FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 28, 2019) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team refused to lose and gutted out a 25-18, 25-19, 24-26, 25-22 victory over Idaho State on Saturday, running their home win streak to 13 matches – the second-longest ever in program history – inside Rolle Activity Center. The Lumberjacks (9-5) held off the hard-charging Bengals and with the win, completed a perfect 2-0 weekend to open conference play.
"Right now we have four freshmen on the court and on any given night, we can pull out wins if we keep our composure," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "Obviously you look at that third set, but the fourth set was a hard set to play. You have that lead like we had (in the third set) and let it slip away, but to our team's credit they battled. The last points weren't pretty, but you could see how bad we wanted to win this match and that's just as important to come out of today."
The Lumberjacks let a 20-8 lead slip away in the third set, including six match points, but they never wavered even after the Bengals erased a 7-4 fourth set deficit. Idaho State recovered and led 22-21 following a block, but senior
Abby Akin and sophomore
Ryann Davis did not let NAU go to a fifth set. Akin recorded two kills and Davis notched one before the two punctuated a match-ending 4-0 run with a block.
For the second straight match, NAU found itself in a defense-heavy outing yet found ways to win on its home court. The Lumberjacks hit .166 while the Bengals attacked at a .124 clip. Both teams recorded 10.0 blocks with Idaho State holding an 80-70 advantage in digs.
Senior
Sydney Lema led the Lumberjacks with 18 digs – and moved into fifth all-time in program history in the process – with freshman
Taylor Jacobsen recording 17 digs. Freshman
Jasmine West finished the match with 13 digs, and also posted two of NAU's six aces. Akin and Davis both tied for match-high honors with five blocks apiece.
Jacobsen and West were two of four freshmen in the Lumberjacks' rotation and NAU needed all four of its youngsters to finish the first weekend of conference play with an unblemished mark. Freshman
Neche Newton tallied four blocks, while redshirt freshman
Morgan Gappmayer posted eight kills and two blocks in her first extended action of her career.
"We have young players stepping into big roles and they do it every day in practice," Akin said. "We expect a lot of them and they showed up today. We're really proud of them."
A 10-2 run by the 'Jacks broke open a tight first set, turning a narrow 8-6 lead into a 16-8 margin. Behind three kills each from Jacobsen, Davis and Akin, the Lumberjacks took the opening set and proceeded to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a wire-to-wire second set win.
Sophomore
Aubrea Bandfield and senior
Abby Stomp both registered seven assists each in the second set, as the Lumberjacks posted their best offensive game hitting .286. A pair of early aces by West helped NAU take a 3-0 lead and the Lumberjacks led by as much as seven at 19-12 following a block by Newton and Davis.
Jacobsen rocketed three kills during a massive 7-0 run that snapped a brief 2-2 tie. With a large lead in hand, the Lumberjacks appeared well on their way to a sweep and led 20-8 after two Davis kills and two Bengal errors. Even after a 10-3 Idaho State run, NAU still held match point at 24-18 following a kill by Gappmayer. From there, the Bengals ripped off eight straight points, staving off six match points, to force a fourth set.
NAU led for much of the middle portion of the fourth set following a 5-0 run aided by four Idaho State attack errors that flipped a 12-9 deficit in its favor. The Lumberjacks continued to lead until the Bengals tied it at 20-20. Bandfield, who finished the match with a career-high tying 28 assists, recorded eight assists in the fourth game including three in the final four points to clinch the victory.
"Volleyball is funny because we don't have a clock, so you play to 25 and we didn't do that (in the third set)," Murphy said. "I was excited with the way we responded in the last set. We battled and you could tell our will to win was really high."
Akin recorded six of her match-high 14 kills in the final set and hit .464 in the match. Jacobsen set a new season-high with 13 kills as did Davis, who totaled 12 kills.
The 'Jacks will head out on their first conference road trip next week starting with Portland State on Thursday at 7 p.m. NAU will face Sacramento State on Saturday at 1 p.m. before returning home.
