ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University Volleyball team opened Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action by defeating Grand Valley State University 3-2.

SET SCORES

The Lakers captured the first set 25-18. NMU was able to recover and captured the second set 25-19. In the set, the Wildcats took a 10-9 lead and held the lead through the set as a kill from sophomore Lizzy Stark (Minneapolis, Minn.) sealed the set win.

The third set went GVSU's way, winning 25-15 but Northern Michigan rebounded to win the fourth set 32-30. The set was tied at 23-23, and the teams exchanged pointes until the score was 30-30. A GVSU attack error moved NMU ahead and the Wildcats finished the set by scoring the next point as well to force a fifth set.

The fifth set saw another close set which NMU was able to hold on to win. With the score tied 12-12, freshman Abigail Durecki (South Lyon, Mich.) had a kill to move ahead 13-12.  The Lakers gave NMU two points and made it 15-13 to win their third five-set match of the season, winning 3-2.

ATTACKING THE NET

Stark paced the Wildcat attack with 19 kills. Durecki added 12 kills to the effort with sophomore Hailey Wickstrom (Calumet, Mich.) chipping in with 11. Senior Sarah Kuehn (Green Bay, Wis.) tallied 10 kills.

Freshman Lauren Van Remortel (Carmel, Ind.) finished the night with 49 assists.

GOOD SERVES

The Wildcats finished with six aces. Durecki and Van Remortel each posted two aces. Senior Gabriela Martinez (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) and sophomore Alli Yacko (Oak Lawn, Ill.) had one each.

GETTING DEFENSIVE

In the backline, sophomore Lauren Caprini (St. Charles, Ill.) and Stark both ended the match with 18 digs while Van Remortel had 17. Yacko notched 11 and Martinez contributed 10 digs.

Up front, Kuehn tallied four blocks. Durecki and Wickstrom both added three blocks with Stark and Van Remortel each chipping in with a block assist.

UP NEXT

NMU improves to 4-5 on the season and 1-0 in the GLIAC while GVSU falls to 4-5 and 1-0 in the league. The Wildcats return to action Saturday afternoon and will take on Davenport University.