FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 9, 2019) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team locked up a spot in the Big Sky tournament with a 25-15, 25-20, 25-23 sweep of Portland State on Saturday. In winning their sixth match in their last seven, the Lumberjacks (16-10, 9-5 Big Sky) are beginning to show signs that they are gearing up for the postseason now that they have punched their ticket to the conference tournament.
"You can see our maturity in all of the phases that we recognize as NAU Volleyball," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "Our serve receive is so much stronger than it was and we're steady siding out. We're putting a lot of pressure with our service and our block right now. We made a lot of plays on defense and that's our signature. That's a good sign going into the last few weeks here."
NAU posted a second consecutive complete team effort this week, completing a perfect homestand and recording its third straight home sweep. The Lumberjacks are now 9-1 in the Rolle Activity Center this season.
Senior
Sydney Lema spearheaded the Lumberjacks both offensively and defensively, registering team-highs of 11 kills and 16 digs. She hit .333 in her seventh double-double performance of the season.
Lema was one of three Lumberjacks to record double-digit digs with freshman
Taylor Jacobsen (12) and freshman
Jasmine West (11) also reaching the plateau. Senior
Abby Akin and junior
Heaven Harris each posted team-high tying three blocks as NAU's defense locked down on Portland State, limiting the Vikings to a .128 clip.
With sophomore
Aubrea Bandfield and senior
Abby Stomp combining for 38 assists, the Lumberjacks attacked at a .254 clip and tied NAU's second-best kill total (45) in a three-set match this season. Behind Lema's 11 kills, Akin posted 10 on .421 hitting and Harris notched nine kills.
NAU rushed out to a 9-2 lead to start the match and were never really threatened outside a brief three-point Portland State spurt that narrowed the Lumberjacks' advantage to 13-9. NAU immediately responded with four straight points and closed the set on a 6-1 run with four different players recording kills in the game-clinching burst.
The two teams battled in the second set to the tune of eight ties, the last coming at 16-16. Lema and sophomore
Ryann Davis broke the tie with kills and the Vikings followed with a pair of attack errors to give the 'Jacks a four-point cushion at 20-16. The run proved to be crucial as NAU maintained a multiple-point edge the rest of the game.
NAU appeared to be in control of the third set, holding a comfortable advantage at 16-9 until Portland State went on a 6-1 run to climb back within 17-15. Although Lema recorded consecutive kills to snap the Portland State run, the visitors hung tight. The Vikings were down just 24-23 after staving off one match point, but Lema closed out the match with her 11th and final kill.
"Portland State played great and in the first set, they did a ton but we just played really good defense," Murphy said. "We had to convince ourselves to keep playing at that level, but it was tough. They were so steady and they put a lot of pressure on us and it took all of our attention to keep our defense going like we wanted to."
The Vikings held small advantages in digs (62-58) and blocks (6.0-5.0), but the 'Jacks totaled 13 more kills (45-32) and two more aces (6-4). Jacobsen accounted for three of NAU's aces and Bandfield tallied a pair herself.
For the final time in the regular season, NAU will hit the road next week traveling to Montana on Thursday and Montana State on Saturday. Both of the Lumberjacks' matches next week will begin at 6 p.m.
