Box Score 1 | Box Score 2


ST. PAUL -- Just hours after claiming the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season championship, the Northwestern College volleyball team wrapped up its league schedule with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-17) victory over Crown College on Saturday morning before being awarded the league title trophy.

Northwestern hit .312 in the match, nearly doubling up Crown in total kills, 41 to 22. The only difficulty the Eagles had throughout the three sets was early on in Set 1, when Northwestern found itself down 13-10. The Purple and Gold quickly turned things around after that, winning 15 of the next 17 points to take the set 25-15. Fans in attendance witnessed NWC scoring 20 points before Crown was able to record double digits in Set 2 before the Eagles finished the set with a 25-11 win. Set 3 was much of the same story as Northwestern led 20-8. Crown scored four service aces in the final few points before NWC closed it out with a 25-17 victory.

Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) followed a 19-kill performance from Friday with 12 kills and a .444 attacking percentage against Crown on Saturday as Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) tallied 38 of the team's 40 assists. Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) turned in eight kills for the Eagles, while Lydia Palkert (Excelsior, Minn./Southwest Christian) added seven kills on offense.

Defensively, Lexi Bertsch (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian) had a team-high 18 disg, while Courtney Jonas (Neenah, Wis./Valley Christian) and Lizzy Potratz (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian ) each had four blocks.

Northwestern followed with a 3-1 (25-15, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20) win over St. Kate's that didn't go as quickly as planned. None the less, the Eagles took care of business to close out the regular season on a 10-match winning streak, having claimed victory in 14 of their last 15 contests.

NWC was on a roll with .297 and .306 hitting rates in the first and second sets, but Set 3 only saw the Eagles posted eight kills compared to seven errors, and St. Catherine took advantage of it with a set victory. Northwestern returned to form with 19 kills in the fourth set, finishing with a .250 attacking percentage for the match.

Korporal and Potratz each eclipsed the 20-kill mark while both hit .383 or better throughout the four sets. Stoltz posted 50 assists for the third time this season.

The usual suspects had strong games on defense as Bertsch led all players with 24 digs and Jonas had a match-high eight blocks at the net.

Now 24-8 overall (13-1 UMAC), Northwestern will enter next week's UMAC Tournament as the top seed, hosting a fourth seeded-University of Minnesota Morris squad that just left the Ericksen Center late on Friday night. The two teams will meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 31 with the winner advancing to Saturday's conference tournament finale.