BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Northern Kentucky University volleyball team got a season-high seven blocks from Jenna Ruble, but could not overcome the potent LIU Brooklyn attack in a 3-1 (25-14, 25-19, 24-26, 25-15) loss to open the Blackbird Invitational on Friday.
 
Ruble put eight kills with her blocking effort, while Jayden Julian lead the Norse with 12 kills and added seven digs and three blocks of her own. Mel Stewart had 18 digs to lead the defensive effort on the back row.
 
"Jayden, offensively and in her serve-receive, had one of the better performances," added Hart. "She did a really nice job passing and, when things got shaky, she was there to nail down the communication for us and rally the team.  She was matched up with [LIU's Annika Foit] all night and we were able to manage to get some big blocks against her."
 
Taylor Snyder picked up her second double-double in three matches, getting 32 assists and adding 11 digs. As a team, the Norse picked up 12 blocks, matching their season high from last weekend against SIU Edwardsville. Keely Creamer added five blocks along with six kills on the day.
 
The Norse (5-2) keyed on the play of LIU's Foit, but the senior still managed 23 kills on the day, hitting .340 and adding 10 digs in the process. Tamara Ignjic also contributed 17 kills for the Blackbirds, who improved to 5-3 on the season.
 
"We did really well blocking today; we just weren't able to defend the balls from the back row and push the ball back in transition," said head coach Liz Hart. "LIU is a very good team; they have two very good hitters. In the end, I thought we did a nice job getting a few blocks in.  We weren't able to execute our system as well, and I thought we could have done better defensively to get things going in transition."
 
LIU Brooklyn took the first two points in Set 1 and never trailed, taking a 25-14 win in the match opener. Creamer and Ruble each picked up three kills for the Norse before the Blackbirds closed out the set with a 9-2 run to take the win. LIU attacked at a .500 clip in the opening stanza, racking up 19 kills to just two attack errors.
 
After another early rally put LIU Brooklyn ahead at 5-2 in Set 2, Ruble had a hand in three straight Norse points, picking up a pair of blocks and a kill to pull NKU within a point at 12-11, but NKU could not maintain pressure as LIU responded with three straight points to push the lead to four. A later 6-1 rally for the Blackbirds helped put the set away, 25-19.
 
With the Norse trailing by an 18-14 margin in Set 3, the Norse took advantage of some strong net defense to claw back into a win. After Snyder picked up one of her three kills on the match, the Norse benefitted from a pair of attack errors by Mia Radisic to spark a 5-1 Norse run and tie the match at 19-19. The teams traded sideouts until, at 22-all, Snyder and Ruble combined on a key block to give the Norse the one-point advantage. LIU came back to tie as the teams traded points again to a 25-24 Norse lead when Keely Creamer and Jayden Julian teamed up to block an Annika Foit attempt to give the Norse the set and extend the match.
 
Again, LIU came out strong in Set 4, racing out to a 6-2 lead en route to a 25-15 win to clinch the match for the Blackbirds. Back-to-back kills from Creamer closed the gap to three at 9-6, but that was as close as NKU would get the rest of the way as Foit added five kills and hit .714 in the set to pace the Blackbird offense.
 
The Norse will look to rebound tomorrow, facing Temple and Boston College in back-to-back matches to close out the tournament. First serve for the Temple match is set for 12:30 p.m. Live stats and video links are available at NKUNorse.com. For more information on Norse volleyball, follow @NKUNorseVBall on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.