FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- The Northern Arizona volleyball team needs to win one of its two remaining home matches this week to wrap up the conference regular season championship and earn the right to host the Big Sky tournament for the first time in school history.
The Lumberjacks (23-4, 13-1 Big Sky) will host Sacramento State (24-5, 11-3 Big Sky) -- the only team to beat NAU in the conference season -- on Thursday night and Portland State (8-18, 4-10) on Saturday night in the Rolle Activity Center. Both matches will start at 7 p.m.
Seniors Payton Bock, Jordan Leiter, Janae Vander Ploeg and Stacia Williams will be honored before Saturday night's match.
NAU has a 12-match winning streak -- tied for the longest in school history -- and holds a two-game lead over Sacramento State and Idaho State in the Big Sky standings. Sacramento State has won eight consecutive matches coming into Thursday's contest.
Vander Ploeg's school record 1,540 career kills ranks ninth all-time in conference history. Her 477 kills this season is seventh ranks seventh in the nation.
Bock ranks third in the nation with 153 total blocks this season and second among active Division I players with 529 career blocks.
"I'm hoping to see us play a great match against Sac State," NAU coach Ken Murphy said. "Offensively, they're as good of a team as we've faced all year and the challenges are really significant. Clearly, winning that match puts us on a good trajectory going into next week, but Portland State also presents some challenges. We're going to have to approach this week as we always do."
