FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 24, 2019) – Coming off a three-match road trip and with just a single practice to prep for Thursday night's showdown against unbeaten Northern Colorado, the Northern Arizona volleyball team was unfazed. Instead, the Lumberjacks took the challenge head on and convincingly put an end to the Bears' eight-match win streak by way of a 25-17, 25-17, 25-18 sweep.
Not only did the 'Jacks hand the Bears their first conference loss of the season, but the victory was a record-breaker for head coach
Ken Murphy, who became the winningest coach in program history with his 144th win at NAU. Murphy surpassed Kelley Sliva's total of 143, achieved during her nine-year tenure from 1993-2001, and did so in 39 fewer matches.
"As a coach coming up, I loved watching Kelley Sliva's teams and what she was able to do here," Murphy said. "I love NAU and we've had so many good players here. I'm just the beneficiary of that. This is a great place to be and a great school to be part of and I coach a great group of players."
As much as this win was a milestone victory for Murphy, it was a bigger statement victory for the Lumberjacks, who won their third straight match and improved to 13-9 overall and 6-4 in league play. It came against the hottest team in the Big Sky with Northern Colorado having dropped just three sets in its eight matches of conference play.
Northern Colorado entered Thursday's tilt in the Rolle Activity Center pacing the league in hitting percentage (.259), opponent hitting percentage (.151), kills per set (14.96) and aces per set (1.78), but NAU held Northern Colorado below all of those marks while hitting .353.
The Lumberjacks forced the Bears into 21 attack errors with just 36 kills resulting in a .144 attack percentage. NAU also won the battle at the service line with sophomore
Aubrea Bandfield and senior
Abby Akin combining for all seven of the Lumberjacks' aces, while the Bears recorded just four.
The end result was NAU's first 3-0 sweep, and just second-ever, of Northern Colorado since Nov. 17, 2007. Six of the previous eight meetings during Murphy's tenure going back to 2013 went to five sets with Northern Colorado winning five of the eight matchups.
"We've just great battles with them since I've been here and honestly we put some pressure on them right away," Murphy said. "They made a few errors that they don't normally make and we're in a phase where we don't get too high or low. We just keep playing and that was a difficult thing for (Northern Colorado) to match tonight."
Freshman
Taylor Jacobsen, who led the 'Jacks with 14 kills on a season-best .481 hitting, put down two early kills during a 3-0 match-opening run that eventually grew to 8-2. NAU recorded kills on eight of its first nine swings on its way to a 13-5 lead and the 'Jacks hit .458 as a team in a wire-to-wire first set victory.
The attack errors continued to plague Northern Colorado in the second set with the Bears committing six during a 9-2 opening Lumberjack run. Although the Bears battled back to get as close as 17-14, NAU scored the next three points – capped by one of Bandfield's career-high tying four aces – to doubles its advantage and hold on for a 2-0 match lead.
The first-place Bears were not going to go away quietly though and played to a 10-10 tie before a 4-0 Lumberjack run that proved to be the difference. Akin and sophomore
Ryann Davis started the run with a block and Jacobsen finished the spurt with a kill that broke the ninth and final tie of the set. Northern Colorado remained close, but a solo block by freshman
Neche Newton capped another modest 3-0 run that pushed NAU's lead out to 19-14 and the Bears never got closer than four points the rest of the match.
"We're focusing on calming a play down in a rally and controlling the chaos," Jacobsen said. "We've been learning to trust each other the last few weeks and it's making everything so much smoother."
Akin complemented Jacobsen's offensive exploits with nine kills of her own on .500 hitting to go with three aces. Bandfield led the team with 19 assists and senior
Abby Stomp added 10 assists to help the Lumberjacks post their third-highest hitting percentage of the season.
After a rare Saturday off, NAU will head out for its penultimate road trip of the regular season next week. The Lumberjacks will face Idaho State on Thursday, Oct. 31 and Weber State on Saturday, Nov. 2 with both matches slated for 6 p.m. MST starts.
