Coming off a loss at Idaho on Thursday, the Northern Arizona volleyball team bounced back by handing Southern Utah its first Big Sky loss of the season Saturday night in Cedar City, Utah.
Led by a near triple-double performance by senior Sydney Kemper, the Lumberjacks won 25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17. NAU is 3-1 in conference play and 12-3 overall heading home for two matches next weekend.
"Southern Utah was a really good team and we had to play at a high level to win the match the way we did," said head coach Ken Murphy.
"I'm especially proud of the team because Thursday was our first real dose of adversity and we bounced back and played exactly the type of match we wanted to play tonight. I'm optimistic that we can continue to get better in these types of tough matches."
Kemper tied her career-high, and set a season-best, with 19 kills. She hit .469 in the victory, to go along with nine digs and seven blocks. She was one of three Lumberjacks to record double-digit kills, with senior Taylor Stephens and junior Janae Vander Ploeg chipping in 10 apiece.
In the opening set, junior Payton Bock snapped an 8-8 tie with a kill to send NAU on its way, as it gradually pulled away from the Thunderbirds. The Lumberjacks wound up taking the final six points of the set.
Southern Utah controlled much of the second set, although a 6-1 NAU run, capped by a Kemper kill, put NAU at 24-22. SUU claimed the ensuing point and evened the match at 1.
Senior Hannah Hill contributed a pair of aces during a 5-0 Lumberjack spurt in the third set that gave NAU the lead for good, 11-7.
The fourth set was knotted at 14 before the Lumberjacks broke away with an 8-0 run. Kemper and Bock combined on three blocks and each chipped in a kill during the stretch that swung the momentum fully in the Lumberjacks' favor. A solo block by Vander Ploeg -- the team's sixth in the final set -- ended the match.
"I am overwhelmed and so proud of us," Kemper said. "It was a huge challenge -- we came in knowing this weekend was a huge challenge -- and it became an even bigger challenge for our team after Thursday. Everybody really came together tonight and it's looking really good for us right now."
Sophomore Jensen Barton distributed a season-high tying 48 assists as all five of NAU's hitters totaled at least seven kills.
"We distributed the ball really well," Murphy said. "We passed the ball well and we got all of our hitters involved, keeping them off balanced. It was really nice to see us get a high amount of kills from a lot of different players."
Defensively, redshirt junior Stacia Williams had a team-high 15 digs.
NAU is back at home Thursday and Saturday vs. Montana and Montana State, respectively, at the Rolle Activity Center.
