FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Northern Arizona volleyball team posted their best blocking performance of the season, and had a season-best four players with double-figure kills but it would be Northern Colorado who left the Rolle Activity Center Thursday night as the victors in the Battle of the North. On the first night of conference play, the Bears rallied from a 2-1 deficit to stun the Lumberjacks, 16-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 15-7.
"It was a great match and both teams played pretty well," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "As a team, we can learn how to push through these types of matches. We're young and we're inconsistent and we need to be in these types of matches to learn. I anticipate shortly, that we'll be able to finish matches like tonight and sustain our level for longer stretches."
Four Lumberjacks notched the best blocking night of their careers led by redshirt sophomore
Victoria Ewalefo who recorded seven. Sophomore
Abby Akin matched Ewalefo, setting a new season-best, and freshman
Heaven Harris totaled a career-high six blocks. Overall, NAU (4-8 overall, 0-1 Big Sky) doubled its previous season-best output with 16.0 team blocks, helping the 'Jacks claim a narrow .255-.244 edge in attacking.
Redshirt junior
Kaylie Jorgenson led four Lumberjacks with 10 or more kills with 14, with eight coming in the third set. She tied for team-high honors with 15 digs – in addition to a career-high four blocks – to collect her eighth double-double of the season.
Sophomore
Sydney Lema returned from a six-match absence due to injury and immediately sparked the Lumberjacks to a first set win. She recorded three of her five first-set kills to push NAU ahead 8-4 to start the night and the Lumberjacks never looked back. Lema finished the first set with five kills, five digs, two blocks and an ace and NAU hit a blistering .375 to claim the first stanza.
Northern Colorado's 5-0 run broke a 15-15 tie and was an offensive buzzsaw with 20 second set kills in knotting the match up at one set apiece. Limited to just three kills prior to the intermission, Jorgenson came out with a vengeance and proved to be too much for the Bears to handle in the third set. However, the third set got dicey despite NAU leading 22-16. Five straight UNC points made things interesting, but Jorgenson and Akin capped the set with three kills between them.
Ewalefo teamed with Harris and Jorgenson for a pair of blocks to ignite a 5-2 start to the fourth set before Northern Colorado surged in front. The Bears led 18-15, but a 5-0 NAU run put the 'Jacks ahead late with all the momentum. Akin added a kill to make it 23-21 in favor of the Lumberjacks, only for the Bears to rattle off the final four points to send the Big Sky opener into a decisive fifth set. There, UNC never trailed scoring the first three points and going wire-to-wire to pull off the stunner.
Despite the loss, NAU had its full lineup at its disposal for the first time all season and the bright moments for the Lumberjacks were plentiful starting with Lema, who concluded the match with 12 kills, 15 digs and a career-high four blocks. Senior
Dani Westfall, who has battled an injury herself, had her best match of the season with 22 assists as part of NAU's 6-2 rotation.
NAU hit over .300 in four of five sets with sophomore
Abby Stomp (25 assists) and Westfall distributing the attack evenly. Behind Jorgenson and Lema, Harris and Akin also finished with double-digit kills.
"Our offense was tough to defend against and we were getting production all the way along the net as we envisioned," Murphy said. "Our defense was good too; we blocked outstanding and we converted opportunities. We made it difficult on UNC. Our team is hurting from this tonight, but we'll learn from it."
NAU plays at Southern Utah on Saturday at 6 p.m. Arizona time in search of its first conference win to halt a three-match skid.
