EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Northern Kentucky University volleyball team played a pair of tough matches to close out the Dunn Hospitality Tournament as champions, defeating Jackson State and the host team, Evansville, on Saturday afternoon.
With the results, NKU improved to 5-5 on the season.
Match 1 vs. Jackson State
Haley Libs had another strong performance in the opener, going for 15 kills on a .400 hitting percentage as NKU took a 3-1 win over Jackson State (0-10).
Keely Creamer added 12 kills and five blocks, also hitting .400 on the afternoon, while
Tristen Simpson chipped in 11 kills and
Jayden Julian added nine with 11 digs.
Taylor Snyder had 42 assists, nine digs and six kills on the day, and
Mel Stewart finished with a team-high 14 digs.
A 9-1 run in the opening set gave the Norse the cushion they needed to push for a 25-13 win. Snyder went 5-for-5 attacking as the Norse hit .429 as a team in the set. In the second set, NKU raced out to an early 9-1 lead, but the Tigers chipped away, closing the set out on a 6-1 run of their own to take a 26-24 win of their own in the match.
More sustained mid-set runs paved the way for success for the Norse in the second half of the match. A 6-1 run, keyed by a pair of Creamer blocks, set the Norse up to take Set 3, 25-16, for a 2-1 lead in the match. In Set 4, a pair of kills from Simpson keyed the 6-1 run that gave the Norse the lead for good as they cruised to a 25-17 win in the final set.
Alexsis Ford led the way for the Tigers' offense with 16 kills, while Taija Thomas added 15 kills on a .433 hitting percentage. Tyler Moorer had 16 digs to pace the JSU defense.
Match 2 vs. Evansville
A 5-1 run late in Set 3 completed a comeback to allow the Norse to pick up a 3-0 victory over Evansville in the nightcap. Libs and Julian each had two kills in the match-deciding rally, finishing with eight and 11 kills, respectively.
Simpson put down a season-high 14 kills to lead the offense, while Creamer had another solid match, putting down 12 kills on a .440 hitting percentage.
Mel Stewart came up huge defensively, picking up a season-high 20 digs as well.
The Norse used a 7-1 run to push their lead in Set 1 to 19-16 before the Purple Aces (5-6) clawed back in to the set, taking a 23-22 lead. NKU picked up the final three points on kills from Creamer, Libs and a block by Snyder and Lankheit to make it a 25-23 Norse victory.
Set 2 was another close one, tied at 17-17 until a pair of Simpson kills sparked a 4-1 run and gave NKU a 21-18 lead. Creamer picked up two more kills along the way as NKU kept their advantage for a 25-20 win to set up the final-set fireworks.
Miranda Genesis led all players with 18 kills to pace the Evansville offense, while Mildrelis Rodriguez added 22 digs to eight kills on the defensive side.
NORSE NOTES
- For their performances on the weekend, Creamer and Snyder earned All-Tournament Team honors. Creamer finished the weekend with 39 kills on a .416 hitting percentage while Snyder averaged over 11 assists per set.
- NKU's win over Jackson State was head coach Liz Hart's 100th career coaching victory, all earned on the bench for the Black and Gold.
- Jayden Julian now stands at 973 career kills, 27 away from becoming the 17th member of NKU's 1,000-kill club.
