ST. PAUL, Minn. – No. 5 University of Northwestern Volleyball added another championship to their trophy case on Friday night as the Eagles swept the Bethany Lutheran College Vikings to win the 2022 UMAC Regular Season Championship. The regular season title is the 12^th in a row for the UNW dynasty and their 25^th in program history.

Northwestern improved to 27-2 with the win and maintained their undefeated record against UMAC opponents, having won each of their 13 conference matches by 3-0 sweep.
 
In the first set of the match, the Vikings took an early 5-1 lead. The Eagles responded with a five-point run to take a 6-5 lead. BLC tied the set at 6-6, but UNW proceeded to win nine of the next ten points to go up 15-7. The two teams played fairly even until Northwestern, up 18-11, won seven of eight down the stretch to take the opening set 25-12. Northwestern hit .563 in set one while holding BLC to .074.
 
Set two saw the two teams play to even to 6-6, when UNW rattled off three in a row to go up 9-6. The Vikings proceeded to win five of the next six to go up 11-10. Northwestern played to a 16-15 lead, and then fired off a four-point run to gain some breathing room up 20-15. Bethany Lutheran won the next two to get within three, but the Eagles took five of the final six to win the set 25-18.
 
UNW jumped out to a 9-4 lead in the third set. The Eagles and Vikings then traded the next five points back and forth until Northwestern went on a 5-1 run to go up 16-8. BLC got the next two points, but UNW then won the next three to increase their lead to nine up 19-10. At that point, the Vikings started to click as they put up their best stretch in the match, going on a 12-6 run. The lead the Eagles had taken earlier would, however, prove insurmountable. Northwestern got a final kill from Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) in the end to clinch a 25-22 set win, a 3-0 match sweep, and a conference championship.
 
Glanzer led the Eagles with 16 kills on .333 hitting in the match to go with five total blocks and 10 digs. Grace Strickfaden (Norwood-Young America, Minn./NYA) led UNW with 21 assists and Felicia Luther (Victoria, Minn./Southwest Christian) followed with 16. Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) paced Northwestern with 19 digs.
 
UNW hit .263 with 49 kills in the match while holding BLC to .061 hitting and 22 kills. The Eagles had nine team blocks to the Vikings' four.
 
Winning the championship locked up the No. 1 seed for UNW in the UMAC Tournament next week, ensuring the Eagles host a semifinal match next Wednesday. Before that though, No. 5 Northwestern closes out their regular season with a Senior Day match at home against Martin Luther College on Saturday at 1:00 P.M. in the Ericksen Center.