NACOGDOCHES, Texas (September 3, 2021) – Despite suffering their fourth consecutive defeat to start the fall, the Northern Arizona volleyball team received several standout individual performances on Friday. Redshirt junior
Morgan Gappmayer and sophomore
Jordan Elder each set career-best kill totals in NAU's 25-21, 25-17, 18-25, 25-18 loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to conclude the SFA Tournament.
Playing all six rotations for the first time in her career, Gappmayer notched her first double-digit kill match and first double-double with 10 kills and 13 digs. Elder also logged a career-high seven kills on .429 hitting and recorded a team-high seven blocks to spur a huge advantage at the net in NAU's favor, 13.0-6.0.
"We felt like going into last year that Morgan was ready to play (on the outside) before she got hurt and she showed that today," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "She's a good all-around player and I was especially impressed with her at the net today. As for Jordan, we think she is so close to being a dominant front row player and you saw some glimpses of that today."
Meanwhile, sophomore
Savannah Bloom and senior
Ryann Davis each saw their first action this fall. Davis was also in on the Lumberjacks' strong block effort with four, while Bloom came in reserve and posted five kills and three blocks.
Still, the individual performances were not enough to boost the Lumberjacks (0-4) to their first win of the season. NAU hit only .203 to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's .224 and committed 10 more service errors than the Islanders in its final match of the season-opening two-week road trip.
NAU snagged an initial 4-1 lead, only to see Texas A&M-Corpus Christi rip off five straight points. The Lumberjacks later posted their own 5-0 run with sophomore
Lyla Hollis totaling two of her own career-high 15 kills to retake a 15-14 lead. A kill by Gappmayer gave NAU its final lead of the opening set at 18-17 before the Islanders closed with an 8-3 run.
After the second set got away from NAU pretty quickly as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi used an 8-3 start to coast to victory, the Lumberjacks responded in a big way to stave off a sweep for the third consecutive match.
The 'Jacks registered five blocks alone in the third set, with Elder having her hand in four on her own. Elder also added three kills in the game as NAU broke loose with a 6-1 run that gave the Lumberjacks a 9-5 advantage that grew to as much as nine.
"The first couple of sets, we were a little slow and a little late on our reads, but I thought we challenged ourselves to have a bigger impact on what Corpus Christi was doing," Murphy said. "Our blockers did a really good job of taking them out of their game and changing their shots and when we were blocking, so many things went well for us. Our defense got better around it and that is something we can build on."
However, NAU could not force a fifth set with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi putting an end to any plans with a decisive 9-3 run that put the Islanders in front, 21-13. The Lumberjacks' service errors plagued them specifically in the fourth set with seven of their 16 coming in the final game.
Hollis was one of three players, along with sophomore
Millie O'Ketter and senior
Aubrea Bandfield, who had two aces in the match. For the weekend, Hollis totaled 29 kills (3.63 per set) and hit .267 versus Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
"I have a lot of confidence in Lyla," Murphy said. "She is growing every match we play into a complete player. This weekend she was really good in receive and offensively, she's turning a corner in terms of shot selection and her range. I feel like she is becoming someone who can carry an offensive load for us and she's starting to feel like she's one of those players for us."
The Lumberjacks, whose scheduled match versus Louisiana on Saturday was canceled due to the Ragin' Cajuns' COVID-19 contact tracing, will finally return home after two weeks on the road next weekend.
NAU's Lumberjack Classic returns after a year hiatus next Friday and Saturday with the 'Jacks hosting UC Davis, Arizona State and Utah Valley. NAU's home openers will be Friday versus UC Davis at 11:30 a.m. and Arizona State at 7:30 p.m. in the Rolle Activity Center.
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