Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
Box Score
Oct. 10, 2017 – Despite dropping the opening set, the North Central College women's volleyball team stormed back to take the final three sets from Augustana College, including a 35-33 final-set thriller to take down the Vikings, 3-1 inside Merner Fieldhouse.
North Central (9-4, 2-2 CCIW) came out slow in the opening set, falling behind 7-1 early and were never able to regain their stride, finishing the set with seven attack errors to just seven kills en route to the 25-17 loss.
Shaking off a rough opening set, it was the Cardinals who came out on fire in the second set, jumping out to a 9-3 lead, highlighted by three kills from
Claire Vrabec, while
Cara Howell added a service ace over the rally.
Augustana (9-13, 1-4 CCIW) would not pull to within more than five of the Cardinal lead the rest of the set, as North Central hit .314 to the Vikings .000, finishing with 12 kills and just one error to take the set 25-16.
Set three was back-and-forth through most of the set, until
Alexa Zimbelman and
Anna Billman teamed up for a block and
Reagan Raymer sent home a kill the following point to break a 18-18 tie. The two teams traded points until North Central held a 23-22 lead, and coming out of a timeout, Howell smashed a kill off an assist from Zimbelman while Billman and
Maya Bryant stuffed a Viking attack the following play to secure the 25-23 win.
In perhaps the wildest set North Central has played all year, the fourth and final set featured nine match-points staved off by Augustana, while North Central held tight on three set-point occasions. With North Central holding a late 24-21 lead, the Vikings held off three straight match-points to tie the score at 24, before the Cardinals found themselves with their backs against the wall three points later as Augustana turned the tables to take a 26-25 advantage.
After a kill from
Rachel Elshoff knotted the score back at 27, the teams went fought to a 32-31 score with North Central looking to capitalize on their ninth match-point of the set, but yet again the Vikings held strong and took the next two points on back-to-back kills, threatening to force a fifth set.
North Central was not going to let this one slip away however, as Howell put away the biggest of her 15 kills, once again tying the score 33-33. Entering the match with the score tied,
Caiti Seibert delivered a pair of huge serves as the Vikings were unsettled forcing an attack error, while the senior clinched the match with a service ace on the final point, clinching a 35-33 victory.
Five Cardinals finished in double figure digs on defense, led by 18 from
Olivia Hanley, while Howell finished with 14 and Elshoff, Zimbelman and
Julie Laugel each added 13. Offensively, Elshoff led all players with 18 kills, while Howell added 15 kills and moved into sixth on the program's all-time list with 1,032. Zimbleman handed out a match-high 38 assists, while Billman led the way with five total blocks.
Emily Uglem paced the Augustana offense with 12 kills, while McKenzie Zambrano finished with a team-high 27 assists. Defensively, Claire Martin finished with 25 digs, while Grace Bialobok added four total blocks.
North Central returns to action on Friday, Oct. 13, playing host to Central College and Trine University at 3 and 7 p.m., respectively, on the opening day of the 2017 Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament held inside Merner Fieldhouse. The link to the tournament page is available
HERE.
