NMU Volleyball hits the road for GLIAC Tournament

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

The No. 5 seed Northern Michigan volleyball team
(15-13, 12-7 GLIAC) will travel to No. 4 seed Ashland University (14-12, 12-7 GLIAC) on Thursday (Nov. 10) to open the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament.

NMU will look to even the season series against the Eagles in the
quarterfinal matchup. The two teams met earlier this season on (Sept. 16) in Ashland, Ohio. The Eagles walked away with a 3-0 sweep of the Wildcats. NMU was led that day by senior left side hitter Emma Wolfe with 15 kills and junior libero Kalin Zimmerman with 16 digs.

“Ashland is a good team who really came on strong at the end of the
season,” said head coach Dominic Yoder. “We’ll need to correct the
problems we had when we faced them earlier this season.”

The ‘Cats closed out the regular season at home last weekend with a sweep of Findlay and losses to Wayne State and No. 8 Hillsdale.

“Our service and service reception game has improved as of late and that will be important in this match,” said Yoder.

Wolfe, junior middle hitter Sami Vierk and sophomore left side hitter Lina Lopes have combined to lead the ‘Cats offensively this season. The three have combined for 854 kills (355, 265 and 234 respectively).

The Eagles closed out their regular season with three sweeps, defeating
south division foes Tiffin, Ohio Dominican and Lake Erie. Ashland is led by freshman middle blocker Kathy Fletcher. The freshman leads the Eagles with 235 kills, averaging 2.70 kills per set.

NMU went 1-1 at the 2010 GLIAC Tournament, with a quarterfinal sweep of Tiffin and a loss to Grand Valley State in the semifinals.

“We’re playing right now like every match is our last,” said Yoder. “We
need to go into the match with the confidence we’ve had throughout the
season.”

The winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal match will face the winner of the
No. 1 Ferris State and No. 8 Wayne State quarterfinal.