MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Twenty-one blocks. The Horizon League's leader in blocks per set needed all 21 stuffs it produced as Northern Kentucky gritted out a five-set league tournament semifinal thriller over Wright State on Saturday night.
 
Northern Kentucky picked up its 20^th win on the season, moving to 20-7. Wright State dips to 23-8.

STATS LEADERS

• Reilly Briggs terminated 18 attacks at a .333 clip. She also contribute four block assists.
• The Norse picked up two double-doubles from Anna Brinkmann and Katy Yopko. Brinkmann registered 15 kills and 21 digs with eight total blocks and Yopko had 27 assists to go with her 11 scoops. Brinkmann also finished with eight total blocks, two solo and six assisted, setting a new career high.
• Abby Kanakry had 13 kills and six blocks.
• Anna Burke and Lillian Leiner both reached the 20-dig plateau in addition to Brinkmann. Burke had 27 scoops and Leiner recorded a career-high 21.
• Miranda Wucherer was one dig off of a double-double, tallying 27 assists and nine digs.
• Both Sequoia Hunt and Allie Siefke tied their career-highs in blocks with nine and seven, respectively.

 
FIRST SET SUMMARY   

• The first set featured the two teams trading mini-runs of two and three points all the way to a 19-all tie.
• At that point, Northern Kentucky put together a four-point run with a Brinkmann block, back-to-back kills from the senior and a termination from Siefke. Wright State called its second timeout.
• The Raiders scored the next two points, resulting in a Norse timeout leading 23-21.
• Coming out of NKU's timeout, WSU continued its streak and evened the score at 24.
• The set finally came to a close, 26-24, with Northern Kentucky using a Briggs kill and attack error on the Raiders.
• Northern Kentucky outhit Wright State 19-15 in terminations and .306-.255 in hitting percentage.
• Brinkamann had five kills, while Briggs had four and the trio of Banks, Kanakry and Hunt had three each.
• Yopko had nine assists.
• Burke and Leiner each contributed six scoops from the back row.

 
SECOND SET SUMMARY   

• With NKU leading 8-6, WSU called timeout and flipped the momentum.
• The Raiders jumped on top with a 12-4 spurt to grab an 18-12 advantage, resulting in the Norse call both timeouts during that time.
• Northern Kentucky countered with four-straight scores and it was Wright State's turn to call timeout.
• Five unanswered by WSU coming out of the break led to it winning the second, 25-18.
• NKU had just 10 kills behind .109 attacking percentage in the set, while WSU put away 18 terminations at .273 hitting.
• Briggs had four of NKU's kills and Burke and Leiner scooped another six and five digs, respectively.

 
THIRD SET SUMMARY 

• Nine of the first 13 points of the set went to the Norse, but the Raiders chipped away and eventually took a 15-14 lead.
• NKU regrouped to take a 17-16 advantage. However, WSU answered with the next three points.
• It was Northern Kentucky's turn to respond and it did so with three-straight and four of the next five points, the final of which came by way of a Kanakry and Siefke block. The rally put NKU ahead 23-21.
• Kanakry punctuated NKU's 25-22 set win with a termination.
• The Norse had 14 kills and only six errors. While the Raiders put away 13 attacks, they had nine errors, six of which came via Norse blocks.
• The Norse used four kills apiece from Brinkmann and Kanakry and seven digs from Brinkmann.
• Siefke's three blocks led an NKU team that saw six players record a block in the set.

 
FOURTH SET SUMMARY 

• Despite jumping up 4-2 in the opening points, the Norse surrendered a 6-1 run and were forced to call timeout.
• WSU's spurt extended to 9-2 and an 11-6 deficit for NKU.
• The Norse cut the lead to three, only to the Raiders push back out to a 19-12 advantage.
• Northern Kentucky wasn't finished and ran off the next four points to force a Wright State timeout.
• Coming out of the break, NKU scored the next two and cut the deficit to one, 19-18.
• The next two points went to the Raiders, who then forced a fifth set with a 25-21 decision.
• Wright State finished with five more kills (15-10), but Northern Kentucky had five fewer errors (9-4). The difference came at the service line where WSU had one more ace and two fewer errors.

 
FIFTH SET SUMMARY 

• Consecutive Norse blocks, one from the Banks/Hunt duo and another from Brinkmann/Hunt duo, put them up 4-1 early.
• The Raiders countered with four-straight, but NKU responded with two of its own and the set turned into a back-and-forth affair.
• With the scored tied at 10, NKU tallied the next two scores and forced WSU to call timeout.
• Hunt and Kanakry stuffed the next attack and the Raiders called timeout again with the Norse leading 13-10.
• While WSU scored the next point, Kanakry hammered home a termination and then teamed with Hunt for a block to send the Norse to a 15-11 win.
• Hunt finished with four blocks and Briggs provided the offensive fire power with five kills, terminating all five of her attempts in the stanza.

 
MATCH NOTES   

• NKU's 21 total blocks on the evening are tied for the sixth-most in the country this year in a five-set match.
• All three matches between Northern Kentucky and Wright State this season went a full five sets. The two teams are no strangers to five setters having played in seven of them in the last 13 meetings, which span five seasons.
• Brinkmann now has 15 double-doubles on the season and 42 in her career. Yopko has five double-doubles in her sophomore campaign.
• This also marks the 12^th time this season in which Burke has registered 20 or more digs.
• NKU finished with 62 kills compare to 69 from WSU, but due to their strong net play the Norse had 11 fewer hitting errors.
• Northern Kentucky also finished just shy of the century mark in digs with 99.
• This marks the third appearance in the Horizon League Tournament Championship over the last four years for the Norse. NKU defeated WSU in the semifinals of the 2019 tournament before defeating Milwaukee in the title match. That season also saw Northern Kentucky defeat UIC in the quarterfinals.

 
NEXT UP 
No. 2 NKU moves on to the championship match on Sunday against No. 4 UIC, which upset host and No. 1-seed Milwaukee in a five-set match earlier in the evening. The Norse and Flames square off at 5 p.m. (ET)/4 p.m. (CT) at the Klotsche Center.