ANN ARBOR, Mich. (August 30, 2019) – In the first match of a long season, the Northern Arizona volleyball team already showcased resiliency that will pay dividends down the road. The Lumberjacks notched their first victory of the fall Friday morning to open up the Michigan Invitational by sweeping Tennessee Tech, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20.
"We struggled in our sideout offense and we'll have matches where we receive serve better and hit better," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "But the most important thing is that we kept our composure and even when we were down two or three points, no one panicked. Defensively we did a really good job for stretches of the match."
NAU's season opener in Michigan's Cliff Keen Arena was uneven at times, but the Lumberjacks managed to forge a strong string of points in each of the three sets to put away the Golden Eagles. NAU posted set-clinching runs of 6-3, 7-1 and 9-2 in the first, second and third games respectively.
Both teams had their share of runs to start the match and were knotted up at 15-15 before freshman
Taylor Jacobsen forced a Tennessee Tech timeout with back-to-back kills to put the score in NAU's favor at 18-15. The Lumberjacks led the rest of the opening set and took the early advantage behind a balanced attack that featured five players posting multiple kills led by junior
Heaven Harris' four.
After holding the Golden Eagles to a .108 attack clip in the first set, the Lumberjacks saw their opponent hit .241 and .257 in the second and third sets. However, NAU also improved offensively throughout the match with its hitting percentage progressively increasing from .195 to .212 to .235 in the first, second and third sets.
The second set was tightly contested with the Golden Eagles using a four-point spurt early to maintain a narrow advantage until Harris and senior
Abby Akin hammered consecutive kills to tie the score at 18-18. After Tennessee Tech scored two straight to retake the lead, NAU finished with a flurry scoring seven of the last eight points. Akin and sophomore
Ryann Davis each recorded a kill and a block during the closing stretch.
The 'Jacks faced their largest deficit of the match in the third set, down 12-7, but freshman
Jasmine West eventually evened the score at 18-18 with an ace. West's ace was followed by kills from Harris and Jacobsen that gave the Lumberjacks their only lead of the set, but it was a lead they did not relinquish.
NAU's three returning all-conference performers – Harris, Akin and Davis – were effective offensively in the Lumberjacks' first of two matches on Friday. Harris led the attack with 12 kills on .409 hitting, while Davis hit .294 and added seven kills. Akin was efficient, hitting a team-best .417 and chipping in six kills.
The upperclassmen were aided by the Lumberjacks' freshmen duo of Jacobsen and West, each of whom starred in their first collegiate matches. Jacobsen tallied four kills in NAU's final six points to help the 'Jacks secure the sweep and finished with nine for the match, trailing only Harris' dozen. Meanwhile, West recorded 10 digs in the first set and totaled a match-high 23 in all.
"Our older players set the tone in keeping their composure when things weren't going right, and Jasmine and Taylor followed suit," Murphy said. "They made some really nice plays at the end of the match and trusted that it would be enough, and it was."
NAU hit only .213 as a team for the match, but limited Tennessee Tech to .198 hitting. The Lumberjacks, led by four stuffs from Akin, outblocked the Golden Eagles, 6.0-5.0, and also held the digs advantage, 47-43.
The Lumberjacks will take on No. 15 Michigan on the Wolverines' home court later this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. MST. The host opened the tournament with a three-set sweep of Oakland earlier on Friday.
