WAVERLY, Iowa. – No. 5 University of Northwestern Volleyball traveled to Wartburg College on Tuesday to take on the Knights and the No. 21 nationally ranked Coe College Kohawks. The Eagles swept the Knights 3-0 before gutting out a five-set marathon win against the Kohawks to improve to 23-2 overall on the season.
 
Match One: Wartburg (RV) Knights
 
The Eagles first battled Wartburg, who are receiving votes in the latest national polls, on the Knights' home court. UNW started the match strong, going up 5-1. Wartburg rallied, but the Eagles used a 6-2 run to go up by six points with an 11-5 lead. Northwestern's lead in the opening set reached nine points with UNW up 16-7 at one point. Northwestern ultimately look the set 25-18 to take an early 1-0 lead.
 
Down a set early, the Knights stormed out the gate in the second set to race ahead to an early 8-3 lead. The Eagles responded with a five-point run to even the score 8-8. UNW proceeded to use a run of five points, four points, and another of five points to take a 22-16 lead en route to a 25-18 set win.
 
In the third set, Wartburg took an early 5-3 lead. UNW answered with an 11-2 run to go up 14-7. The Knights rallied to get within one point down 14-15 and then 15-16. The Eagles rattled off five in a row to gain some breathing room up 21-15, but the Knights won four consecutive to cut the lead down to two. Up 21-19, Northwestern won the final four points to take the set 25-19 and win the match by 3-0 sweep.
 
Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford) and Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) led the Eagles with 13 kills each. Schmidt hit .600 in the match and Glanzer had a three of the four UNW aces.
 
Felicia Luther (Victoria, Minn./Southwest Christian) led the Eagles with 20 assists. Grace Strickfaden (Norwood-Young America, Minn./NYA) followed with 17.
 
Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) and Marley Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) each had three total blocks for UNW.
 
Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) led Northwestern with 20 digs. Glanzer followed with 16.
 
Match Two: No. 23 Coe Kohawks
 
The second match of the day was against Coe. The Kohawks jumped out to a 1-0 lead over the Eagles in set one. Coe took a 7-2 lead off a five-point run early in the set, and though UNW kept pace through the set, that early lead proved the difference in a 25-22 set win for the Kohawks.
 
Down 1-0, UNW jumped out the gate in set two to go up 6-1 early. The Eagles lead in the set reached seven points up 15-8. Coe started to rally and cut their defecit to 16-19, but the Eagles jumped ahead by six again with a three-point run and went on to take the set 25-20.
 
Now tied up 1-1, Northwestern looked to take a lead. Up 12-9 in the third set, the Eagles won five in a row to leap ahead 17-9. UNW's lead reached 12 points up 24-12 at match point. The Kohawks started to rally, stringing together five in a row, but it would be too little too late as Northwestern took the set 25-17 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Set four saw the Eagles and Kohawks exchange leads early in the set until UNW went on a 7-1 run to take a 17-12 lead. Coe proceeded to rally and tie the match up at 17-17 by winning the next five points. Northwestern responded with a four point run to go up 21-17. The Eagles got within two points of finishing off the Kohawks up 23-20, but Coe rattled off five points in a row to rally and take set four 25-23.
 
In the deciding set, Northwestern jumped ahead 3-0. Coe responded in kind to tie the set 3-3. After exchanging points, the Eagles used a four-point run to take an 8-4 lead. The next nine points saw UNW and Coe trade wins back and forth until a UNW ball handling error gave the Kohawks back-to-back points, though Northwestern still led 12-8. UNW took the next two to reach match point up 14-10. Coe managed to take the next two points, but Glanzer slammed the door closed with her 25^th kill of the match to win the set 15-12 and the match 3-2 for Northwestern.
 
Along with her match-high 25 kills, Glanzer led the Eagles with five total blocks, tied for the team lead with three service aces, and had the second-most digs with 25. Schmidt and Gabrielle Straub (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) both had double-digit kills with 12 and 10 respectively.
 
Strickfaden led Northwestern with 28 assists. Luther followed with 25 in the match.
 
Schroyer led the Eagles with 30 digs in the match. Straub had 22 digs for UNW.
 
Up Next
 
No. 5 Northwestern travels to Ashland, Wisconsin this Friday, October 21, for a 7:00 P.M. conference match at Northland College.