TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (March 29, 2021) – After eight weeks and a unique spring season, the Northern Arizona volleyball team opens the 2021 Big Sky Spring Volleyball Championship Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. MST versus Sacramento State. The first round matchup between the Lumberjacks and Hornets from Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colo. will be available on Pluto TV Channel 1050.
The league's top eight teams, led by regular season champion Weber State, will converge in Greeley with the semifinals set for Friday and the championship match scheduled for 7 p.m. MST on Friday. Weber State enters as the No. 1 seed following a 15-1 regular season – with its only loss to NAU on March 7 – and the defending champion and tournament host Northern Colorado as the No. 2 seed. The rest of the field is rounded out by No. 3 Montana State, No. 4 Sacramento State, No. 5 Northern Arizona, No. 6 Southern Utah, No. 7 Idaho and No. 8 Eastern Washington.
The Lumberjacks enter the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed following a 9-5 regular season. Meanwhile, the Hornets – winners of five of their last six matches – compiled a 10-6 record. The two teams met in the first weekend of the spring season in Flagstaff on Jan. 24 and 25 with each squad taking a match. NAU swept Sacramento State in the season opener and the Hornets claimed the rematch the following night in four sets.
"Obviously we have some confidence that we can play a good match against them," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "The first night we played them, we played really well and dominated that match. The second night humbled us and that is important for any team to know that on any given night, you have to do the things that you do well and respect your opponent the right way and respect yourself the right way honestly. We respect Sac State so much. They're well-coached and they're always one of the best defensive teams in our conference."
Sophomore
Taylor Jacobsen earned the Big Sky's Offensive Player of the Week honor following the weekend series with Sacramento State. Jacobsen paced the Lumberjacks with 4.57 kills per set while hitting .491. Freshman
Lyla Hollis (2.43) and senior
Heaven Harris (2.29) also averaged over two kills a set in the two matches versus the Hornets. As a team, NAU hit a combined .286 in the two matches while limiting Sacramento State to a .167 clip.
However, NAU heads to Greeley on a three-match losing streak – just the third such Big Sky skid under Murphy – but all three losses came at the hands of Weber State and Northern Colorado. Still, the Lumberjacks have defeated every team in the tournament field this season with the exception of the Bears, giving the team confidence going into the week.
"We always want to know if we're not good enough yet, at least we know," Murphy said. "We can get back into the gym and work harder. I don't want to go through any stretches where we don't know who we are, so I don't mind that we had that harder schedule (at the end of the regular season). It made us a better team. We're concerned about playing our style because when we do that and control our side, it doesn't have a lot to do with our opponent."
The 'Jacks have advanced to the Big Sky semifinals in five of the last seven years and have won 10 tournament matches – the most by any Big Sky team since Murphy took over the helm in 2013. NAU is vying for its third NCAA Tournament bid in the last six seasons and first since 2018 when the Lumberjacks won the conference tournament in coincidentally, Greeley.
As she has done all season, Jacobsen will lead NAU's attack, which ranks fourth in the Big Sky in hitting percentage (.224) and kills (12.33), into the conference tournament. Jacobsen is second in the league with 4.00 kills per set while hitting .275. Jacobsen, who also leads the team with nine double-doubles, has notched double-digit kills in all but two matches. In those two matches, Jacobsen finished with nine.
Defensively, after averaging 1.78 blocks per set through the first seven matches of the spring, the Lumberjacks' block has seen an uptick in the latter half of the season. In the last seven matches, highlighted by a season-high 18.0 blocks on March 17 versus Northern Colorado, NAU is averaging 2.22 blocks per set. Freshman
Jordan Elder tied the second-highest single-match block total by an NAU freshman in that match, recording a dozen rejections.
As a result, NAU's opponents have only hit .159 during the most recent stretch. In the back row, freshman
Millie O'Ketter is averaging 4.78 digs per set over the last seven matches with 19 or more digs in five of those contests. O'Ketter leads all Big Sky freshmen in digs for the season, ranking sixth in the conference with an average of 3.91.
"It's not weird for a young team to go through some growing pains and have to learn from some adversity and the team has been so receptive to all of it," Murphy said. "Our younger players are learning what it means to play our style of volleyball. From a skill standpoint, we've made as much progress as we could've asked from them and we're such a better volleyball team than we were two months ago. We may be the most dangerous team in this conference."
Sacramento State picked up a pair of 3-1 victories on the road at Montana on March 21 and 22 to finish the regular season, notching its second and third road wins. Sacramento State was 7-1 at home this spring and just 3-5 on the road.
Offensively, Bridgette Smith leads the team, and ranks seventh in the Big Sky, with 3.08 kills per set. Smith paces all conference freshmen in kills and is hitting .159 this season. Meanwhile, Caty Cordano anchors a stingy Sacramento State defense with a Big Sky leading 5.10 digs per set. Cordano, who twice this season was named Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week, ranks 38th nationally in dig average.
In addition to hitting a team-high .299, Kalani Hayes also leads the team in blocks with 1.34 per set. Hayes ranks third in the Big Sky and 27th in the country in the category. The Hornets thrive on their defense, which ranks third in the conference in opponent hitting percentage (.176), second in blocks (2.53) and second in digs (15.95). On the attack, Sacramento State is hitting .187 as a team and averaging 11.57 kills per set.
Wednesday's quarterfinal matchup will mark the fifth all-time meeting between NAU and Sacramento State in the conference tournament. The Lumberjacks have claimed the last two meetings most recently in the Big Sky semifinal in 2016. All-time, following this spring's regular season split, the Hornets lead the all-time series, 38-21.
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