FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 14, 2019) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team claimed their first outright Lumberjack Classic title in four years on Saturday, sweeping Fresno State, 25-17, 25-23, 25-12, to complete a perfect home opening weekend. Freshman
Taylor Jacobsen was selected as the tournament Most Valuable Player following the conclusion of the match and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by junior
Heaven Harris and sophomore
Ryann Davis.
The 'Jacks (6-3) extended their winning streak to four matches overall, the last three coming in three-set fashion. NAU previously swept South Dakota State and LSU on Friday ahead of its victory over Fresno State. The Lumberjacks last won their home tournament in 2015.
The Lumberjacks suffocated the Bulldogs behind an enormous 13.0-1.0 blocks advantage. Senior
Abby Akin set a new career-high with four solo blocks and finished the match with seven in all. Akin was not alone at the block party with redshirt senior
Victoria Ewalefo recording a season-best six blocks. Harris and Davis each posted four rejections.
As a result, Fresno State hit only .052 for the match and committed a whopping 30 attack errors. Comparatively, NAU committed just eight errors and hit .320 with senior
Abby Stomp and sophomore
Aubrea Bandfield combining for 31 assists and setting the 'Jacks to their fourth .300-plus performance in their last five matches.
"It feels good and hopefully we're getting our game together consistently," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "The second set today was sloppy and we were a little off and in the third, we had it going from beginning to end. It's important to get used to different situations and prove to ourselves what we're capable of."
Senior
Sydney Lema, Akin and Harris all hit .400 or better and posted a team-best nine kills each. Lema came up one kill shy of tallying a double-double after recording a match-high 13 digs. Freshman
Jasmine West (12) and Jacobsen (10) also reached double-digit digs.
Although the Bulldogs were swept, they were the team that jumped out of the gates first with an initial 4-0 lead. NAU responded with a 6-1 run before the two teams eventually locked up at 12-12. A Fresno State service error snapped the tie and ignited a 5-1 NAU run that put the Lumberjacks in front, 17-13. The 'Jacks closed the set with the final five points to secure the first game.
"We came out of last night feeling really good about the (LSU) victory, but still feeling ready for today," Murphy said. "We gave up a few (points) at the beginning, but I felt like we were a point or two away from getting into a rhythm. I was really impressed because we kept our composure and found it."
A 9-4 Lumberjack lead evaporated as the Bulldogs managed to tie it at 15-15 before holding a late 19-16 advantage in the second set. But three consecutive Fresno State attack errors, with the last coming on a block by Harris and Ewalefo, squared up the set at 20-20. The second stanza came down to the wire until Akin hammered her fifth kill of the set to wrap up NAU's 2-0 advantage.
NAU never trailed in the third set, but it took awhile for the 'Jacks to break the game open. Leading 11-8, a Harris kill was followed by three solo blocks by Akin in succession. Akin added another block with Davis to cap a 7-1 Lumberjack surge to put the Bulldogs in a hole they could not recover from. The Lumberjacks posted seven blocks in the third set alone – four by Akin – to stifle any Bulldogs' hope of a comeback.
"Sweeping teams obviously gives you confidence, especially teams like LSU or Fresno State who are high-level teams," Lema said. "We're only going up from here. Of course there are still things we can improve on, but we're confident and you can see that on the court."
For the weekend, Jacobsen averaged 2.78 kills and 3.56 digs per set to garner Lumberjack Classic MVP honors. She hit .303 and led the team with five aces. Harris and Davis earned spots on the All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.22 and 2.78 kills per set respectively. Both hitters were stout defensively as well with Harris totaling eight blocks and Davis posting seven.
NAU's final weekend before conference play will be spent in Gainesville, Fla. at the Florida Invitational. NAU will play Louisiana at 7 a.m. MST and No. 11 Florida at 4 p.m. MST next Friday before wrapping up the weekend with Liberty at 7:30 a.m. MST on Saturday.
