FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 15, 2018) – The Big Sky's heavyweights collided in the Rolle Activity Center Thursday night, and the Northern Arizona volleyball team defended home court with conviction. In a battle for first place in the league, NAU pulled out a 27-25, 26-24, 25-19 sweep over Idaho on Senior Night to earn its ninth consecutive victory.
The Lumberjacks, now 22-8 overall, moved into a tie with the Vandals atop the Big Sky standings with identical 14-3 conference records. NAU now holds the head-to-head tiebreaker and will clinch the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament with a victory at Eastern Washington on Saturday. A win would also ensure the Lumberjacks at minimum a share of the Big Sky regular season title.
"Tonight is what we're striving for and this is what this group is capable of," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "They are resilient. The first two sets, both teams just grinded out points. Eventually Idaho made a few hitting errors at the end that gave us some distance, but I want to give all the credit first to our team because they forced those errors. This time of year, that's what you want to see."
Both teams entered Thursday night's match on lengthy winning streaks with Idaho having won 12 straight and NAU winners of eight in a row. The teams fit the bill as they battled through 26 tie scores and 13 lead changes throughout the three-set match.
In what turned out to be a defensive slugfest, sophomore
Heaven Harris shined offensively collecting a match-high 15 kills on .314 hitting. She was particularly effective in the second set, tallying seven of her kills, and her cross court shot on match point sealed the sweep.
"Every piece to our puzzle is coming together," Harris said. "We're playing comfortable right now. We wanted to win for our seniors, give them this one night, so it feels good."
Despite hitting only .179, and being outblocked 9.0-5.0, the 'Jacks limited the Vandals – who began the night hitting .274 in league play – to their third-lowest attack percentage of the season (.145). NAU's three seniors were the standouts defensively in their final home matches with
Brittni Dorsey leading the way with four blocks and
Kaylie Jorgenson posting a team-high 16 digs.
Jordan Anderson was right behind with 14 digs.
The first two sets needed extra points to determine a winner and the Lumberjacks prevailed despite being up against the ropes late in both. NAU and Idaho came out of the gates swinging hard and were hitting above .300 for much of the first set. Despite a host of ties early, NAU broke free late getting to set point at 24-21.
However, the Vandals stormed back with four straight points to get to set point themselves at 25-24 before a Harris and Dorsey turned back an Idaho attack. Idaho committed two consecutive attack errors to follow allowing NAU to survive the marathon opening game. Junior
Sydney Lema, who became the 15th player in program history to reach 1,000 digs with her first of the match, posted eight of her 12 digs in the first set.
NAU got out to a quick start in the second game, 4-1, only for Idaho to swing the pendulum in its favor with a 4-0 run to take a 14-13 lead. The Vandals maintained a steady advantage up until 23-21 where junior
Abby Akin tied the score with a pair of kills. Freshman
Ryann Davis followed with an ace, but Idaho tied it at 24-24 with a kill. Going into extra points once again, NAU clinched the game on a Jorgenson dig off her shoulder that landed in the back corner on Idaho's side of the net for a kill on set point.
The Lumberjacks landed the last blow courtesy of a service run by Akin after the teams' traded runs throughout much of the last game. With the set tied at 17-17, NAU received sideout off an Idaho attack error which sent Akin to the line. She delivered three aces during what would be a 6-0 run to provide the 'Jacks their largest lead of the night, and Harris effectively ended Idaho's win streak with the match's final kill four points later.
"We acknowledged what was on the line, but we really tried to go about what we do every game," said Jorgenson, who recorded her 20th double-double of the season with 10 kills and 16 digs. "Saturday's match is just as important as tonight and we're going to look to play the same way to get it done."
Junior
Abby Stomp, with 35 assists, engineered the NAU attack to a slim edge in kills, 41-40, over the Big Sky's leading kills team.
NAU will conclude the regular season on the road in Cheney, Wash. at Eastern Washington on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. MST.
