St. Paul, MN -- After being swept by Bethany Lutheran, North Central University (NCU) volleyball took the short trip to St. Paul for a rematch with the University of Northwestern (UNW) Eagles. In their last matchup, the Eagles swept the Rams at home. After being named th AVCA #3 ranked team in the country earlier this week, tonight the Eagles would complete the season sweep of NCU winning this one in three sets yet again. On a positive note, junior middle hitter Hailey Lerfald reached an impressive feat of hitting her 500th career kill.
In set one, the Rams would keep things close with the Eagles in the early stages of the game. However, UNW would take a 7-5 lead and then go on a 3-0 run to put themselves up 10-5. A kill from NCU's Lexie Semrau would interrupt Northwestern's scoring streak as she would lessen the lead to four. Unfortunately, the Eagles came right back and scored eight unanswered points to give themselves an commanding 18-6 lead. Once they took the lead, Northwestern never looked back and won set one by a score of 25-12.
Set two would start the same way with both teams going back and forth. North Central would have an early 3-2 lead over Northwestern. However, the Eagles would flip the momentum by scoring 12 points in a row to give themselves a 14-3 lead over the Rams. This would prove to be detrimental for the Rams as UNW would stay out in front for the rest of the set as they took set two from NCU by a score of 25-12. Sydney Carlson would have 5 of her team's 7 kills in the set.
In set three, North Central would be able to take the lead early. The Eagles would strike first, but the Rams would score four in a row to take a 4-1 lead. This would be NCU's biggest lead of the game. UNW would score five unanswered points to retake control of the game as they put themselves up 6-4. After this, Northwestern would control the rest of the match as they were able to sweep North Central in three sets winning set three by a score of 25-16.
Box score can be found here.
Looking Ahead:
The Rams will continue this stretch of road matchups as they head to St. Bonifacius to square off with the Polars of Crown College. The Rams will look to earn a season sweep over the Polars with gametime set for 7:00 pm this Friday.
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