HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University volleyball team wraps up its early-season run of tournaments this weekend with the Hampton Inn Invitational, hosted by Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I.
The Norse (9-1) will take on the host Bulldogs along with Holy Cross and Akron. Links to live stats and video will be available at NKUNorse.com.
NKU is coming off another successful tournament appearance, winning the Harvard Invitational after picking up straight-set victories over Providence and Harvard. NKU also suffered its first loss of the season, battling valiantly but falling short in a comeback effort against Manhattan.
Again a Norse claimed the tournament's MVP award as
Shelby Buschur was so honored.
Jenna Schreiver was also named to the all-tournament team.
This weekend will provide NKU's final tuneup before opening Atlantic Sun Conference play against Lipscomb on Tuesday. The Bisons were picked as coaches favorite to repeat as league champions for the sixth consecutive year.
STREAK STOPPED: NKU's season-opening eight-match winning streak was halted on Saturday when Manhattan held off NKU's comeback attempt for a 3-2 victory. NKU's eight-straight are believed to be the best start to a season by a reclassifying Division I team since the NCAA instituted the Division I championship in 1981, and is the best start by an A-Sun team since Florida Atlantic won its first 15 matches in 2005.
CAN YOU DIG IT?: Kylee Tarantino now stands fifth on the NKU career digs list with 1,306 digs in her three-plus seasons. Tarantino needs 27 digs to pass Peggy ZIegler for fourth all-time.
SWEET SIXTEEN: Shelby Buschur is on track to become NKU's 16th member of the 1,000-kill club, entering this weekend with 943 career kills. Buschur would become the third Norse in the last two years to accomplish the feat.
THEY SAID IT
Head coach
Liz Hart
On last weekend's tournament: "I think it was a great motivation for us, we had a lot to work on. Manhattan played great, they played really hard and it was a good lesson for us; and we were able to come out against Harvard and play really well and sweep them."
On this weekend's tournament: "There's some very strong teams up there. It will be nice to play Bryant, which is in its fifth season in transition to Division I, so it will be interesting to see where we stand with them."
On NKU's balanced attack: "That is one of our goals for this season is to have a well-balanced offense. It's been huge for us, as our opponents don't know which hitter to key off of and our attackers don't feel the pressure of being the one to drive the attack."
On the service success: "That's been a focus for us. If we serve aggressive we can get our opponents out of system, which makes it easier on our block and our defense, so that's something we've been working on. It's nice to see a stat like that and see that we've been doing a good job and we just need to keep it up."
