Huskies Fall in GLIAC Championship

Courtesy: Michigan Tech

UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – No. 21 Michigan Tech fell 3-0 to No. 20 Northern Michigan in the GLIAC Championship Sunday on the campus of Saginaw Valley State. The Huskies season wrapped up with an 11-4 overall record.

“Credit and congratulations to Northern for playing a great match today and for putting together a great season,” Tech coach Matt Jennings said. “Simply put, they played better than us in every part of the game.

“We didn’t execute well enough in some pretty basic areas, which is probably the most disappointing part of that match. We certainly picked a bad time to play tense and make uncharacteristic mistakes. Northern just ran their system better than we ran ours and executed way more consistently, which was compounded by the number of points we gave them unearned.”

NMU won 25-23, 25-16, and 26-24. In the first, the teams fought through nine ties. Tech held a 23-22 lead after a kill by Anna Jonynas, but three straight points put NMU in the lead. Jonynas had six kills in the first.

The Wildcats (15-2) never trailed in the second and hit .387. Lindy Oujiri had four kills for the Huskies while Jane Grindland and Jonynas combined for six.

There were six lead changes in the third. Tech had setpoint at 24-23 after a kill by Oujiri, but NMU scored three straight points to take the win.

Anna Jonynas and Lindy Oujiri each had 11 kills and Janie Grindland added six. Jonynas also tallied 10 digs.

Laura De Marchi set the offense with 37 assists and had 13 digs. Megan Utlak led the team with 14 digs.

“I don’t think today reflected what this team did all season and what we’re capable of,” added Jennings. “I’m proud of the way we battled through adversity this year, especially late in the season. But it’s my job to figure out a way to get over this hurdle that we seem to encounter in the finals. I’m responsible for getting them ready to play in big matches like this one and we did not come out sharp or ready to play. We’ll pick up the pieces and put them back together going forward. There’s a lot to build on.”

Anna Jonynas and Laura De Marchi were named to the GLIAC All-Tournament Team.