Box Score
ST. PAUL -- After decisive wins in the first and second sets of Wednesday's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Volleyball Tournament semifinal match, Northwestern College took a third set defeat before fending off the University of Minnesota Morris in Set 4 to advance to Saturday's championship. The Eagles came out swinging and held on for a 25-17, 25-12, 23-25, 25-23 victory.
The Eagles, who hosted Morris just last Friday, came out with something to prove as the tournament's top seed, posting a .433 Set 1 attacking percentage while holding the Cougars to .075 rate. Northwestern had four blocks in the set as the home team established a three- and four-point buffer midway through the round before taking eight of the final nine points.
Set 2 went even better for Northwestern, who posted 19 kills and just one attacking error en route to a .562 hitting percentage. The Eagles broke a 1-1 tie with eight straight points to lead 9-1 and the Purple and Gold hit 20 before the Cougars could earn their ninth point of the set. Kills from
Courtney Jonas (Neenah, Wis./Valley Christian),
Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) and
Tija Rudzitis (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian ) sealed the deal as NWC went on to lead 2-0.
Instead of giving Northwestern a break, a ten-minute intermission between the second and third sets cooled the Eagles' arms off as Morris roared out to a 12-4 advantage in the fourth set. NWC tried to crack its way inside the Cougars' five-point margin, but couldn't until seven straight serves from
Lizzy Potratz (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian ) brought the Eagles back from a 24-16 deficit to 24-23. Morris hit its 25th point on the next play, sending the match's end result into at least a fourth set.
That fourth set couldn't have been any tighter, as the fans in attendance witnessed 13 ties throughout the race to 25 points. As soon as Potratz had a kill to tie the game at 17-17, Morris' Abby Tietz returned with a kill of her own to give the Cougars a one-point edge. With
Emily Robertson (Chanhassen, Minn./Southwest Christian) starting things at the service line, Potratz put down a kill to break the 23-23 tie before a kill from Jonas ended the match on the next play.
Northwestern finished with a .333 hitting percentage on the night, while Morris countered with a .166 rate. The Eagles did a much better job of limiting their errors as compared to the 30 NWC committed last week, finishing with 12 on Wednesday. Northwestern had just two hitting errors in the first two sets combined.
Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) and Potratz each had 16 kills for the Eagles while Jonas added 12 on 22 attempts. Stoltz tallied 48 assists on offense while adding eight digs on defense. Potratz had a team-high 19 digs in the back row, with Korporal close behind at 16. Jonas had a match-high six blocks, with Stoltz turning away five Cougar attacks on the block.
Morris was led by Emily Auch's 18 kills, with Tietz close behind with 16. Kaylie Clark had 19 digs for Morris, whose season comes to a close with a 21-10 record.
Northwestern, now 25-8 overall, will shift its focus to Saturday's match against the College of St. Scholastica, a team that the Eagles have seen in each of the last four UMAC Tournament finales. NWC and the Saints know each other well, having played twice during the regular season, with the Eagles earning 3-0 and 3-1 wins in the month of October. An automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament is at stake when Northwestern and St. Scholastica square off at 7 p.m. in the Ericksen Center.
