First year NMU head volleyball coach, Dominic Yoder picked up his first career home victory on Wednesday night against the Michigan Tech University Huskies.

“Michigan Tech is a good team. They are going to fight for every single point and that showed tonight,” Yoder said.

Northern fought their way to a 3-0 victory, winning the games 30-25, 30-17 and 31-29. The victory gave Northern an 8-7 record overall and 2-1 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and left the Huskies with a 2-8 record overall and 0-3 in the GLIAC.

“I think we just played consistent from start to finish,” Yoder said. “They really worked at everything hard. They really saw the defense well tonight which is important with us being a young team and our growth and development.”

Defensively, for the ‘Cats Cassie Osiecki and Brittany McGowan led the team in digs with 17 and 13. Junior Caryn VanBeckum led the team with four total blocks.

Offensively, sophomores Mandie Meyer and Katt Garvick, along with VanBeckum, showed their improvement by combining for 35 of the team’s 49 kills.

“I think we played great,” VanBeckum said. “Everybody stepped up and played really well.”

The Wildcats were happy they could step up and help Yoder bring in his first home victory tonight against the Huskies.

“It’s huge for him. It makes a good impression on the community,” VanBeckum said.

A crowd of over 900 was present for the match.

The next games for the volleyball team are on Friday Sept. 21 against Mercyhurst and on Saturday, Sept. 22 against Gannon. Both games are at 7 p.m. in the Vandament Arena.

This weekend will mark the last time that the volleyball team will play Gannon and Mercyhurst in conference action, as both teams are leaving the GLIAC after this season.

“We are going to give them a warm welcome, and send them home,” Yoder said.