St. Paul, Minn. – In the opening day of the 2016 season, the Northern State University volleyball team recorded a clean sweep with victories over No. 5 Western Washington (3-2) and Truman State (3-0). The 2-0 start also brought the 100^th career victory for NSU head coach Brent Aldridge, who now holds a career record of 100-47.
 
Match 1 - No. 5 Western Washington
The Wolves opened the season with a thrilling 5-set victory over Western Washington. Northern opened the match taking the first two sets 25-23 and 25-20. The Vikings battled back to even things up in the third and fourth sets (27-25, 25-21), however NSU fought for the 15-9 fifth set victory.
 
Junior Holly Vancura led the Northern attack with 15 kills, while hitting .229. The Wolves outside also notched a team leading 24 digs and added three block assists. Also in double digits were senior Tori Biach with ten kills and junior Kellie Schmit with 12.
 
Northern tallied seven players with a kill in the match including Lexi Lockhart and Jenna Reiff with the firsts of their careers. Lockhart notched seven in total, while Reiff added five. Senior Lauren McCafferty knocked down eight kills, while redshirt freshman setter Ashley Rozell tallied the team's final two.
 
Four Wolves recorded double digit digs for the NSU defense led by Vancura. Freshman Jaiden Langlie was close behind with 17, followed by Alyssa Deobler with 16 Annika van Oosbree with 11. Deobler tallied a team leading three service aces, followed by Biach and Langlie with two apiece.
 
In the first collegiate match of her career, Rozell made an instant impact feeding the Wolves with 55 assists and adding seven digs. Rozell also knocked down a team second best five blocks, behind Biach with eight in the win.
 
As a unit the Wolves complied 82 digs, 59 kills, 57 assists, 11 blocks, and eight aces. The two teams hit an even .263 in the game, however Northern was able to cut down on errors with 17 to the Vikings 24 in the match. The key for the Wolves this season, will prove to be defense, as NSU notched 82 digs to WWU's 71.
 
Match 2 – Truman State
 
Northern capped off their solid morning with a 3-0 match victory over the Bulldogs, tallying set scores of 25-21, 25-17, and 25-15. While each team connected for 41 kills in the match, the Wolves out hit the Bulldogs .306 to .190.
 
Vancura led the Wolves again in game two with 13 kills and 13 digs. She also hit .387 in the three sets with one block. McCafferty followed with nine kills of her own and a .348 attack percentage. Reiff however led the hitters with a .444 mark, notching five kills in nine attempts with one error.
 
Rozell added another 37 assists to her arsenal, as she paced four hitters above .300 on the night. The freshman added two kills and six digs. Biach again led the team at the net with three blocks, while adding six assists and two digs. Schmit and Reiff followed with five kills apiece in the win.
 
Defensive Deobler and van Oosbree recorded their second straight matches with double-digit digs. Van Oosbree was second on the team with 12, while Deobler notched ten.
 
Northern will return to action tomorrow from St. Paul with a pair of matches against No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul and Truman State. First serve versus the Golden Bears is set for 12:30 p.m., with the match-up against the Bulldogs slated for 4 p.m.