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Northern Starts Strong But Parkside Rallies For Win
 This story is courtesy of Northern Michigan U. Sports Information MARQUETTE---Northern Michigan University volleyball won the opening two sets against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Monday night, but the Rangers were able to come back and defeat the Wildcats in five sets. The scores were 15-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22 and 15-13. The first set was all Northern Michigan as the Wildcats used a 6-1 run after an 8-7 start to find themselves up 16-9. NMU continued to play well as they finished the set by scoring eight of the final 12 points to cruise to a 25-15 score. The Wildcats recorded side outs 13 out of a possible 15 times for an efficiency of 86% and had a hitting percentage of .429 with only three attacking errors. Junior Lisa Studnicka led the way with five kills and an attacking percentage of .500. NMU opened the second set fast scoring eight of the first 10 points in the set, but the Rangers were able to strike back quickly and tied the game at nine shortly after. Northern Michigan then outscored Parkside 10-6 to take a 19-16 lead. The Wildcats then were able to side out the Rangers on their final five possessions to win the set at 25-20. Sophomore outside hitter Alex Berger and Studnicka each recorded two aces in the set. Studnicka also kept up her efficient attacking with a hitting percentage of .429 in the set. The third set started out tight as the teams battled to a 10-10 draw. Parkside was able to take a comfortable 17-11 lead after a 7-1 run. Northern Michigan was able to cut the deficit down to three at 19-16 before Parkside finished the set scoring six of the final nine points to avoid a sweep with a 25-19 score. The Rangers bounced back after hitting below .120 the first two sets by recording a hitting percentage of .238 in the third set. Parkside also was able to limit Wildcat possessions with 69% side out efficiency. The fourth set proved to be similar to the third set as there were 10 ties between the two teams in the set. Eventually the teams found themselves tied at 20-20 late in the set before Parkside was able to finish out the set scoring five of the final seven points forcing a winner take all set five. The Rangers came out hot to start the set as they took an early 5-1 lead. Parkside was able to hold this lead to a 10-6 score before the Wildcats tied the game at 10 all. The rest of the set was back and forth with ties at 11, 12 and 13. The Rangers were able to finish strong once again, however and took the final two points to take the match at 15-13. Senior outside hitter Lisa Gregerson led the Rangers scoring three of the final four Parkside points. "I think Wisconsin-Parkside elevated their game," commented Head Coach Dominic Yoder after the match. "I think they are a slow starting team and they really came out strong in set three. We knew that and talked about it in the locker room." "We didn't necessarily respond with the same intensity and we went back to making young mistakes. So it's something that we will get better at as the year progresses. We have gotten the team to a pretty good level and this weekend is going to be challenging for us." Studnicka finished the match with a team high 14 kills and also put together a good performance in serve receive with 54 clean receives to three errors. Freshman middle hitter Madison Whitehead chipped in 12 kills with a hitting percentage of .393. Sophomore middle hitter Anna Aycock and freshman middle hitter Kayla Chosa each recorded double-digit kills at 10. At the net, Studnicka assisted on five blocks, while Chosa blocked one Ranger attack and assisted on another four as NMU had 10 team blocks. |
