MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-- North Central University Volleyball bounced back from a tough loss on Friday at the hands of The College of St. Scholastica to claim their first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference win of the year on Saturday at Northland College. After falling 3-0 to the Saints, the Rams responded by winning a 3-0 match over the Lumberjills on Saturday afternoon.

The Rams first weekend, road conference double header sent NCU to St. Scholastica on Friday night. The Saints dispatched the Rams 3-0 (25-10, 25-18, 25-10) with North Central never getting any sort of offensive momentum and hitting just .024 in the three set loss. Sophomore Elissa Pheneger (Roseville, Minn./Roseville) assisted on 18 of the Rams 19 kills on the day.

Friday was a new day for the Rams as they traveled along the Lake Superior shoreline to Northland College (Ashland, Wis.). Despite trailing by four or more points in each of the three sets the Rams got their offense going and limited their attack errors to take a 3-0 win (25-18, 25-21, 25-23). Sophomore Karlee Huber (Rapid City, S.D./Dakota Wesleyan) led the Rams with 10 kills on 31 swings (.258) while freshman Maddie Saice (Apple Valley, Minn./Apple Valley) and senior Karlee Cox (Des Moines, Iowa/Saydel) each added 9 kills. Cox notched a team high 12 digs with 2 blocks solo and 3 block assists. Elissa Pheneger added 30 assists on the Rams 42 kills as NCU hit a season high .243 on the day.

North Central gets back to action this weekend with a Friday home match versus Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, Minn.) at 7 p.m. Saturday the Rams host Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minn.) in a UMAC match at Noon before playing Finlandia University (Hancock, Mich.) in a non-conference piece of a triangular event at 4 p.m.