HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky volleyball hosts Green Bay in the regular-season finale on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. ET. Prior to the match, NKU will honor its four seniors as part of its Senior Day festivities: Kaitlyn Bowen, Georgia Childers, Drew Hendricks and McKenzie Eskridge.

LAST TIME OUT: NKU took on the top-ranked team in the Horizon League and gave it a good fight, but dropped a four-setter to Cleveland State. The Norse took the third set in a decisive 25-18 victory, and nearly pushed a fifth set before falling 25-23 in the fourth. Haley Libs, Laura Crawford and Shelby Olsen all recorded double-doubles in the setback, with Libs posting 15 kills and 16 digs, Crawford adding 14 kills and 14 digs, and Olsen dishing out 50 assists to go with 13 digs. McKenzie Eskridge had the third 20-dig match of her career with 21 scoops to lead the team in the back row.
 
POSTSEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS: The final days of the regular season will prove to be vital to NKU's postseason possibilities. The Norse currently sit at sixth place in the Horizon League standings, which is the final seeding spot for the Horizon League Championship. NKU is two matches ahead of Milwaukee, but not completely in the clear. If the Panthers win out and the Norse lose the final match, Milwaukee would have the advantage over NKU based on highest seeded common opponent wins after the Panthers took two matches against Oakland. A win tomorrow would clinch tournament entry for the Norse. Likewise, should Milwaukee drop either of its final two matches against Wright State or Youngstown State, NKU will secure at least the No. 6 seed.
 
WELCOME TO THE CLUB: On Oct. 27, junior outside hitter Haley Libs recorded her 1,000th career kill, finishing the night with 17 kills and 13 digs for her seventh-straight double-doubles. Libs became the 19th member of NKU's 1,000-kill club, currently with 1,051 career kills, and is well on her way to joining the 1,000-dig club by the close of her four years at NKU with 788 career digs.
 
WINNING WAYS: NKU hit a major milestone as a program on Oct. 2, as the Norse posted their 1,000th win in the 42-year team history with a 3-1 win over Youngstown State. The Penguins claimed the opening set, but NKU rattled off the next three sets to remain undefeated in the series history with YSU. Haley Libs led the team with 21 kills and 15 digs, connecting at a .395 clip, while freshman Kaelin Gentile had a career night with 11 kills at a .346 clip. Drew Hendricks had a strong showing with a career-best 13 kills from the left pin.
 
DOUBLE THE DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLE: Both Haley Libs and Laura Crawford are averaging double-doubles on the season, with 13.42 kills/13.50 digs and 10.96 kills/12.25 digs per match, respectively. The duo recorded back-to-back double-doubles in the first two matches of the season against Robert Morris and Duquesne, and again versus Seattle and Sacramento State and later against Wright State and IUPUI.
  
The Robert Morris match marked a feat that had not been accomplished in nearly a decade. Two players with a double-double in a sweep is a feat in and of itself, but the rarity is even more so when the two players are both attackers. The last time a pair of Norse attackers registered double-doubles in a sweep was on Oct. 21, 2007 against Mount St. Joseph, when current head coach Liz Hart (née Holmes) had 16 kills and 10 digs in the three-set victory while Tristen Dye added 15 kills and 14 digs. The last time two attackers had double-doubles in a victory of any kind was on Nov. 14, 2015 against Cleveland State, courtesy of Libs (17 kills, 13 digs) and Jayden Julian (10 kills, 17 digs).
 
AND SETTER MAKES THREE: Shelby Olsen has also entered the fold as a double-double machine, averaging 41.17 assists and 12.04 digs per match. Olsen recorded the first double-double of her career against Seattle and went off for three-straight double-doubles throughout the entirety of the NKU Invitational, culminating in career bests of 53 assists and 17 digs (which was bested by 20 digs against Florida A&M on Sept. 16) against Bowling Green.
 
BACK LINE OF DEFENSE: Northern Kentucky's defense has become a mainstay of its success, and the Norse are keeping up with the trend of being one of the top defensive teams in the Horizon League. NKU is not only leading the Horizon League in digs per set (17.84), but that number is good for 14th nationally.
 
SCOUTING GREEN BAY: Green Bay received favor in the preseason as one of the League's top contenders, sitting second in the preseason poll just two points behind reigning champion Cleveland State, but the Phoenix have not met expectations as they sit at 8-6 in a two-way tie for fourth with UIC.
  
Green Bay's offense has been led by senior middle blocker Lydia DeWeese and freshman Taylor Wolf. Although listed as a setter, Wolf has taken on the task of being an attacker in her rookie campaign while returner Maddie Yoss dishes out the assists, and has been successful with 3.14 kills per set at a .274 clip while DeWeese leads the team with 3.26 kps at .349. Since entering League play, while Wolf is posting 3.25 kps at a .303 clip, both ranking in the top-10 in both kills and hitting percentage, while DeWeese also sits in the top-10 in both categories at 3.20 kps at .332, making the duo the only two players from the same institution to rank in the League's top-10 in the two statistics. Additionally, Yoss is one of the most successful offense distributors in the League, averaging 11.58 assists per set.
  
In the all-time series, NKU holds a 6-3 advantage, with the three losses coming in the past two seasons. Green Bay took a 3-1 victory over the Norse earlier this year when NKU took on the Phoenix in Green Bay on Oct. 14.