The Raiders traveled into Bellevue, Neb., last weekend, Sept. 24-25, and left with four quality wins from the Bruin/Premier Volleyball Classic.
Northwestern claimed victory in their first game over RV Friends University (Kan.) in three sets (25-20, 25-18, 25-16). The night contest on Friday ended with the same result, as Bethel (Kan.) put up a hard fight but lost 25-21, 25-21 and 25-23.
Saturday morning saw NW facing the host, 18th-ranked Bellevue. NW won the first two sets (25-22, 25-19), but Bellevue refused to go away as they capitalized on Raider mistakes and won the third and fourth set, both 25-19. The final set saw the Raiders dominate 15-6.
The Raiders defeated RV Lindenwood in the final match of the weekend, 3-2 (25-17, 24-26, 25-23, 22-25, 15-10).
Fourth-ranked NW improved to an impressive 21-0 (5-0) record on the season after handling Sioux Falls in three sets (25-16, 25-23, 25-15) Tuesday night, Sept. 28, at the Bultman Center.
Senior Hillary Hanno led the Raiders with 14 kills, and sophomore Kate Buyert added eight more. Senior Kaitlin Beaver lofted up 36 assists on the match. Hanno led the Raiders with five aces, and sophomore Jaci Moret added three more. NW recorded 14 aces on the match. Junior Rylee Hulstein scraped up 17 digs.
NW will travel to Concordia on Saturday, Oct. 2, for another GPAC game.
