FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 23, 2023) – The Northern Arizona volleyball team finished a match hitting over the .300 mark for the first time since Nov. 17, 2022, to earn its first Big Sky victory of the season, sweeping Idaho 25-12, 25-21, 25-21 at Rolle Activity Center on Saturday night.
"I think that this week we tried to put a bit more focus into being a bit more aggressive in our offense and really earning our kills more often," head coach Ken Murphy said. "We've felt like that we are going into matches being a bit tentative with our shot selection, and we committed to ourselves that we were going to take bigger swings tonight, and it paid off."
The Lumberjacks (4-9), who entered the week 56th in the nation in attacks per set, came out firing and executing on offense. In sets one and three, the team hit .394 and .375, respectively, recording double-digit kills in each of the three sets of play, which has not happened since an NAU three-set victory in the 2022 Lumberjack Classic against Old Dominion.
Four Northern Arizona kills in the first five points would set the tone early in the opening set, with two coming from Hanah Stoddard and one each from Sophia Wadsworth and Neche Newton.
On the night, Stoddard tallied 15 kills on 36 swings, while Newton closed the match with a pair of season-highs, eight kills and six digs. Wadsworth's .353 percentage Saturday was the sixth time this season that she finished a match hitting over .300.
"The focus today was definitely getting our middles and our rights a lot more attempts and let them be able to do some good things," Murphy said. "I thought Neche [Newton] and Sophia [Wadsworth] did a really good job, and what that allowed us to do was it got our outsides more quality looks."
At the other end, Northern Arizona would not let Idaho get any rhythm in the set, holding the Vandals to six errors on only four kills in set one.
NAU would grow its lead to 11 in the first set, closing off by winning four consecutive points on kills from Newton, Savannah Bloom and Kylie Moran.
Moran hit a career-best .588 against the Vandals on Saturday, with 10 kills on 17 attempts. This topped her previous high of .545 earlier this season against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Bloom added six kills of her own on the night.
Another quick start saw the Lumberjacks take a 6-1 lead in set two before Idaho would get it within two, taking five of the next seven. NAU continued to try and grow its lead out of the media timeout, with its biggest being at eight, possessing a 24-16 gap attempting to close out set two.
With Northern Arizona on the verge of going into the half up two sets to none for the first time since Sept. 1, the Vandals would make the finish to set two, scoring five straight points to make the Lumberjack margin for error a bit smaller and forcing Murphy to use a timeout.
Immediately following the timeout, Idaho's Chiara Gennari hit a service error to wrap up the second.
Coming out of the half, both teams were alternating leads and featured three tie scores during the first six points of play. NAU, once again, began to expand its lead. This time it was to nine, 22-13 through its offensive execution.
In a similar fashion to set two, Idaho would put forth another charge at the end of the third, saving three match points to extend the contest further. Moran finished off the visitors with her 10th kill of the night to seal a first conference win of the year.
Northern Arizona will head back on the road next week with a lone match to be played on Saturday at the defending Big Sky Conference Champion Northern Colorado Bears. First ball from Greeley is set for 6 p.m. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
"We always have good battles with them," Murphy said. "It's a long-time rival for us, and they are probably our biggest rival year-in, year-out since I have been here. We know how tough it is to play at their place, and we are looking for our team to build on what we did today."
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