Volleyball Posts 3-1 Road Win Over Wayne State

The Northwood University volleyball team bounced back from a loss on Friday with a hard-fought 3-1 victory at Wayne State Saturday afternoon (October 12).  Set scores were 25-22, 28-26, 23-25, 26-24.

Northwood is now 11-6 overall, 6-3 in the GLIAC.  Wayne State falls to 8-9 overall, 5-4 in the GLIAC.

A 9-4 run in the opening set by Northwood broke open things after the score was tied 11-11.  WSU got the score back to 22-21 late, but the Timberwolves scored three of the final four points to earn the 1-0 lead.

Wayne State appeared on numerous occasions to be poised to level the match in the second set.  The Warriors jumped out to a 7-3 early on and eventually would earn three set points at 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25.  But Northwood hung around and went on to take the set, thanks to scoring the final three points as well as four of the last five to win 28-26.

It was WSU who used a big run in the third set to get back into the contest.  Northwood led 13-8, but the Warriors scored eight of the next nine points to go up 16-14.  The Timberwolves fought off a pair of set points after trailing 24-21 late, but the Warriors won the final point to make the score 2-1.

The fourth set was extremely close – the biggest lead both teams would hold would be three points each. Wayne State led 23-22 late in the set, but the Timberwolves earned four of the final five points to take the match.

For the match, Northwood finished with a .221 attack percentage, finishing with 58 kills and 24 errors on 154 attempts.  Wayne State ended at .203 (52-21-153). The Timberwolves held a 68-54 edge in digs while WSU finished with a 11-3 advantage in blocks.

Juliia Pakhomenko (Donetsk, Ukraine) led the way for the Timberwolves, finishing with 22 kills, 12 digs and a .308 attack percentage.  Krysta Kramer (Lansing, Mich./Grand Ledge) had 11 kills and 12 digs, while Cassandra Marsh (Maumee, Ohio) added 10 kills.  Elizabeth Barker (Williamsburg, Ind./Northeastern) registered a match-high 22 digs, while Jordan Dunn (Bowling Green, Ohio) had 49 assists and 11 digs.

Northwood will host Ashland Friday night (October 18).  Match time is set for 7 p.m.