FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 15, 2019) – With a couple of new pieces in place, the Northern Arizona volleyball team embarks on their longest remaining road trip of the season this week with three stops in three states before returning home. The Lumberjacks' road trip begins Thursday at Idaho at 6 p.m. MST and continues to Eastern Washington on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST. NAU wraps up the trip at Southern Utah next Monday at 5:30 p.m. MST.
This week's road trip not only concludes the first half of conference play, but also begins a stretch in which NAU (10-8, 3-3 Big Sky) will play five of its next six matches on the road with its only home match in the next three weeks coming next Thursday, Oct. 24 versus Northern Colorado.
"This is as tough as it gets, really," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "We're going to learn some things about ourselves and all three of these places are tough places to play. Each team is solid and will give us great challenges. We're definitely going to come out of the next few weeks knowing a lot more about ourselves."
Behind a new-look lineup, the 'Jacks snapped a season-long three-match losing streak last Saturday in dramatic fashion. NAU overcame a 2-0 deficit in the match, and a 13-9 fifth-set deficit, to rally for a five-set victory over Montana. The victory helped NAU split the homestand after a 3-2 loss to Montana State.
The Lumberjacks shifted around personnel last week with senior
Sydney Lema sliding into the libero role. Lema ranks eighth in the league with 3.61 digs per set and is currently fourth all-time in career digs with 1,314 entering the week. Taking Lema's spot on the outside was junior
Olivia Turner, who responded with a pair of double-doubles in her first two starts of the season. Fellow outside hitter freshman
Taylor Jacobsen also notched a pair of double-doubles to bring her total on the season to a team-high seven.
Turner and Jacobsen averaged 3.00 and 2.90 kills per set versus Montana State and Montana last week. Senior
Abby Akin led the team with 3.20 kills per set last week and is averaging a team-best 3.00 kills per set in conference play. She is hitting .424 through the first six conference matches and overall ranks 17th in the country with a .420 hitting percentage.
"Our serve receive stabilized last week and we learned if we can be solid in that phase of the game, it really helps a lot of things for us," Murphy said. "We're trying to find stability within our team and we obviously know we have some talented players. Our ceiling is really high and it's a matter of us figuring out where we are most cohesive and last weekend helped us with that."
Idaho is one of four teams with a 4-2 conference record trailing Northern Colorado's perfect 6-0 mark in league play. The Vandals (8-10 overall) defeated Eastern Washington, 3-1, last week before falling to Northern Colorado, 3-1. The Vandals lead the Big Sky in hitting percentage at .232
– ahead of NAU's .229 mark – and they are second in the league with 2.63 blocks per set. In conference play, Idaho's blocking average is up to 2.79 per set.
Eastern Washington (2-16, 0-6 Big Sky) is still searching for its first conference victory of the season. The Eagles' 3-1 loss to Idaho and 3-0 loss to Northern Colorado last week extended their losing streak to 14 consecutive matches going back to Sept. 6. Eastern Washington is hitting only .120 as a team while its opponents are attacking at a .228 clip.
Like Idaho, Southern Utah is 4-2 in conference play and 11-7 overall. The Thunderbirds notched a pair of 3-1 victories at home last week over Montana and Montana State as they have already surpassed their win total from a season ago. A big part of Southern Utah's improvement has come offensively and at the service line where the Thunderbirds rank second in the conference in both kills per set (12.51) and aces per set (1.65).
All three matches will be streamed on Pluto TV online at this
link and on the free Pluto TV app.
About Idaho:
Record: 8-10, 4-2 Big Sky
2019 Preseason Big Sky Poll: Fifth
All-Time Series: NAU, 17-11
Last Meeting: NAU, 3-0 (Nov. 24, 2018)
About Eastern Washington:
Record: 2-16, 0-6 Big Sky
2019 Preseason Big Sky Poll: 11th
All-Time Series: EWU, 37-29
Last Meeting: NAU, 3-0 (Nov. 17, 2018)
About Southern Utah:
Record: 11-7, 4-2 Big Sky
2019 Preseason Big Sky Poll: 10th
All-Time Series: NAU, 24-5
Last Meeting: NAU, 3-0 (Nov. 6, 2018)
