The sixth-ranked Raider volleyball team put up big wins this week in the Bellevue Tournament.
Finishing 4-0, the Raiders managed to defeat Bellevue, Bethany (Kan.), Georgetown and MidAmerica Nazarine.
Junior Kaitlin Beaver and junior Hilary Hanno were both named GPAC player-of-the-week in the winning effort.
First Northwestern had to get past No. 15 Bellevue, who the Raiders have already beaten once this year. It was a close match, with NW pulling out the 3-2 victory. Scores for the match were 25-21, 20-25, 22-25, 25-19 and 18-16.
Hanno finished with 23 kills, leading the Raiders, along with 18 from sophomore Rylee Hulstein. Beaver threw up 51 assists in the game as well.
The Raiders then took on Bethany (Kan.). It was a one-sided match in favor of the Raiders, who won 3-0 by the scores of 25-16, 25-16 and 25-18.
Hanno had 15 kills to lead the team alongside senior Randa Hulstein with 10. Beaver finished with 41 assists in the match.
The next match for the Raiders was against No. 5 Georgetown. The Raiders had lost to Georgetown once this season but managed to redeem themselves with a 3-1 victory this week with the scores of 22-25, 25-20, 25-16 and 25-21.
Leading the Raiders in kills were Hanno with 18 and Randa Hulstein with 17. Beaver put up big numbers for the third game in a row with 41 assists.
The final match of the week was against MidAmerica Nazarine. The Raiders won the match 3-0 with scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-16.
Rylee Hulstein and Hanno both finished with 11 kills on the match along with 38 assists from Beaver. Leading the team in digs was Rylee Hulstein with 11.
After going 4-0 this week and putting up wins against the No. 5 and No. 15 teams, NW moved up from sixth to fifth in the NAIA volleyball rankings. This week the Raiders will look to improve on their 18-2 record and 4-0 GPAC record when they take on Dana at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, October 2.