EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Haley Libs continues to shine in her freshman campaign for the Northern Kentucky University volleyball team, putting down a team-best 16 kills on Friday to help the Norse to a 3-1 win over Louisiana Tech to open the Cougar Classic, hosted by SIU Edwardsville.
Libs posted an astounding .556 hitting percentage and led a group of three Norse players in double-figures for kills.
Tristen Simpson added 12 kills and
Jayden Julian posted 11 as the Norse improved to 1-3 on the season.
Keyaira Lankheit added six blocks as the Norse dominated at the net, winning the blocking battle by an 11-3 margin.
Taylor Snyder added a season-high 45 assists and led the Norse to a .293 hitting percentage as a team, the team's best mark of the year.
After Tech came out on a 5-1 run to start things off, the Norse kept pace methodically until a 5-1 run of their own put the Norse on top, 11-10. The Norse continued to battle stride-for-stride through matching 3-0 rallies until taking four of the final five points to push to a 25-21 win in the opening set.
Haley Libs and
Jayden Julian each had four kills in the set to pace the Norse offense.
NKU got off to the hot start in the second stanza, including a pair of service aces to spark a 5-1 run to start things off. Later, leading 8-6, the Norse broke the set open with a 10-0 run that included a pair of Libs kills and three consecutive service aces from
Mel Stewart. Tech rallied late with four straight, but NKU was too far ahead, cruising to a 25-14 win to go up 2-0 in the match.
The third set saw both teams keep things fairly even throughout to a 21-21 score before a Norse service error and back-to-back attack errors from the Norse gave the Lady Techsters the edge they needed to hold on for a 25-23 victory, keeping the match alive.
Again in set four, an early run by the Norse made the difference as a pair of blocks from
Keyaira Lankheit bookended a 4-0 run that pushed the Norse lead to 9-4. NKU continued to push points, growing the lead as large as 10 points at 16-6. The Norse maintained the advantage and held on for a 25-17 win to take the match.
NKU returns to the court on Saturday for a pair of matches, taking on Arkansas at 3 p.m. Eastern before closing out the tournament against the hosts, SIU Edwardsville, at 8 p.m. Live stats and video links are available at NKUNorse.com.
NORSE NOTES - Tonight's win helped NKU avoid its first four-match losing streak since the 2013 season, when NKU dropped consecutive matches from Oct. 18-25.
- With the win, Liz Hart picked up her 97th career coaching victory in her six seasons, four of which have been at the Division I level.
- Friday's match marked the first in the series against Louisiana Tech, and the first time NKU has played at SIUE since the 2006 season, when NKU dropped a 3-1 decision to Indianapolis in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.
