Box Score
Northwestern Tournament Central
St. Thomas Regional Website
Northwestern Video Blog



ST. PAUL – The Northwestern College (Minn.) volleyball team overcame a 7-4 deficit in the fifth set to win its first ever NCAA Tournament match, handing the 19th-ranked Pointers from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point a 3-2 (20-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-20,15-12) loss. The NCAA win is a first for any of Northwestern's 18 varsity athletics teams.

Northwestern started off matching Stevens Point point for point in the first set, but the third-seeded Pointers broke an 11-11 tie with a 4-0 run that put UWSP up 15-11. Eagles head coach Beth Wilmeth was forced to call her second timeout of the match with NWC looking up at a 19-12 Pointers advantage, with NWC hitting .062 at the time. A Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) kill brought the Eagles within five at 22-17 to force a Stevens Point timeout, but Stevens Point ended up taking the set 25-20. Northwestern came back to hit .128 for the set, but the Pointers' three blocks and 20 digs (compared to NWC's 14) were too much to go with four Eagles serving errors that round.

UWSP came out with an early advantage in the second set, but Northwestern went on a 9-2 run behind its home away from home crowd to force a Stevens Point timeout with the Eagles leading 10-6. Point called timeout again at 18-13 as Kendra Korporal (Sumner, Iowa /Sumner-Fredericksburg) notched her ninth kill, while Miller was hitting .429. The Pointers started creeping back, crawling within two points of NWC at 19-17 and then tying the set at 20-20. Northwestern turned around to finish the set with a 5-3 run, coming even in the match score with a 25-23 Set 2 victory. The Eagles' hitting percentage was up to .226 after two sets, with Stevens Point countering at .167.

Northwestern found itself down 10-5 and 15-9 in the third set, but the Eagles made things interesting when they fought back to force a Pointers timeout down by just three at 16-13. NWC stayed in the match point for point at 23-20 and then pulled within one at 23-22 to force another timeout. Stevens Point came out of the break with two straight points, thanks to some solid back row defense, to go ahead 2-1 in the match.

The Eagles took the momentum right back in the fourth set, going on a 10-3 run to lead 16-11 midway through the round. But it wasn't long and the Pointers pulled within two at 16-14, scoring four straight points after a timeout. Northwestern persisted though, improving its lead to 19-15 behind a booming kill from Miller. UWSP wasn't going to let this one go easily, cutting the margin to one at 20-19 before NWC won the final four points, including a Katelyn Kostek (Des Moines, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) ace to get to 25.

Northwestern had played in three five-set matches throughout the 2012 season, going 2-1 in those contests, but not having gone five since September 15. Several Eagles players had experienced a fifth set in the Schoenecker Arena at St. Thomas before since Northwestern took St. Olaf College to five in NWC's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Little did the Eagles know, but Stevens Point had gone 6-1 in five-setters throughout the year.

NWC led the race to 15 points early, going up 4-2, but Stevens Point went on a five-point run to lead 7-4, forcing Wilmeth to take a timeout before the teams switched sides on Steve Fritz Court with UWSP leading 8-6. Cue the comeback signal, when Northwestern tied the score at 8-8. The Eagles appeared to tie the score again at 10-10, but an NWC honor call gave the Pointers an 11-9 edge. Tija Rudzitis (Andover, Minn./Meadow Creek Christian ) made her presence known shortly thereafter, putting down a thundering kill to draw even at 11 points apiece. On the next point, Kostek saved a Stevens Point attack with her fingertips, allowing Korporal to put the Eagles up 12-11. Kostek made an even bigger impact on the next point with three straight digs, allowing NWC its fourth consecutive point at 13-11, forcing UWSP to regroup with a timeout. The Pointers slipped a point in before Northwestern allowed Cassidy Kohlhagen's serve to go long, giving the Eagles a 15-12 set victory and a 3-2 match win.

Korporal had 19 kills and a .268 attacking percentage behind 55 assists from Krista Stoltz (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial), who led the Eagles to a .227 attacking percentage. Northwestern's seniors had a major impact late in the match, with Courtney Jonas (Neenah, Wis./Valley Christian) awarding the honor call to Stevens Point at 11-9 in the fifth set before Kostek's three straight digs, which led to consecutive errors by the Pointers to end the match.

Lizzy Potratz (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian ) had a match-high 24 digs in front of the increasingly loud crowd for Northwestern, followed by 20 from Kostek and 18 from Bertsch. Jonas and Potratz each had four blocks, while Rudzitis's two solo blocks propelled the senior to five for the match.

The win, which moved Northwestern to 27-8 overall, was the Eagles' second against a ranked team this season. NWC will now face another American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 squad in 24th-ranked College of Saint Benedict at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Blazers will come into Friday with a 28-5 record. However, two of those five losses came at the hands of NWC in the first two weeks of the season. Saint Ben's beat Dominican University 3-0 earlier in the day on Friday.