The NMU Women’s Volleyball team capped its final road trip of the regular season with sweeps of Lake Superior State and Saginaw Valley State last weekend.
The Wildcats defeated the Lakers by set scores of 25-13, 25-13 and 25-18 on Friday before defeating the Cardinals 25-23, 25-21 and 25-15.
The Wildcats now have six straight victories going into the final three matches of the regular season, and remain in a tie for second place with its next opponent, Michigan Tech. Both teams have a conference record of 10-3, trailing No. 18-ranked Ferris State by just one game.
NMU head coach Mike Lozier said last weekend was an important one despite facing struggling opponents.
“We’re kind of in a position now where every match is super important,” he said. “Lake State has been struggling this year but that match is just as important as any other match. We got that win and played really well and then we went to Saginaw, where we had to show up and play well to beat them and we did.”
The Wildcats defeated the struggling Lakers with ease on Friday, pulling out to early leads in the first two sets and never looking back. After the Wildcats jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third set and continued to pull ahead, the Lakers brought the score back within one at 12-11. NMU never surrendered the lead however, and clinched the match on a kill by junior Autumn Monsma. Senior Kayla Chosa recorded 14 kills in the match while freshman Leticia Antunes notched seven.
The also-struggling Cardinals of SVSU gave the Wildcats more of a run in Saturday’s match. The Cardinals pulled out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and were up by as much as six points. NMU battled back though, taking its first lead of the set 16-15 on an SVSU attack error. It was a close back-and-forth set the rest of the way and the Wildcats took the final two points on attack errors to clinch set one.
It was the same story in set two with the Cardinals jumping out to a 7-0 lead this time.
NMU clawed back once again to tie the set at 10 and took its first lead of the set 14-13 on a kill from senior Madison Whitehead. The Wildcats never looked back from there, maintaining the lead and winning the set on a sophomore Sarah Kuehn kill. The third set was less tense, with the Wildcats winning the match on another kill from Whitehead.
Whitehead had nine kills overall in the contest while Kuehn tallied 11.
Senior Jami Hogeboom said getting two wins on the final road trip was exciting.
“It was a really exciting weekend,” she said. “Every game no matter what is extremely important and I think that we went and wanted to take care of business and every single one of us went hard and it was a good weekend overall.”
The focus now shifts to the Huskies who are also on a streak of their own, winning its last four matches. The Wildcats took the first meeting of the season 3-1 in Houghton on Sept. 19.
Lozier said both sides are different and both sides have improved since their last meeting.
“They’re just playing a tighter game, but everyone is,” he said. “Everyone is improving, the thing is we’ve both been winning recently and we’re both tied for second in the conference. It’s going to be a good match and I expect it to be highly contested.”
Kuehn said the rivalry is always fun but will be more intense this year due to the race in the GLIAC standings.
“We’re definitely looking forward to the rivalry because it’s always a fun game no matter what,” she said. “Plus, considering we’re tied for second right now, that’s a little bit more motivation. I’m sure as we’ve gotten better throughout the season, they have too; every team typically improves throughout the season and we expect no less from them.”
NMU hosts the Huskies at 5 p.m. Saturday at Vandament Arena.
