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NMU Volleyball Battles Two Ranked Teams In Indy
 This story was wiritten by NMU Sports Information INDIANAPOLIS---Northern Michigan University Volleyball finished the University of Indianapolis Invitational Saturday by taking on two teams receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll. Early in the day, the Wildcats fell to Saint Leo University 3-1. They then bounced back to gather their first sweep of the season by defeating Gannon 3-0. The day started with the Wildcats taking on Saint Leo, opening the first set with a 8-2 lead. However, Saint Leo was able to recover and eventually snagged a 25-21 first set victory. In the second set, NMU would pull ahead 20-15 but the Lions managed to rally back and tie it at 22-22. This time, the Wildcats scored three straight points for to win the set. Freshman Abigail Durecki (South Lyon, Mich.) had a kill followed by two straight kills from sophomore Hailey Wickstrom (Calumet, Mich.) to seal the victory. All three assists came from freshman Lauren Van Remortel (Carmel, Ind.). SLU managed to win a close third set 25-23 and then followed it with a 25-20 fourth set to win the match 3-1. In the afternoon, the Wildcats faced Gannon and captured the first set 26-24. Facing a 24-22 deficit in the set, NMU took advantage of two attack errors from Gannon to tie the set at 24-24. Wickstrom and Durecki then converted a kill each to win the set 26-24. In the second set, the score was tied 12-12 but NMU would take a lead and hold it, eventually leading 24-20. The Golden Knights fought back and tied the match at 24-24. After a Gannon point made it 25-24, Durecki and Wickstrom combined for a block to tie it at 25-25. Senior Sarah Kuehn (Green Bay, Wis.) then followed a Golden Knight score with two kills followed by an ace from senior Gabriela Martinez (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) to win the second set 28-26, NMU jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the third set before powering to a 25-18 victory and the 3-0 sweep. Sophomore Lizzy Stark (Minneapolis, Minn.) paced the offensive attack with a total of 31 kills on the day. Durecki added 20, hitting at a .390 clip while Wickstrom chipped in with 18. Kuehn aided the effort with 15 kills. Van Remortel tallied 79 assists and tied for the team's lead with three aces. Martinez also posted three aces with sophomore Alli Yacko (Oak Lawn, Ill.) posting two. Sophomore Lauren Caprini (St. Charles, Ill.) led the defense and totaled 38 digs. Stark notched 21 digs and Van Remortel had 19. Yacko contributed 14 with Martinez recording 11. At the net, Durecki tallied a team-best 11 blocks. Wickstrom finished with six and Stark added five. NMU falls to 2-5 on the season while Saint Leo improved to 3-2 and Gannon moves to 4-4. The Wildcats will now turn their attention to conference play as they visit Grand Valley State University Friday night and Davenport University Saturday for Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action. FRIDAY'S MATCH SUMMARIES INDIANAPOLIS – The Northern Michigan University Volleyball team finished the first day of the University of Indianapolis Invitational, taking on Davenport University and Minnesota State University Moorhead but were unable to come away with victory. Against Davenport, the Panthers took the first set 25-21. In the second set, the Wildcats were down 19-15 but slowly fought back and eventually tied the match at 23-23 after a kill from senior Sarah Kuehn (Green Bay, Wis.) was followed by a Panther attack error. The teams tied again at 24-24 after a service error from Davenport. However, DU scored the next two points to win the second set 26-24. DU then captured the third set 25-19. NMU bounced back to win the second and third set against Moorhead. After dropping the first set 25-19, the Wildcats jumped out to a 16-10 advantage then were ahead 22-17 later in the set. The Dragons added three points before sophomore Lizzy Stark (Minneapolis, Minn.) made it 23-20 with a kill. After a service error made it 24-21, sophomore Hailey Wickstrom (Calumet, Mich.) answered a Moorhead point with a set-winning kill off an assist from freshman Lauren Van Remortel (Carmel, Mich.). The third set once again saw NMU take an early advantage, eventually leading 20-15. With the score 20-17, the Wildcats scored four-straight points, with Stark picking up another kill and Van Remortel serving up an ace. After the Dragons made it 24-18, Stark finished the set with a kill. The fourth set saw ties at every point starting at 20-20, but at 24-24 Moorhead was able to score two points to win 26-24. The Dragons were then able to power to a 15-6 fifth set victory to win the match 3-2. Stark finished the day with a total of 34 kills, averaging 5.67 kills per set. Kuehn tallied 20 kills while Wickstrom added 16. Freshman Abigail Durecki (South Lyon, Mich.) chipped in with 12. Van Remortel notched 75 assists for the day and tied with Durecki and sophomore Lauren Caprini (St. Charles, Ill.) with two aces each. Caprini paced the squad with a total of 26 digs. Van Remortel contributed 17 to the effort while Stark, 12 digs, and sophomore Alli Yacko (Oak Lawn, Ill.), 10 digs, also aided the defense. Kuehn posted a team-best eight blocks. Van Remortel, Stark and Durecki all had three blocks. The young Wildcats team falls to 2-4 on the year and will look to bounce back as they return for the second day of the UIndy Invitational on Saturday. The day begins with NMU taking on Saint Leo University at 11:30 a.m. The weekend concludes with Gannon University at 4 p.m. |
