Volleyball Aims to Get Back on Track at Home Versus Montana State and Montana

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 8, 2019) – Currently on the program's second-longest home win streak, the Northern Arizona hopes that a return to the Rolle Activity Center will reverse its recent fortunes with a pair of matches this week. The Lumberjacks, coming off a pair of difficult five-set losses, host Montana State on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Montana on Saturday at 1 p.m.

NAU is currently on a 13-match home winning streak inside the Rolle Activity Center. The only longer streak was 25 consecutive wins spanning the latter part of 2014 into the 2016 season.

Saturday's match versus the Grizzlies will serve as the team's annual Pink Out match for breast cancer awareness. All fans are encouraged to wear pink to the match.

The Lumberjacks fell to the middle of the Big Sky standings with five-set road losses to Portland State and Sacramento State last week. NAU is one of three teams with a 2-2 conference record through the first two weeks of conference play. The Lumberjacks are 9-7 overall.

Entering conference play, the Lumberjacks led the Big Sky with a .262 hitting percentage. Since then, NAU's hitting percentage has dropped to .232, which now ranks second to Idaho in the league, due to four straight matches with percentages below .200. The last time NAU hit lower than .200 in four consecutive matches was 2017 when the team encountered a five-match span.

Although NAU is hitting only .169 in Big Sky action thus far, the 'Jacks have been stout defensively. NAU leads the league in opponent hitting percentage (.171) and digs (19.50 per set) in addition to ranking second in blocks (2.56 per set) in conference matches only.

"We lost some confidence and we started to scramble, which was good for our defense," said head coach Ken Murphy. "We weren't digging or receiving the ball well and we've been missing our tempos on offense. That came from probably feeling like we needed to do too much. This week, we've gotten into a much better flow in terms of how we're connecting with our setters and controlling the ball on our side and we're hoping to move forward from there."

Senior Abby Akin continues to be a force in the middle as she ranks 11th in the country with a Big Sky-best .428 hitting percentage. In four conference matches, Akin is hitting .449 and is averaging 2.89 kills per set. For the season, Akin is averaging 2.56 kills per set. Akin also ranks among the nation's best in blocks with her 85 blocks sitting 11th entering the week. Her team-leading 1.44 blocks per set is 16th nationally.

Entering the week, senior Sydney Lema is just 15 digs shy of moving into fourth all-time in program history in career digs. Buoyed by a career-high 35 digs, tied for the fifth-highest single match total in program history, last Thursday at Portland State, Lema's 1,280 career digs is nearing Brittany Stowers' 1,294 career digs.

Lema is averaging a robust 4.67 digs per set in conference play and is eighth overall in the Big Sky with a season average of 3.65 digs per set. She ranks second on the team behind freshman Jasmine West, who ranks third in the Big Sky with 4.55 digs per set.

Montana State picked up a pair of victories over Idaho (3-1) and Eastern Washington (3-0) last week at home and owns an impressive 3-1 conference record. The Bobcats, 7-6 overall, are one of three teams a game behind conference-leading Northern Colorado, who is 4-0 in league play. The Bobcats rank second in the Big Sky in hitting percentage (.244) in conference play and are hitting .214 overall this season. Montana State is third, right behind NAU, in opponent hitting percentage at .185.

Montana swept Eastern Washington at home last Thursday to notch its first conference win of the season before falling to Idaho, 3-1. The Grizzlies are 2-13 overall and 1-3 in Big Sky play. The Grizzlies are hitting .139 overall this season and opponents are hitting .280 against them, both of which rank in the bottom two of the conference.

"Montana State was an underrated team in the preseason poll," Murphy said. "They returned a lot of players and their libero is easily the best libero in our conference. They can play defense and they can score. Montana is young, but really talented. One of their middles is one of the top hitters in our conference and on any given night they can put it together. We need to make sure that we're ready to control the match from the beginning."

Both matches will be streamed on Pluto TV Channel 539 on their free mobile app and online at this link with live stats available at this link.