always talk about not looking back," Anderson said. "When we do, it's to learn from them. We learned tonight that it's really up to us to go out and do what we do to take care of business."
Next, the 'Jacks will face yet another tough task when they host Portland State at 12 p.m. on Saturday in the Rolle Activity Center.
