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The North Wind

The North Wind

The North Wind

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Megan Voorhees
Megan Voorhees
Assistant News Editor

Hi! I’m Megan Voorhees and I’m the Assistant News Editor at The Northwind! I was first introduced to journalism my sophomore year of high school and I’ve been in love with the profession and writing...

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The North Wind is an independent student publication serving the Northern Michigan University community. It is partially funded by the Student Activity Fee. The North Wind digital paper is published daily during the fall and winter semesters except on university holidays and during exam weeks. The North Wind Board of Directors is composed of representatives of the student body, faculty, administration and area media.

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Volleyball wins two home games

NMU volleyball won two pivotal matches this past weekend at home against Ashland (3-1) on Friday and Tiffin (3-0) on Saturday.
The Wildcats are now 11-7 overall and 6-3 in the GLIAC North standings.

Bootstraps and comebacks

Head coach Dominic Yoder said his team has now reached a high point in the season and it’s happened on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
“For the most part, our offense was right on,” Yoder said. “A lot of that has to do with decent setting, and our defense has been attacking.”
But in Friday’s match, it was Ashland who attacked first, winning the first game 23-25.
“I think our serve reception was the answer,” Yoder said. “That’s the reason why we were down, because our serve reception was poor.”
To pick up the slack from weak serve reception against the Eagles, NMU looked to its four primary passers, senior Breanne Zaremba, freshman Rebecca Feuerherd and juniors Cassie Osiecki and Mandie Meyer.
“We all picked each other up, and we were able to overcome that (weak serve reception),” Meyer said.
NMU would rally to win the next three games, 25-18, 25-16 and 25-11 to get the victory.
“Those four players understood, because of [their] passing, we lost, and we need to pass better and they did,” Yoder said. “Those players knew that, and they were able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and come back in games two, three and four.”
Leading the way in kills for the match was senior Caryn VanBeckum, with 16 and Daniela Bezerra with 11.
Madeline Ogden had 37 passes, and Osiecki helped with 21 digs.
Junior Katt Garvick suffered an ankle injury in the Friday match that will take her out for two or three weeks, Yoder said.
“Injuries are part of the game, and it’s very important to be able to keep going with a backup player or a player that’ll fill in that role, and be very successful at it,” he said.
In Saturday’s match, sophomore Katie Twardzik got the start for Garvick.
“Katie was our starter in that position last year,” Yoder said. “I think Katie earned that spot and she means to be very successful.”

Dragon Wars

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The ‘Cats won their second home match of the weekend in three straight games (25-19, 25-13 and 25-14) against the Dragons of Tiffin University on Saturday.
NMU had 49 kills in 87 attempts. Three NMU players came up with more than 10 kills in the contest.
Meyer led the way with 13, while Bezerra and VanBeckum each had 12.
Osiecki added five service aces and Feuerherd had a team-high seven digs.
“We had a really good week at practice. Both sides of the court were going after each other and competing hard, and we took that into the weekend,” Feuerherd said. “We’re trying to get that same energy in practice and working hard and competing for it.”
Despite the two wins over the weekend, Yoder said his team must move on from here as they try to move up from third place in the GLIAC North Division.
“I think playing and using those matches as kind of a leap frog into our season is going to allow us to be very successful,” he said. “But I think we have to improve every single day. We have to be better tomorrow than we are today.
“That is the only way we can achieve success,” he added.
Both the North and South Divisons of the GLIAC are close races.
Wayne State and Northwood are tied for the top of the GLIAC South and could jeopardize NMU’s record of third in the GLIAC North by beating NMU, and possibly help Saginaw Valley or Ferris State move up.
“[FSU and SVSU], they want our spot, and they’re going to come in and compete for those positions,” Yoder said. “But we have to take care of our business, and we’re going to take care of beating Northwood and beating Wayne State this week.”
Yoder added that the road to success begins in practice and ends on the court.
“One of the things we talk about in practice is not to get comfortable now, just because we had two great matches,” he said.
The next chance the ‘Cats have to improve in the standings is this weekend. NMU will be squaring off at home against Northwood on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday against Wayne State at 2 p.m. at the Vandament.

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