Ashland, WI -- Tonight, the North Central University (NCU) Rams Volleyball team ventured to Ashland, Wisconsin to face off against the Northland Lumberjills. Their previous game earlier this month resulted in a dominating 3-0 victory for the Rams. Tonight, NCU came out firing once again as they dropped the Lumberjills in three straight sets to improve to 15-5 on the year. Junior
Maci Tripp was a standout defensively with a season-high 22 digs and zero reception errors. Offensively, senior
Grace Brigson orchestrated the Rams' attack perfectly with 33 assists and no set errors.
Things started rocky for the Rams as Northland jumped out to a 3-0 lead off a pair of attacking errors from NCU. Towards the middle of the set, North Central found its rhythm with a 12-1 run led by 3 kills from junior
Lexie Semrau. The Rams would ride that momentum through to the end of the set with a 25-16 set one win.
Ari Klein and Semrau each had 3 kills to lead the way for NCU.
North Central got out to a much-improved start in the second set as they found themselves leading 8-2. However, Northland never gave up as they battled their way back to make it a one-point game at 10-9. Strong play from freshman
Erica Tormanen down the stretch would afford NCU another set win at 25-17. Tormanen and senior
Hailey Lerfald each totaled 4 kills in the set.
Set three was an absolute grudge match with neither squad giving an inch. NCU trailed through the first half of the set as they committed 7 costly attack errors to aid the home team. The Rams eventually cleaned up their offense and started to find their stride once more. The Lumberjills essentially gave away set three as they caught the error bug, committing 10 total in the set to lead to a 25-22 game-sealing win for NCU.
Hailey Lerfald totaled 9 kills and 2 service aces to lead the way for the Rams.
Looking Ahead:
Up next, North Central travels to the University of Wisconsin-Superior for a showdown with the Yellowjackets tomorrow Saturday, October 26th. That match is slated for a noon start.
All fans are encouraged to tune into the official Rams Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (X) pages for updates on Rams Volleyball and all things NCU Athletics.
