St. Bonifacius, Minn., Oct. 24, 2007 – The Northwestern College volleyball team claimed sole ownership of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship on Wednesday evening, defeating Crown College in a three-game match in St. Bonifacius. The Eagles saw great performances from
Steph Koth (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) and
Kathryne Engel (Wayzata, Minn./West Lutheran) (Wayzata, Minn./West Lutheran) on their way to winning 30-22, 30-16, 30-20.
Northwestern started slower out of the gates, recording a .125 attacking percentage in the first game before hitting a booming .500 in Game 2, courtesy of 20 kills and only two errors. The Eagles .217 rate in Game 3 gave them a .276 percentage for the evening, easily toping Crown's .151. Northwestern racked up 51 kills in the match, almost doubling the Storm's 27.
Koth had 16 kills in 35 attempts, committing only two errors throughout the entire match for a .400 personal attacking rate. Engel was just as flawless, committing only two errors on her way to a ten-kill night.
Running a 5-1 offense for the first two games of the match, Northwestern's
Hillary Slagter (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian) (Prinsburg, Minn./Central Minnesota Christian) tallied 29 assists.
Ericka Mahlum (Plymouth, MN/Armstrong) (Plymouth, Minn./Armstrong) entered the match in the third game, giving the Eagles another setter. Mahlum ended the evening with 10 assits on 20 attempts with only one error.
Koth was the team leader in digs with 16, while Slagter had 14.
The Eagles'
Sarah Whitmore (Prior Lake, MN/Prior Lake Christian) (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake Christian) was a part of four of the team's six blocks on the night.
Laura Stevenson and Laura Plowman had eight kills apiece to pace Crown.
Continuing their undefeated streak in the conference at 12-0 (20-9 overall), the team's 13-match winning streak stands second all-time in the program's history. Only the 2001 season had a longer streak that topped out at 19 matches.
With the regular season conference championship in their hands, Northwestern will host the UMAC post-season tournament, which is slated for Saturday, Nov. 3. Times for the four-team tournament have yet to be announced.
Box Score
