| Northern Arizona vs. Portland State | vs. Sacramento State |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 24, 2023) – Returning home to Rolle Activity Center for the last weekend series before the season's final weekend, the Northern Arizona volleyball team (5-14, 2-6) will play host to Portland State (12-8, 5-4) on Thursday night and Sacramento State (15-8, 8-1) on Saturday night.
"I think we match up well with both teams," head coach Ken Murphy said. "Both teams play a different style, and I think there are a lot of things that we can do well against each of them. Our team is especially excited to play Sacramento State because we feel like we didn't play a strong match the first time and could do a little bit better."
NAU is back in Flagstaff after being swept in both matches last week by Idaho State and Weber State. The Lumberjacks enter the weekend having dropped its last three matches and will be looking to move over .500 in Big Sky home matches.
Last week, senior Millie O'Ketter became just the fifth NAU Volleyball player to record at least 1,300 digs in her Lumberjack career.
O'Ketter finished the two matches in Pocatello and Ogden with a combined 28 digs, stemming from nine in the defeat to Idaho State, followed by 19 against Weber State.
Both Hanah Stoddard and Keira Hall put forth double-doubles, with the Idaho native Stoddard putting up 10 kills and 11 digs in the loss at Idaho State. Hall contributed her double-double at Weber State with a 12 assist, 17 dig performance last Saturday.
Thursday night will see the Lumberjacks face off with Portland State for the first and only time this season, one of just two Big Sky Conference opponents that Northern Arizona will only face once this year, with the other being Eastern Washington on Nov. 9.
Portland State is coming off a weekend that not only saw the Vikings win both matches over Montana State and Montana, but outside hitter Sophia Meyers was named the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week for her 38 kills over the nine sets Portland State played last week. The Vikings have received five weekly awards from the conference.
There is some familiarity between Northern Arizona and Sacramento State, having met in the conference opener in Sacramento on Sept. 21. It was Sacramento State getting the better of the Lumberjacks in a sweep. The Hornets, who are 10th in the nation with 222.5 total blocks, had 14 on that Thursday night in September. Seven of those 14 came from Kalani Hayes, who was named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 25.
Both matches from Rolle Activity Center will be streamed live on ESPN+, with first serve scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Saturday night. Any NAU Football ticket can be used for admission into the Rolle Activity Center for the Saturday night match versus Sacramento State.
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