HAMMOND, Ind. – Northern Michigan University Volleyball returned to Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play Friday night by defeating Purdue University Northwest 3-1.

SET SCORES

The first set started with the teams exchanging points until a 9-9 tie. NMU then scored four straight points to make it 13-9. NMU eventually pulled ahead 20-14 with a kill from freshman Lauren Van Remortel (Carmel, Ind.). She then assisted on a kill by freshman Abigail Durecki (South Lyon, Mich.) which made it 21-16. With the score 22-18, Van Remortel got another kill, followed by two PNW errors to give the Wildcats a 25-18 victory.

The Pride kept the second set close until it was tied at 18-18. Van Remortel and sophomore Lizzy Stark (Minneapolis, Minn.) notched back to back kills to take a lead, then Durecki answered a PNW error with a kill to move NMU ahead 21-19. Another Stark killd followed a PNW kill, and two errors from the hosts moved the Wildcats to a 25-20 victory.

NMU jumped out to an early lead in the third set but the Pride fought back to win the set 25-23.

The fourth set saw NMU take an early 5-1 lead which soon grew to a 15-8 advantage.  Stark made it 16-11 with a kill, then made it 18-13 with another kill after errors from both teams. Senior Sarah Kuehn (Green Bay, Wis.) smashed a kill to start an NMU rally that continued with an ace from sophomore Alli Yacko (Oak Lawn, Ill.) and kills from Durecki and sophomore Hailey Wickstrom (Calumet, Mich.) which made the score 22-14. After two points from the Pride, sophomore Alyssa Milski (Oregon, Wis.) got a kill. Durecki soon ended the match with an additional kill to give NMU a 25-17 set win for the 3-1 match victory.

STAT LEADERS

Kuehn paced the offense with 13 kills, committing zero errors on 20 attempts. Stark and Durecki both added 11 kills. Wickstrom notched six kills.

Van Remortel tallied four kills and posted 34 aces. Durecki and sophomore Lauren Caprini (St. Charles, Ill.) tallied three aces each.

Defensively, Yacko finished with 23 digs. Caprini and Wickstrom chipped in with nine digs and Stark and freshman Madeline Crowley (Green Bay, Wis.) had eight.  

UP NEXT

Northern Michigan improved to 9-12 on the season and are now 5-5 in the conference. The Wildcats return to action Saturday afternoon by visiting the University of Wisconsin Parkside for a 3 p.m. match.