The Northern Michigan University volleyball team has ended the 2014 volleyball season, falling to Saginaw Valley State University Cardinals in a 3-0 loss.

This year, the volleyball team stands No. 3 in GLIAC with a 14-4 record.

Comparing last year’s standings in GLIAC to this year’s standings, junior left side hitter Lisa Studnicka said this season, the team was able to focus on team systems rather than individual skills, due to good individual skill sets and knowledge of the game.

“Top to bottom the GLIAC is filled with really great teams, some whose record doesn’t speak to how good they are,” Studnicka said. “After having so many freshmen and newcomers this year, I think our growth as a team has been tremendous. Being such a young team, I think it kept us focused by not being able to take any of the teams this season for granted. We took care of business in conference.”

In previous matches against SVSU, the Wildcats lost in a 3-2 match.

Last night, Wednesday, Nov. 12, the set outcomes were 25-23, 25-14 and 27-25

Freshman setter Meghan Seymour assisted 36 kills against Saginaw Valley, while junior libero Alex Berger totaled up 19 digs for the night.

“The matches didn’t go our way tonight, but we can’t walk away saying that we didn’t fight. We fought and put our hearts on the line,” Berger said.

“In the end, someone has to lose and unfortunately this year, it was us.”

Sophomore right side hitter Alex Larsen led the team in the match with 11 kills.

“I think my team getting excited amps me up to play and I really hope that I did the same to them,” Larsen said. “We are a team and it is a team effort .

“It was a really close game. Both sides fought really hard, but at the end of the day, they got a lot of the close points that made a difference as an end result. I am proud of how we came back in the end.”

The Cardinals were No. 4, 12-6, in GLIAC regular season play and will continue on in GLIAC tournament play.

“Our kids battled,” head coach Dominic Yoder said. “We got stuck in one rotation in the second set, but for 75 percent of the time, we battled back and forth. We knew Saginaw Valley was going to work and play us hard.

“The whole team worked and stepped it up in the third set. We saw good performances out of our right side and middles. Our defense prevented them from scoring and gave us good opportunities to put a swing on the ball.”

“I want to thank everyone who came out to support us,” Berger said. “We had a big crowd and it was really nice to play for them.”