FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- The Northern Arizona volleyball team fought back from a 2-0 deficit to force a decisive fifth set on Thursday night, but Northern Colorado halted the Lumberjacks’ comeback bid and emerged with a 3-2 victory over NAU.
Game scores were 25-21, 25-15, 24-26, 20-25, 15-12 victory Thursday night. The Lumberjacks fell to 12-6 overall and 6-3 in the Big Sky heading into their match against Big Sky leading North Dakota on Saturday. Northern Colorado improved to 7-12 and 3-6.
“We played at a much lower level than we’re capable of in the first two sets,” said head coach Ken Murphy. “But we went in the locker room relaxed and focused on improving in some key areas, particularly blocking. Once we did that, we got better throughout the match.”
The fifth set was evenly played from the start though as the teams saw themselves tied at 9-9, the seventh tie of the set. Three straight points for UNC though was what the Bears needed though in what turned out to be a three-point final margin.
NAU hit .188 for the match while Northern Colorado hit .210. Janae Vander Ploeg led the way with 18 kills, and freshman Jensen Barton came off the bench to hand out 27 assists and narrowly missed her first career double-double with nine digs. The Lumberjacks their season-high with 17 blocks, led by a career-high nine from junior Taylor Stephens
“Whether we win or lose we want to recognize the times when we’re not playing like ourselves and fixing them in the way that we can,” Murphy said. “We did a really good job of that tonight, and we want to continue to learn lessons and get better.”
The Lumberjacks will host North Dakota Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Fans who show their ticket from the NAU homecoming football game at the Rolle will receive free admission. North Dakota remained undefeated (9-0) in the conference after sweeping Southern Utah Thursday night.
