HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky volleyball team claimed a straight-set win (25-18, 26-24, 25-16) over Cleveland State on Monday night at Regents Hall. The Norse move to 1-2 on the year, while the Vikings slide to 3-2.

STAT LEADERS

·       Reilly Briggs converted 13 kills at a .364 hitting clip.

·       Kaelin Gentile was just as impressive, hitting .364 and terminating 12 balls.

·       Ashton Terrill registered a match-high 17 scoops, while freshman Lillian Leiner picked up 13 digs from the back row.

·       Miranda Wucherer and Katie Yopko kept the Norse attack flowing the whole night, distributing 19 and 16 assists, respectively.

FIRST SET SUMMARY

·       Cleveland State came out quickly and built an early 7-4 lead, but Northern Kentucky reeled off three-straight points to even the set and force a Vikings' timeout.

·       NKU then used a 4-1 run to take the lead for good and slowly pull away from there.

·       Gentile terminated two of the last three points in the set for NKU.

·       The Norse registered a 77 percent side-out in the set, compared to just 56 percent for the Vikings

·       Briggs (6) and Gentile (4) combined for 10 Norse kills.

·       As a team, the Norse registered 17 terminations without committing an error for an outstanding .567 attack percent.

SECOND SET SUMMARY

·       The Vikings came out even faster in the second set, pulling ahead 7-3 and then 9-4.

·       The Norse answered and chipped away, cutting the lead to two five times throughout the middle portion of the frame.

·       Cleveland State countered with two-quick points to pull ahead 20-16 before the Norse reeled off three-straight, capped by an Abby Kanakry kill.

·       CSU pushed back in front 23-20, but Gentile came through with a kill and then teamed with Allie Siefke for a block before the Vikings committed a hitting error. The three-point string tied the stanza at 23.

·       Gentile sandwiched a pair of kills around one from Cleveland State, but the Norse ended the set 26-24 on a Vikings' error.

·       Gentile manage four more kills to lead the Norse attack.

THIRD SET SUMMARY

·       Set No. 3 was all about the Norse. Briggs got a kill on the first point and NKU raced out to an 11-3 advantage and never led by less than seven the rest of the way.

·       Briggs and Gentile added four more kills, while Wucherer put away three of her own.

·       Terrill picked up 10 digs and the Norse front row stuffed three attacks.

·       NKU converted .233 of its attempts and held CSU to its lowest attack percentage of the evening at .044.

MATCH NOTES

·       Northern Kentucky hit at an extremely efficient .310 clip for the match, terminating 45 balls while committing just nine errors across the three sets.

·       The Norse finished with a 6.0-2.0 advantage in blocks, led by four block assists from Siefke.

·       All four players that finished with double-digit attacks on the evening for NKU, registered a hitting percent above .273. In addition to Briggs and Gentile who both hit .364, Kanakry put away seven kills at a .286 percentage and Wucherer terminated eight attempts at a .273 percentage.

NEXT UP

Northern Kentucky and Cleveland State return to the court on Feb. 9 at 3 p.m., for the second matchup of the two-game series.

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