NMU Volleyball defeats Northwood; 2-match win streak

Courtesy: NMU Athletics

The Northern Michigan volleyball team finished off a
perfect weekend at home by defeating Northwood (25-19, 22-25, 25-23,
25-18) on Saturday (Oct. 29).

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 14-11 overall and 11-5 in the Great
Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Timberwolves fall to 11-12
overall and 9-6 in the GLIAC.

NMU opened the first set on a roll, taking an 18-10 lead before Northwood
fired back with four straight points to trim the Wildcat lead to four
points. The Cats were able to increase their lead back to six points
before the Timberwolves again cut NMU’s lead to four at 21-17. A strong
service performance by Abby Lovell and the combination of Lovell and
Herron carried the ‘Cats to a first set win.

Continuing off of the momentum built up at the end of the first set,
Northwood was able to take the second set after fighting off a late rally
by the ‘Cats.

Out of the break, NMU took control of the third set after trailing early
2-0 and never looked back. The ‘Cats jumped out to a 9-3 lead with the
assistance of the dependable service game of Becca Feuerherd. The
Timberwolves cut into the ‘Cats lead and trimmed the it to just one, at
13-12. NMU then again jumped out to a comfortable lead, before going
toe-to-toe with Northwood for the remainder of the set. The left side
combination of Lina Lopes and Herron finished off the set win, with
consecutive kills respectively.

The fourth and final set went to the crowd favorite, as NMU cruised in the
fourth set after an early challenge from Northwood.

The ‘Cats were led offensively by sophomore left side hitter Kalli Herron.
The sophomore had a career high 14 kills. Junior setter Abby Lovell
established the NMU offensive threat with 45 assists.

Defensively, junior libero Kalin Zimmerman led the way with 17 digs.
Junior middle hitter Jasmine Calhoun had a career night defensively with
one solo block and five block assists.

“This is another good win for us, said head coach Dominic Yoder.
‘Northwood was right behind us in the north division standings, so it was
important that we got a win today.”

“Kalli had a great match for us and had a career day in the process,” said
Yoder. “I was really impressed today with our left side in Kalli and
Lina.”