YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Northern Kentucky's defense showed up in full force and its performance at the service line kept Youngstown State reeling as the Norse swept the Penguins on Monday night at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown, Ohio. NKU's record moves to 5-3 on the season and 4-3 in Horizon League play. YSU dips to 2-5 both overall and against league opposition.
STAT LEADERS
· Anna Brinkmann had a match-high nine kills with just one error. She added nine digs.
· Ashton Terrill was one of the Norse ringleaders from the service line, registering five aces on the night. She also contributed 13 scoops.
· Anna Burke added three aces on the evening to go along with six digs.
· Kaelin Gentile notched seven kills.
· Reilly Briggs, who contributed five kills offensively, paced the Norse defense at the net with a four block assists.
· NKU also received three block assists from Miranda Wucherer, Allie Siefke, Natalie Hardig and Peytton Bagwell, while Brinkmann also added a pair of block assists
FIRST SET SUMMARY
· Burke put the pressure on Youngstown State's passing, recording three aces.
· It was on Burke's serve that Northern Kentucky claimed the set. Leading by just one, 14-13, Kaelin Gentile terminated a ball to give NKU a two-point lead and send Burke to the service line.
· Burke served up two aces and forced YSU to call a timeout, but NKU went on to score 11-straight points to close out the set, 25-13.
· NKU's defense limited YSU to negative 0.094 hitting with just five kills compared to eight hitting errors.
· Offensively, Brinkmann put away four kills to pace a Norse offense that registered 10 kills in the set on the strength of .320 hitting.
SECOND SET SUMMARY
· Northern Kentucky went on another run early in the second set, this time on Terrill's serve. Leading, 4-2, another Gentile kill put Terrill at the service line, where the Norse reeled off another eight points to push ahead, 13-2.
· The Norse closed out the set, 25-14.
· NKU's attack cooled off in the second, registering nine kills on a .061 hitting percentage.
· However, defense stiffened even more as Northern Kentucky held Youngstown State to another negative hitting percentage at -0.121. YSU managed just another five kills and committed nine attack errors thanks to five Norse blocks.
· Gentile had three kills to pace the attack.
THIRD SET SUMMARY
· The Norse controlled the third set from the beginning, but this time from an offensive standpoint, en route to the 25-17 set win. They registered 15 kills and hit .324.
· Seven players registered a kill, with each of them registering at least two. Brinkmann put away three attacks, while Briggs, Wucherer, Gentile, Hardig, Siefke and Skyy Smith terminated two apiece.
· The Penguins had a positive hitting percentage at .133 with nine kills.
MATCH NOTES
· Spanning the first and second sets, Northern Kentucky outscored Youngstown State 24-2.
· The Norse finished the match with a 9.0-1.0 advantage in blocks.
· NKU had 13 aces on the evening, the fourth-highest mark in the DI era and most since registering 14 against Oral Roberts on Sept. 15, 2018, in a five-set match. NKU also registered 14 aces in a five-set contest against UIC on Oct. 6, 2017. The DI-era record is 15, which was established in the first-ever match as a DI program when the Norse downed Saint Peters in straight sets on Aug. 24, 2012.
· Northern Kentucky has now won five of its last six matches.
· Youngstown State hit -.032. The last time the Norse held an opponent below .100 came on Oct. 6, 2019 when IUPUI managed an attack percent of .053.
NEXT UP
The two-game series between the Norse and Penguins wraps up with a 5 p.m. match on Tuesday, March 3. ESPN+ will carry the live stream of the match.
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