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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 8, 2021) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team hopes a return home after a long two-week road trip is exactly what they need to jumpstart the fall season, with this weekend's Lumberjack Classic on deck in the Rolle Activity Center. The 'Jacks will welcome back fans to their gym for the first time in 657 days when they open their home tournament with the first of three matches on Friday at 11:30 a.m. versus UC Davis.
Friday's nightcap versus in-state rival Arizona State at 7:30 p.m. will conclude the first day of the Lumberjack Classic and the Lumberjacks will wrap up the tournament on Saturday at 2 p.m. versus Utah Valley. All three matches will be streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available at
nauathletics.com/livestats.
The Lumberjacks fell to Stephen F. Austin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last weekend at the SFA Tournament in four sets each, which dropped their record to an uncharacteristic 0-4. Facing two Power Five teams and the 2020-21 Southland Conference regular season and tournament champions have challenged NAU during its first 0-4 start since 2005.
"I really think we're going in the right direction," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "We're making a lot of progress. We're identifying areas where we need to get better and right now we're not overthinking the wins and losses too much. We're really focused on building in the right direction especially going into conference. We've had a great week of practice and we're excited about showing that to ourselves in matches and showing our fans how much we've improved since the last time they saw us."
A weekend at home – the first three matches in a stretch of six of the next seven in Flagstaff – and the return of fans may be the antidote the Lumberjacks are searching for though. In Murphy's first eight seasons, NAU is an outstanding 76-15 (.835) at home including a 16-4 mark against non-conference opponents.
The Lumberjack Classic returns for the first time in two years after last year's hiatus due to COVID-19. NAU swept through its home tournament in 2019 with victories over South Dakota State, LSU and Fresno State.
Last week, sophomore
Lyla Hollis garnered a spot on the SFA All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.63 kills per set on .267 hitting. Hollis notched her first double-double of the season with 14 kills and 15 digs versus Stephen F. Austin and followed up with a career-high 15-kill performance versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. After totaling 29 kills – her most in a two-match span in her short career so far – Hollis is now second on the team behind sophomore
Taylor Jacobsen with 2.53 kills per set.
Jacobsen, who missed her first career match last Friday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, leads the team with 3.91 kills per set. In her place though, several other Lumberjacks set new career-highs or tied career-highs offensively versus the Islanders. Along with Hollis, redshirt junior
Morgan Gappmayer (10) and sophomore
Jordan Elder (7) also set new career-highs for kills, while sophomore
Savannah Bloom tied a career-best with five in her first action of the fall. Furthermore, junior
Neche Newton recorded a career-best seven kills versus Stephen F. Austin as NAU showed significant improvement on the offensive end last week.
"Going into the season, we knew last year we relied on Taylor and Heaven (Harris) a lot for offense and players in our program would have to start developing to get our offense more balanced," Murphy said. "What we've started to see is players like Lyla and Jordan and Sophia (Wadsworth) at times really produce offense and grow in their understanding of how much they can help our team when they're providing that for us. The other part is there were moments where we got into a defensive flow that looked like our style of volleyball. We're not as consistent as we want to be, but it started to look like us. We understand the blueprint and now we have to own it a little more."
Defensively, NAU averaged 2.38 blocks per set in the two matches last week in Nacogdoches, lifting the Lumberjacks' season average to 2.07, good for third in the Big Sky. In the SFA Tournament finale versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Elder posted seven blocks as part of an NAU team effort of 13.0 stuffs.
UC Davis defended its home court last week, claiming its own Aggie Invitational tournament title with an unbeaten weekend against Nevada, San Francisco and Santa Clara. The Aggies swept Nevada and San Francisco and came back from a first set loss to Santa Clara to win in four. UC Davis sits at 3-3 overall after not playing at all last season as a result of the Big West Conference canceling all fall sports for the 2020-21 year. Shira Lahav, the team's leader in digs at 4.10 per set, is the reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Week, while Olivia Utterback is the conference's Freshman Player of the Week. Josephine Ough ranks eighth nationally in hitting percentage (.508) and 10th in blocks per set (1.61).
Arizona State traveled to Lincoln, Neb. last week for the Ameritas Players Challenge and picked up a five-set win over Nebraska Omaha around two losses to Georgia and No. 4 Nebraska. Currently holding a 3-3 record, two of the Sun Devils' three losses have been to nationally-ranked teams with the other being No. 13 Louisville. Offensively, Iman Isanovic paces Arizona State with 4.13 kills per set and is hitting .239. Claire Jeter is also a force at the net, ranking third on the team with 2.17 kills, hitting a team-best .391 and leading the team with 1.08 blocks per set.
Utah Valley notched its first win of the fall last Thursday at home in five sets over Hawai'i before making the short trip up to Salt Lake City, Utah where it was swept by Cal Poly. The Wolverines, who play at defending Big Sky champion Weber State on Wednesday before traveling to Flagstaff this weekend, is 1-3 this season. The defending WAC Champions and NCAA Tournament qualifier is led by Kazna Tanuvasa, the preseason WAC Player of the Year. Tanuvasa is averaging a team-best 3.33 kills per set and is third on the team with 2.40 digs per set. Bryton Bishop paces the Wolverines with 3.40 digs per set.
To stay up to date with the NAU volleyball team, follow the Lumberjacks on
Twitter and
Instagram.
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