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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (August 24, 2022) – For the first time in 14 years, the Northern Arizona volleyball team will open the season at home in the Rolle Activity Center with their annual tournament this weekend starting with their 2022 season opener versus Utah Tech at 10 a.m. on Friday. The match between the Lumberjacks and Trailblazers will be the first of six matches between two days as part of this year's Lumberjack Classic and the first of two matches on Friday for NAU.
The first night of the tournament will be capped by NAU hosting Michigan at 6:30 p.m. The Lumberjacks will also host Old Dominion on Saturday at 2 p.m. in their tournament finale. All three Lumberjack matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and fans can find live stats at
nauathletics.com/livestats.
Promotions for this weekend's matches include Raise the Flag mini-flags to the first 50 fans to Friday morning's match and to the first 150 fans to Friday's showcase match versus Michigan. Additionally for Friday night's match versus the Wolverines, there will be a raffle for an exclusive Raise the Flag wood sign. On Saturday, fans are encouraged to bring an old college t-shirt and swap it for a free brand new NAU t-shirt.
The season-opening Lumberjack Classic will come after two and a half weeks of preseason camp with 10 returners from last year's team and a trio of incoming freshmen. Led by two-time All-Big Sky First Team selection senior
Taylor Jacobsen, the Lumberjacks – coming off a 12-14 season and 10-6 in the Big Sky – navigated through camp that also featured an exhibition match versus UNLV last Friday.
"We've been a little injured and that's limited practices a little, but I do think we've gotten everything done that we wanted to," said head coach
Ken Murphy, who enters his 10th season at the helm of the program. "The personality of our team is really coming together in terms of the style of volleyball we want to play. We got better as we went through the (exhibition) match and we were very in control of the match by the end. I liked the way we were resilient and we got into a flow of making the match into a style that we want it to go."
Jacobsen will be the headliner offensively after ranking second in the Big Sky Conference a year ago with 3.63 kills per set. Needing just 117 kills to start the season to become the 16th Lumberjack in program history to record 1,000 for her career, Jacobsen is the veteran in NAU's attack while also providing a lethal serve (40 aces, 0.44 per set last season) and solid defense (816 career digs, 3.03 per set career average).
She will be complemented by a trio of Lumberjacks who each enjoyed career years offensively last season in senior
Neche Newton, junior
Jordan Elder and junior
Savannah Hasson. Elder led the group with 1.40 kills per set last season, followed by Hasson (1.20) and Newton (1.12) as each player hit .284 or higher with Hasson at a .380 clip that would have led the league if she had qualified. Together the three Lumberjacks will look to fill the offensive void vacated by graduates
Ryann Davis and
Morgan Gappmayer, both of whom earned all-conference honors last fall.
Holding the keys to the offense will be junior
Kate Hatch and freshman
Keira Hall, who both will be looked at potentially easing the loss of
Aubrea Bandfield to graduation. Hatch played alongside Bandfield, who finished her career 10th in program history in assists, over the last two seasons and averaged 4.32 assists per set last season. Meanwhile, Hall was the setter on the Arizona Republic All-Arizona First Team after ranking second in the state in assists out of Horizon High School.
Where the Lumberjacks will look to make the biggest improvement though is defensively where junior
Millie O'Ketter will anchor the backline after averaging a team-best 3.89 digs per set. O'Ketter along with Elder (81 blocks) gives the 'Jacks their leaders in digs and blocks back in the fold as NAU looks to tighten a defense that limited opponents to a .199 hitting percentage in 2021.
"Our offense is good, but we want to be a team that is ok with being in a rally and is comfortable with playing defense," Murphy said. "We want to score points with our serve because we like that attacking mentality. I'm not too concerned with the offense; I just want to make sure that we play a defensive, attacking style."
NAU will be looking to win its annual Lumberjack Classic for the fourth time following outright tournament victories in 2014, 2015 and 2019. The Lumberjacks also shared the tournament title with Florida and CSUN in 2018. To do so, the Lumberjacks will have to defend their home floor where they are 84-19 (.816) since Murphy's first season against Utah Tech, Michigan and Old Dominion. The meetings with Utah Tech and Old Dominion will be the first in program history, while NAU will match up with Michigan for the second time following the Wolverines' 3-2 win over the Lumberjacks in Ann Arbor, Mich. in 2019.
Utah Tech, in its third season as a Division I institution, posted a 7-15 record and 6-8 mark in the WAC last season. The Trailblazers are led by Kate Hardy, who earned Second Team All-WAC honors last season after averaging 1.78 kills and 1.11 blocks per set. She led the team with 90 blocks and is the team's leading returner with 16 service aces. Utah Tech also returns its leader in kills with Hannah Howard averaging 2.39 kills per set last season.
Michigan is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance following an 18-12 campaign in 2021. Posting an 11-9 record in the Big Ten and featuring a roster with 12 upperclassmen, the Wolverines were fourth among the teams also receiving votes outside the Preseason AVCA Coaches Top 25. Headlining the returners are Jess Mruzik and May Pertofsky, who both earned AVCA All-North Region recognition last season. Mruzik also garnered All-American Honorable Mention accolades after averaging 3.57 kills per set and hitting .243, while Pertofsky led the Big Ten with 0.46 aces per set and was third on the team in both kills and blocks.
Old Dominion went 13-13 last season and compiled a 5-7 record in the Sun Belt in just the program's second season. The Monarchs have posted a 20-24 mark through their first two seasons and are led by Hailey Duncan, who was the team's leader with 225 kills and was second with 2.34 kills per set a year ago. Duncan also led the Monarchs in blocks at 1.06 per set and was one of two players, along with returning setter Teresa Atilano, to start every match and play every set last season.
To stay up to date with the NAU volleyball team, follow the Lumberjacks on
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