On September 5, the Northwestern varsity volleyball team won their first match of the year 3-0 against the University of Northwestern-St. Paul.
The match was held at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, as part of the Dordt Classic and was observed by a modest, yet supportive, masked crowd. The first set was a hotly contested battle between the two teams for the starting victory.
For a majority of the game, neither team held more than a one-point advantage over the other. After battling back and forth, NWC ended the game victorious with a final score of 25-23.
Having won the initial set, NWC entered the second set with confidence and power, holding a four- to six-point advantage for most of the game. About halfway through the match, UNW started to shrink the gap, only to lose their footing in the final scramble to end the game.
NWC ended the second set with an overwhelming victory of 25-18.
But UNW gathered their strength and started the third and final set of the match incredibly strong, consecutively scoring the first four points of the game and earning a safe lead.
After these first few volleys, NWC pulled themselves together and began to slowly gain on their opponents. Eventually, after steadily decreasing the gap between the two teams, NWC finally overturned UNW’s lead at 18-17.
UNW fought to regain their lead, but NWC held strong. After several ties and a bitter fight to the end, NWC finally ended the set victorious with a final score of 25-23.
Based on the performance of this game, the Raiders look to be off to yet another successful season. The team boasted almost twice as many kills as UNW, with NWC senior Mackenzie Fink ending the game with a match high of 11 kills. She also scored half of NWC’s six aces.
Seniors Emily Van Ginkel, Anna Wedel and A.J. Kacmarynski also scored many kills for the team. In assists, senior Lacey Reitz earned three — more than the entire team of UNW throughout the match.
Up next in their season,
NWC will play Bellevue University on Thursday, Sept 10, and Dordt University on Tuesday, Sept 15. Both matches will be hosted here at NW.
