MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.- #4 University of Northwestern Volleyball entered their nonconference game on Wednesday night boasting their highest national ranking of the season so far. The Eagles represented their high national standing well as they went on the road and swept Augsburg University 3-0. The win pushed the Eagles' winning streak to five games.
The Eagles were back on the road after having played back-to-back home games this past weekend. #4 UNW got off to a momentarily slow start, but that didn't last long as they recovered well to win the first set. Playing in front of their home fans, Augsburg jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set. The Auggies would stretch their lead to 6-3 before the Eagles went on a tear.
With
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) serving, the Eagles would go on a dominating 10-0 run. The streak of ten consecutive points would put them back in front and firmly in the drivers' seat for the remainder of set one.
Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford) was an unstoppable force during that run, picking up four kills in that stretch. The Eagles never looked back and cruised to a first set victory 25-20.
The second set followed a similar script as the first. Once again, the Auggies got off to a strong start and forced the Eagles to play from behind. This time however, the Auggies held the lead into the late stages of the set. UNW saw themselves trailing 20-14 as the second set came down the stretch. Once again, the Eagles showed how dangerous they can be once they find their rhythm as they went on another long run to win the second set.
This time, it was a 9-0 run that saw the Eagles go from trailing 20-14 to leading 23-20 in the blink of an eye.
Mikayla Wilber (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) was the Eagle who had the serve during this streak and this time it was
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) who had four kills during the stretch. The Eagles had stormed back to steal the second set from the Auggies, 25-21.
The Eagles had shown their ability to go on scoring spurts that change the whole outlook of a set in the first two sets of Wednesday night's match so it should not have come as a surprise that they did it one more time in the third and final set. Augsburg trailed Northwestern two sets to zero so they knew that had to take set three in order to prolong the game. They were unable to force a fourth set, but the final set did end up being the longest and the most tightly contested.
This set did not appear as if it would be as "streaky" as the first two sets. For a majority of the set, neither team was able to go on a long run as neither team held the serve for more than three points at a time. That would change in the final moments of the final set. #4 UNW trailed 24-21, knowing that if they saw Augsburg score one more point, they would be forced to play a fourth set on the road. In very fitting fashion, they used a 5-0 run to stun the Auggies on the road. The Eagles won the third set 26-24 and the match 3-0.
Grace Strickfaden (Norwood-Young America, Minn./NYA) had 26 assists on the night. She had entered the match with 979 career assists, needing 21 to crack the 1,000 milestone. She did just that on Wednesday night. It is a nice mark for the junior to reach and the future is bright for that total to keep climbing and hit more milestones in the final year and a half of her career.
Abby Glanzer (Brandon, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) led the Eagles with 19 kills on a .386 percentage.
Ari Schmidt (Albany, Minn./Holdingford) once again hit the cover off the ball at a very high clip, hitting .379 on her way to 12 kills.
Marley Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) and
Grace Moravchik (Mason, Wis./Ashland) had five kills each while
Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) hit .400 on the night and had four kills.
After a brief stint outside of the UMAC on Wednesday night, #4 Northwestern will return to UMAC play this weekend. They will travel north to square off with Wisconsin-Superior on Friday, September 29
th and Northland on Saturday, September 30
th.
