STEPHENVILLE, Texas (August 26, 2023) - For the first time since the 2019 season, Northern Arizona volleyball played two matches in a single day as they split the two games they played at the Texan Invitational, falling in five sets to Prairie View A&M, 29-27, 25-27, 25-17, 24-26, 8-15. The Lumberjacks picked up their first straight sets win of the year over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 25-19, 25-10, 25-13.
A 2-1 weekend record from NAU at the Texan Invitational is the first time since 2018 that the Lumberjacks are over the .500 mark exiting the first weekend of non-conference play.
A nearly 2,000-mile road trip awaits the Lumberjacks next week as they will participate in the Jacksonville Tournament hosted by Jacksonville University. Northern Arizona will start with two matches on Friday versus Jacksonville and Florida A&M, followed by a match on Saturday with The Citadel.
You can read more in-depth about the two matches from today below.
Prairie View A&M Recap
In a matchup of two teams with similar records from a season ago, the opening set was a back-and-forth affair. The Panthers jumped out to an early 8-4 lead before the Lumberjacks clawed their way back, going on a 4-0 run, boosted by Kendall Robertson, who had a kill to go along with a block assist during that span.
The set would see the two teams tied 16 different times with seven lead changes. Northern Arizona was up against a set point trailing 26-27, before the Panthers hit a service error to knot the score back at 27. A Kylie Moran kill followed by a Prairie View A&M attack error sealed the opening set for the Lumberjacks.
Robertson, who was in her second match at Northern Arizona, led the team with four blocks and struck five kills on nine swings. Moran, with her 13 kills, notched her first double-digit kill match of the season. It was also a second straight match in which senior Millie O'Ketter recorded 20-plus digs.
"I thought Millie had a great weekend," Murphy said. "She played really tough, consistent volleyball. And I think that the more we follow her lead, the better our team will be."
Overall, Northern Arizona had four players: Moran, Savannah Bloom, Sophia Wadsworth and Hanah Stoddard finish with 10 or more kills, the first time that has happened since a Nov. 28, 2019 match against Idaho.
At the time, with the team's .333 hitting percentage in the first set, it was the third set out of the first seven of the season that NAU collectively hit over .300.
Prairie View A&M, after hitting .188 in the first, increased its offensive efficiency in the second, once again jumping out ahead 8-4 through the first 12 points. The Lumberjacks saved a pair of set points down 22-24 to even the score at 24 and force overtime for a second straight set. Following a timeout, the Panthers wrapped up the set with a pair of kills to tie the match heading into the half.
Set three saw a pair of NAU newcomers making key impacts, as junior Karya Suvarioglu hit two of the Lumberjacks' seven service aces to put Northern Arizona in front 6-1 coming out of the break. On the attack, Stoddard, who for a second straight match led the team with 18 kills, had five in the third set without an error.
The errors did begin to pile up for the Lumberjacks at the beginning of the fourth, with four of NAU's eight total attack errors being committed in the first seven points. However, Northern Arizona would not let the early points determine the direction of the set.
Trailing 9-16 at one point, NAU would fight back and score 14 of the next 20 points to take the lead and was two points away from victory. The Panthers would have the last word, though, going on a 4-1 run to force a decider.
Prairie View A&M carried that momentum into the final set, as after splitting the first 12 points, the Panthers would tally eight consecutive points to all but seal their second win of the season.
"We can learn a lot from this match," Murphy said. "I think we played a very hesitant match, and we never really got into a great flow in it. I do believe, like all of these matches early on, it is a great learning opportunity for our young team. I'm excited for the things that we talked about after the match and to improve off of this."
Arkansas-Pine Bluff Recap
After a heartbreaking finish to the first match, It was immediately apparent that Northern Arizona was going to be a force to be reckoned with in its second match of the day. Trading leads with the Golden Lions for the first half of the opening set, the Lumberjacks closed strong, scoring 10 of the final 13 points to get ahead on the scoreboard.
"It was important for us to just keep moving forward after this morning," Murphy said. "I think that we needed to take a step back for a bit. This is a team that is going to be so much better over the coming months, and it is not weird that we might have a hiccup in the process, so it was good to see us come out a lot sharper this afternoon."
The Lumberjacks forced Arkansas-Pine Bluff into plenty of mistakes in the first set of play, forcing seven errors to just eight kills. UAPB's hitting percentage never got higher than its 0.38 performance in the opening set.
Like its hitting percentage, the 19 first set points also would not get higher for Arkansas-Pine Bluff, as the second set was orchestrated by a 14-0 Northern Arizona run that saw great serving from Hanah Stoddard, who picked up a pair of service aces during the run to go along with a third straight match of double-digit kills.
"Hanah had some really good pressure serving going there," Murphy said. "She created a lot of opportunities for us to score out of, but our entire team just raised it up a notch, controlling our side and opponent."
Those opportunities, during the long run, were swallowed up by Neche Newton and Kylie Moran. Newton finished the afternoon at .500 with six kills on 10 attempts.
Moran closed the day, hitting .545 with 6 kills and picked up a team-high 10 digs. Freshman Avery Gottschalk earned her first career block in the second set, getting NAU to set point, which was converted on a UAPB service error a few moments later.
Hard to believe as it may be, NAU's defense stepped it up a notch in the second, with Arkansas-Pine Bluff recording 12 service errors in the set. The Golden Lions were in the red, with a hitting percentage of -.194, a first for the Lumberjacks since forcing a -.048 mark from Idaho State on Nov. 12 of last year.
The third set saw the Lumberjacks combined hit .424, converting 16 of the 33 attempts, only committing two errors in the entirety of the third set. The third set over the Golden Lions was the first time since the opening set against Idaho on Oct. 30, 2021, that Northern Arizona as a team hit over the .400 mark.
With an 11-8 lead in the third, the Lumberjacks went back to what they were doing in the second set, going a big run, this time it was taking 10 of the next 11 points to give themselves all the wiggle room they needed to pick up their second win of the season.
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