Volleyball Loses 3-1 To Northern Michigan

OVERVIEW – NORTHERN MICHIGAN

SCORE: Northwood Timberwolves 3, Northern Michigan Wildcats 0 (26-24, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21)

RECORDS: Northern Michigan (16-10, 5-10 GLIAC), Northwood (10-17, 4-11 GLIAC)

LOCATION: Riepma Arena – Midland, Mich.

RECAP: Northwood drops 3-1 match to Northern Michigan Friday night (November 2).

INSIDE THE MATCH

• Northwood scored the opening point of the match and did not trail in the first half of the initial set. NMU took their first lead at 14-12 and held the lead the majority of the second half of the set. The Wildcats were up 23-20 when the Timberwolves scored four straight to earn a set point at 24-23. Northern Michigan responded with the final three points to take the opener 26-24. NMU hit .100 in the set (14-9-50) while Northwood finished at .082 (11-7-49).
• The second set appeared to be going towards the Timberwolves, as Northwood held a 17-12 lead. NMU responded once again late, scoring nine of the next 10 points to take a 21-18 lead on their way to a 25-21 win and a 2-0 advantage.  The Wildcats offense stepped up in the second, finishing with a .353 attack percentage (14-2-34). NU ended the second at .176 (14-8-34).
• Northwood responded to the deficit in the third set, jumping out to a 14-7 lead.  NU eventually led 19-11 before Northern Michigan came back. NMU got the lead all the way down to 22-19 and 23-21, but Northwood closed out the set 25-21 to cut the Wildcat lead to 2-1. Defense was the key to the Timberwolves set win – NU hit just .081 in the set (12-9-37) but held NMU to a -.028 mark (9-10-36).
• The fourth set was tight – the first three point lead for either team occurred when the Wildcats took a 19-16 advantage. Northern Michigan was the better team late to close out the match, scoring 11 of the final 16 points to win 25-21 and win 3-1. NMU hit .190 in the fourth (13-5-42) while Northwood finished at .119 (12-7-42).

MATCH STATS

• HITTING: Northern Michigan .148 (50-26-162), Northwood .111 (49-31-162)
• DIGS: Northern Michigan 74, Northwood 76 (Brenna Murphy – 19)
• BLOCKS: Northern Michigan 11, Northwood 6 (Colleen Mayer – 4)
• ACES: Northern Michigan 6, Northwood 4 (Venera Kadriu – 2)

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Grace Rekeweg: 14 kills, 16 digs
• Mackenzie Kepler: 12 kills, 10 digs
• Macy Lintz: 47 assists, 13 digs

UP NEXT

• Northwood will finish the regular season with a match against No. 24 Michigan Tech Saturday afternoon (November 3). Match time is set for 5 p.m.