MANKATO, Minn. – Last weekend, the University of Northwestern Volleyball team clinched at least a share of its 15
th-consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular season championship, as well as the No. 1 seed in next week's UMAC Volleyball Tournament. But like a toddler at daycare,
Beth Wilmeth's squad had no interest in sharing. Needing to win just one of its two road games this weekend to win the trophy outright, Northwestern decided to wrap things up as soon as it could. The Eagles defeated Bethany Lutheran, the No. 3 seed in the conference tourney, 3-1 on Friday night to claim the outright crown for the sixth-straight season. The conference title was also the final piece in UNW becoming the first school in UMAC history to win outright regular season championships in all four fall women's sports.
The Eagles jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set, but soon found themselves trailing 9-6. Northwestern then went on a run itself, getting two kills from
Anna Olsen (Randolph, Minn./Randolph) and three blocks from
Marley Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) en route to a 14-11 advantage. The set remained neck-and-neck, and Bethany eventually was on the brink of stealing the opener with a 23-21 lead. But the Eagles dug deep and scored four-straight, including a kill and another block from Aune, to steal it back, 25-23.
The second set was deadlocked at four after an Aune ace, but the Vikings rattled off six-consecutive points to surge ahead, 10-4. UNW was never quite able to recover despite a brief run where Aune picked up a kill and another ace, and
Ana Egge (Rapid City, S.D./Rapid City Christian) two kills. The visitors got within six after back-to-back kills by Olsen and
Miranda Wyatt (Manhattan, Mont./Manhattan Christian), but BLC took the set convincingly, 25-16.
A 4-0 run by Northwestern early in the third set gave the Eagles a 7-3 advantage, and a second 4-0 spurt made it 16-6 after consecutive Wyatt kills and a
Hannah Rich (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North) ace. Olsen, Aune and
Anja Jarchow (Luverne, Minn./Luverne) continued to excel at the net as the lead nearly touched double digits at 22-13. After a brief 3-0 run by Bethany Lutheran, UNW got two kills from Egge and one from Olsen to take set three by a 25-17 score and take a 2-1 lead.
It appeared clear that the Eagles' approach in set four was to get the ball to their top two kill leaders, as Aune picked up three early ones and Egge two, making the score 9-5 in favor of Northwestern. A 7-2 run highlighted by two Wyatt kills and back-to-back
Addeson Jenniges (Walnut Grove, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove) aces extended the lead to 16-8, then two more Aune kills stretched it to 19-10. Egge added one more kill for good measure and Wyatt tacked on three more, giving the sophomore five for the set, to close out the match with a 25-15 win.
UNW's monsters in the middle, Wyatt and Aune, led the way with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Aune also added four blocks (three solo) and two aces, while Wyatt hit .435 on the night. Olsen tallied nine kills on .304 hitting and Egge seven kills. Jenniges served up 42 assists and two aces, while Rich added an ace as well.
Mikayla Wilber (Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids) led the team in digs with 10, and
Ella Bourne (Clara City, Minn./MACCRAY) and
Grace Moravchik (Mason, Wis./Ashland) followed with eight each.
The 20-7 Eagles (11-0 UMAC) will close out the regular season Saturday with a 1:00 match at Martin Luther, which can be streamed on the UMAC Sports Network.
