AURORA, Ill. – The Northern Michigan University volleyball team was defeated on Friday (Oct. 12) in its first two matches at the fifth annual Mizuno GLVC/GLIAC Crossover Tournament at the Great Lakes Center. The Wildcats were shutout by Southern Indiana in their afternoon match and Missouri-St. Louis in the evening. NMU is now 13-8 overall.

In the afternoon match against Southern Indiana, NMU fell in three close sets, 26-24, 25-23 and 25-17. Junior Kalli Herron led the 'Cats with 15 kills, while junior Lina Lopes had 11. Senior Kalin Zimmerman tallied 18 digs and junior Kellisha Harley setup the offense with 36 assists. Junior Sarah Hamilton had four block assists.

For the Eagles (10-9), Emily Diedrich and Lauren DeShaney each had 10 kills to contribute to 42 total for the team. Jorae Bradbury had 31 assists in the match.

In the 'Cats second match of the day, Missouri-St. Louis also defeated NMU in three sets (20-25, 25-21, 25-18). Herron tallied 15 kills and Lopes had 10. NMU had 36 team kills and a .137 kill percentage. Harley added 28 more assists on the day. Zimmerman led the defense with 25 digs.

The Tritons (8-12) were led in kills by Liz Jaeger (10) and Haley Brightwell (7) for 40 as a team and a .239 kill percentage. Lindsey Meyer had 32 assists for her team. Brightwell and Jenie Manis each had 13 digs while Anna McNulty had 12. The Tritons had six service aces on the evening.

NMU wraps up the two-day tournament Saturday with a 2 p.m. match against Lewis to for its final non-conference match of the season.