SAINT BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The No. 17 nationally ranked University of Northwestern volleyball team continued their dominant run through the UMAC with a 3-0 (25-10, 25-20, 25-8) win over the Crown College Storm on Friday night. The Eagles have swept every conference opponent they have played this year, going 24-0 in sets played and stand undefeated at 8-0 atop the UMAC standings. This win stands out from the others as every Eagle available in uniform played in the match and contributed to the win.
 
The first set saw the Storm take an early 5-3 lead before the Eagles won the next five points to go up 8-5. Northwestern fought to go up 15-10 and then caught fire, winning the final 10 points of the set to take it 25-10.
 
Set two saw the Storm rally to push the Eagles in a closer battle. Crown held the Eagles off from building momentum on one of their classic runs until UNW broke a 13-13 tie by winning the next four, jumping ahead to a 17-13 lead. Northwestern won no more than two consecutive points the rest of the set, but the lead they gained enabled them steadilly climb to a 25-20 set win.
 
Up 2-0, the Eagles flipped a switch following their close second set win to take control in the third. The Storm kept it close early, trailing just 5-4 through nine points. However, the momentum completely swung in Northwestern's favor from then on out as the Eagles bombarded the Storm with a 20-4 run, emphatically closing out the set 25-8 and match 3-0.
 
Gabrielle Straub (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) led UNW with 11 kills on a .556 hitting percentage. Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford) led the Eagles with an incredible .625 hitting percentage for five kills. Kendra Hardy (Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria) hit .417 for six kills.
 
The Eagles aced the Storm nine times in the match, with Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) leading the way with four of her own.
 
Hannah Gadient (Goodhue, Minn./Goodhue) led Northwestern with 11 assists in the match. Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) had a team-high 11 digs. Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) had half the UNW blocks in the match with three.
 
Next up for Northwestern is a journey to Morris to face the UMAC-rival Cougars at 1 p.m. this Saturday, October 16.