Golden, Colo. – The No. 24 Northern State University Wolves volleyball team opened the 2017 season with a spilt against Texas Woman's University and No. 15 California State University San Bernardino.
In the opening outing of the season the Wolves downed the Pioneers of Texas Woman's 3-0 with set scores of 25-20, 25-21, and 25-20. Northern tallied 46 kills, 44 assists, 50 digs, five service aces and three blocks in the win, while hitting a game leading .274. Their third and final set was the best of the match as NSU notched 15 kills on 34 swings with just one error, hitting .412 as a team.
Hailey Busch led the team with a career high 16 kills, followed by
Lexi Lockhart and
Jenna Reiff with eight each. Busch hit .414 and added a team leading 12 digs on defensive.
Lexi Boesl made her first appearance in a Wolves uniform matching Busch with the team high 12 digs, while also adding an assist.
Ashley Rozell paced the offense with 39 assists, averaging 13.00 per set. The sophomore recorded four kills of her own and led the team with all five service aces.
Morgan Baufield and
Holly Vancura rounded out the team total adding five and four kills respectively. Baufield led the team with three block assists, followed by Lockhart and Busch with two and one each.
Jaiden Langlie was second on the team defensively with ten digs. She also added a kill and two assists, followed by Vancura with eight digs of her own.
Northern dropped a close match with the No. 15 Coyotes taking the match to five sets. The Wolves took the opening set with a score of 25-23, before falling in sets two and three 25-21 and 27-25. Northern came back to take the fourth set 25-15, however fell in the decisive fifth set 15-6 suffering their first loss of the season.
The Wolves hit .193 in the match due to a bumpy fifth set with just four kills and four errors on 24 swings. Northern tallied a match high 62 digs and ties the Coyotes with 62 kills.
Busch again led the team with a new career high of 23 kills, while hitting .315 in the match. The junior also added a team third best nine digs.
Jenna Reiff also found herself in double digit kills with 12, while hitting. 281.
Morgan Baufield led the team with a .375 hitting percentage, adding a team their best eight kills.
Holly Vancura,
Laura Snyder, and
Lexi Lockhart rounded out the team total with seven, five, and three kills respectively.
Ashley Rozell notch 50 assists, while adding three kills and seven digs.
Defensively the Wolves were led by
Jaiden Langlie with 17 digs. Langlie also recorded three assists and one of the team's two service aces. Vancura also tallied double digit digs with 15 total.
Northern returns to action tomorrow with a pair of games against Rollins College and the host Colorado School of Mines. The Wolves face off against the Tars at 4:30 p.m., followed by an 8:30 p.m. match-up with the No. 19 Orediggers.
