Box Score | Box Score (.pdf)

The Northern State volleyball team, led by three players with double-digit kills, continued its hot start to the season, improving to 7-0 with a four-set win over Minnesota State Saturday afternoon in Mankato in day two of the Maverick Invitational.

Kelsey Chambers (14), Macey Finizio (12) and Cari McGarvie (11) led a balanced Wolves attack that hit .361 as a team in the win. Tori Biach added nine kills of her own and Jussy Tuscherer had eight in the match.

For the second consecutive match, the Wolves dropped the first set, losing 25-22. However, NSU rallied for three-straight set wins, taking the match with set scores of 25-15, 25-20 and a dominate 25-11 fourth set.

NSU tied a season-high in the match with seven service aces as a team. Setter Drew Smith led the team with three of those aces. Smith also led Northern with 49 assists in the match, a new season-best for her.

Sami Nygaard set a new career-high for digs for the second consecutive match. Nygaard led the team with 23 digs in the match. Chambers also had nine digs for the Wolves while Renee Hoffman chipped in with eight.

Chambers was named the tournament MVP and Smith was named to the all-tournament team at the invite.

Saturday's match with the Mavericks was not an NSIC match. The Wolves open conference play Sept. 19 when they travel to U-Mary for a 7 p.m. match. NSU's conference home-opener will be Sept. 21 when Minot State comes to Waches Arena for a 5 p.m. showdown.