MORRIS, Minn.- The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship was on the line in Friday night's matchup inside the Cougar Sports Center in Morris, Minnesota as the #3 Northwestern Eagles took on the Minnesota-Morris Cougars. The Eagles entered the game at 12-0 in conference play needing just one more win to secure the UMAC Regular Season Championship and home court advantage throughout next week's UMAC Postseason Tournament. The team standing in their way was the 11-1 (UMAC) Morris Cougars. UNW won the battle of the UMAC's top two teams and secured the conference championship.
What the University of Northwestern Volleyball team has done within their conference in the last decade-plus can't be described in any other word besides "dynasty". Friday night's win gave the Eagles their 13
th straight UMAC Regular Season Championship. UNW has secured the #1 seed in the UMAC Postseason tournament with the semifinals beginning on Wednesday, November 8
th. The Eagles have won four straight UMAC Postseason Tournaments and nine of the last ten. The only other team to win the tournament during that stretch was the opponent Northwestern defeated on Friday night: Minnesota-Morris.
The Eagles' 13 consecutive conference championships is not the only impressive streak that the team is currently on. UNW has also built up an incredible streak of winning sets against conference opponents. The Eagles swept the Cougars on Friday night and that is now 31 straight UMAC matches that the team has won via a sweep. Northwestern has won 96 straight sets against UMAC schools. The last set the Eagles lost against a UMAC opponent was on October 30
th, 2021 on the road against Bethany Lutheran. The Eagles have one more regular season UMAC contest this season as they will look to complete a second consecutive regular season without losing a conference set in their game against Crown College tomorrow.
Minnesota-Morris has had an extremely strong season of their own. They entered Friday night's contest with a conference record of 11-1 and their only loss came to the undefeated Eagles. These two teams met for the first time this season back on October 7
th when the Cougars gave the Eagles their toughest test of the UMAC season so far. The Eagles won the match 3-0, but every set was close (25-21, 30-28, 25-22). Minnesota-Morris has locked up the #2 seed in next week's tournament as both of these teams will aim to meet for a third time on Saturday, November 11
th in the UMAC Championship Game.
In the second meeting between these two squads, the first two sets were decided by an identical score. In the first set, the Cougars jumped out to an early lead in front of a raucous home crowd. The Eagles trailed 10-8 before they responded with a scoring run that changed the outlook of the set.
Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford),
Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins),
Grace Moravchik (Mason, Wis./Ashland), and
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) all contributed with kills as the Eagles scored six straight points to jump in front 14-10.
Hannah Rich (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North) was the server during this stretch and she chipped in with an ace. The Eagles wouldn't trail again as they went on to a 25-17 win in the first set.
The second set of the night was eerily similar to the first. Once again, Morris took a lead in the early stages, this time they led 13-8. Morris would commit an attacking error followed by a kill each from
Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford) and
Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) that would cut the Cougars' lead to 13-11. The game would progress until UMM held a 15-12 lead. The Eagles would score four straight points to take a lead that they would never relinquish. UNW entered the final stages of set two barely clinging to an 18-17 lead. UNW would power through the finish line with a 7-0 run to win set two by the same score as set one: 25-17.
The third and final set was the closest and most entertaining of the evening. Fast forward to the final moments of the match, the Cougars held their latest lead of the match, edging the Eagles by a point 18-17. An error by the Cougars would tie the game before
Mikayla Wilber (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) would pick up a huge serving ace to put UNW up 19-18. This time it was Morris' turn to tie the score and then
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) answered with a kill to put UNW back in front 20-19. The Eagles then made an error and the score was knotted back up at 20 points apiece. UNW would then pick up the three biggest points of the night. The Cougars committed a service error before
Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) and
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) would each pick up a kill. The Eagles had finally given themselves a bit of a cushion in the third set leading 23-20. UMM would refuse to go away and picked up another pair of points, but UNW was able to hold on to win 25-22 and complete the sweep.
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) was the team's leader in kills at 15 while
Grace Strickfaden (Norwood-Young America, Minn./NYA) led the Eagles with 21 assists.
Marley Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) was an unstoppable force defensively picking up two solo blocks and five block assists.
Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) led UNW with 21 digs.
Based off of Friday night's results around the UMAC, next week's UMAC Semifinal matchup has already been set. The Eagles will square off with Martin Luther who has secured the #4 seed and the final spot in the UMAC Postseason Tournament. The game will take place on Wednesday, November 8
th at 7:00pm inside the Ericksen Center.
Before the Eagles set their focus to postseason play, they still have two more regular season games to wrap up on Saturday. UNW will travel to Crown for their final UMAC game at 1:00pm before hosting St. Catherine University in their regular season finale at 5:00pm inside the Ericksen Center. The game against St. Cate's will mark Senior Night for the Eagles.
