FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 20, 2022) – After a challenging first four weeks of the season, the Northern Arizona volleyball team opens conference play on Thursday with Montana in the Rolle Activity Center at 6:30 p.m. The first weekend of the Big Sky Conference slate concludes on Saturday at Weber State at 5 p.m. MST with both matches streaming on ESPN+.
Thursday's conference opener in Rolle will be the fall pickup for all NAU students to receive this year's Kiss My Axe t-shirt.
This week will represent a chance for the Lumberjacks to hit the reset button after posting a 1-6 record in non-conference play. A pair of losses to New Mexico last week extended the Lumberjacks' losing streak to four matches and NAU will aim to avoid its first five-match losing streak since November 2011.
"I've consistently thought, and I still think, that this team has a lot of special qualities," said head coach
Ken Murphy. "After the adversity we've faced in the preseason, we probably don't have the confidence and knowledge of the level that I know we're capable of playing at. But I still think we've made a ton of progress during preseason and we have great players in our gym and I'm excited for the next phase."
The start of conference play means that NAU can restart, like the other nine teams in the league, at 0-0 as the race for the regular season championship begins. Since Murphy's first season in 2013, NAU has collected 107 Big Sky victories, the most of any team in the league.
Injuries plagued the Lumberjacks in the first month of the season, but the 'Jacks got an important piece back last week with the debut of redshirt freshman
Kacee Moore. After missing the first five matches of the season rehabbing from an injury – and coupled with redshirting last season – Moore made her long awaited NAU debut and averaged 2.11 kills per set in the two matches versus New Mexico.
Add in career-best performances by senior
Neche Newton (10 kills last Wednesday) and junior
Jordan Elder (15 kills last Friday), and the Lumberjacks found offensive balance and effectiveness that they had been searching for. Last week, NAU averaged 13.00 kills per set and hit .246 between the two matches compared to 11.00 kills per set and a .179 hitting percentage prior.
"That speaks to the players working hard and growing," Murphy said. "The first weekend of the season, we were a little lower offensively than we were expecting and they've been working really hard. We feel like we've got a really good balanced attack, and that includes Kacee. We've been waiting for her to be ready to go and we've just scratched the surface of what I think we'll see as her career develops."
While the Lumberjacks, led by junior
Kate Hatch's 9.04 assists per set, received offensive contributions from a host of different players last week, they were continued to be led by senior
Taylor Jacobsen, who became the 16th Lumberjack in program history to reach 1,000 kills in last Friday's match.
Jacobsen, coming off a career-high 27-kill performance, is sixth in the country in kills at 5.04 per set. She is also eighth with 5.56 points per set and has three 20-kill matches this season and six matches with at least 15 kills.
The Lumberjacks open up Big Sky play with Montana and Weber State, who are second and tied for third respectively in terms of non-conference victories.
Montana heads into the start of conference play with two consecutive wins, closing the CSU Chucktown Throwdown with victories over UNC Greensboro and Charleston Southern. The two wins pushed the Grizzlies' record to 7-5, which is two more non-conference wins than Montana recorded last season.
Carly Anderson is the reigning Big Sky Co-Offensive Player of the Week after setting the Grizzlies to a pair of wins in Charleston, S.C. last week. Anderson is 49th in the country and second in the league in assists per set at 10.08. With Anderson ranking fourth in the Big Sky with 0.42 aces per set and 17 total aces, she leads a Montana team effort at the service line that is 77th in the country with 1.75 aces per set.
In addition to leading the team with 34 blocks, Ellie Scherffius also paces the Grizzlies with a .355 hitting percentage. That clip places Scherffius 86th nationally and second in the Big Sky.
Weber State split its final two non-conference matches last week against in-state rivals. The Wildcats defeated Utah Valley in five sets on the road before falling to Utah State at home in five sets. Weber State, the two-time defending Big Sky regular season champions, is 6-5 this season. Over the last two seasons, the Wildcats are 27-4 in regular season conference play.
With a team-leading average of 2.72, Ashley Gneiting is one of three Wildcats averaging more than 2.00 kills per set. Saane Katoa and Emma Mangum are at the head of Weber State's conference-leading blocking performance through the first two seasons. Katoa ranks second in the league, and 50th in the country, with 1.26 blocks per set, while Mangum is seventh at 0.98 per set.
The Wildcats lead the Big Sky with 2.49 blocks per set as a team as well as in opponent hitting percentage at .171. Both marks are top 65 nationally.
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