Minneapolis, Minn. The North Central Rams Volleyball team hosted the NCU VB Ram Invitational Tournament over the weekend. Four National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Division II teams joined the Rams in the five team, round robin tournament.

The Rams started their tournament play against Trinity Bible College(Ellendale, N.D.). Trinity was ranked 10th in the latest NCCAA DII coaches poll. It looked like North Central was going to pull off the big upset early on dominating the first set with a 25-16 win. However, Trinity bounced back taking the match by winning the next three straight sets, 25-12, 25-22, and 25-18. This loss dropped the Rams to 1-12 on the season. Despite the loss NCU got strong performances from juniorMariah Simonson (Zumbrota, Minn.) who led the Rams with 10 kills, and freshman Alyssa Wallace (Mora, Minn.) who pitched in 19 assists in the match.

Later into the evening Friday night, the Rams took on Providence College (Otterburne, Manitoba). The early success from the first match of the day did not carry on as Providence rolled to a quick 3-0 victory including a very impressive 25-7 set 1.

Day two of the tournament kicked off with an extremely difficult test for North Central. Grace University (Omaha, Neb.) came into the weekend ranked 6th in the NCCAA DII coaches poll. The Royals were too much for the Rams and again NCU was defeated by a score of 3-0.

With only one game left in the tournament it was now or never for the Rams. The final game for North Central was against North Central Region rival Faith Baptist Bible College (Ankeny, Iowa). For the second time in as many days the Rams jumped out to a strong start and took the first set 25-18. However, just like with Trinity, North Central dropped the second set and was in danger of losing another early lead. Set 3 was a nail biter, which went right down to the wire, but the RamsCassie Dieke (Ripon, Wi.) finished off the game with one of her 13 kills, and North Central prevailed with a 25-23 win. The Rams finished off the match taking the 4th set 25-20 securing their second win of the year. In all the excitement Simonson again led the way with twelve kills, while Wallace had an outstanding match herself, recording 42 assists.

Up next for the Rams is a match at NCAA DIII opponent Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minn.) on October 11, at 7:00 PM.