Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (Sept. 20, 2022) - Recording their second conference sweep since 2015, the North Central College women's volleyball team (5-3, 1-0 CCIW) cruised to a three-set victory over Augustana College (10-4, 1-1 CCIW) on Tuesday evening in the Carver Center.

Amber Vande Hei's kill started the scoring in the first set as the Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 advantage. After each team traded points, a 5-2 rally from North Central pushed their lead to four. The Vikings battled back to tie the set at 12, but a kill from Aidan Brown sparked a 5-0 rally for the Cardinals who never looked back and took the opening set, 25-17. North Central never trailed in set one.

Kills from Abbi Barickman, Vande Hei, and Taylor O'Malley gave North Central a 9-7 edge in the second set before Augustana posted a 7-1 run to take a 14-10 lead. The Cardinals responded as a kill from Sarah Elischer, set up by Maddi Barickman started a 6-2 rally to knot the contest at 16. Both teams went back-and-forth before a kill from  Maddi Barickman, a service ace off the hand of Emily Stallmann and a Viking error clinched the second set victory for North Central, 27-25.

Kendra Battle tied the third set with her fourth kill of the night, at 8-8. North Central went on to win nine of the next eleven points before bringing the score to 17-10. The Vikings fought back but a kill from Brown opened an 8-2 run which closed out the third and final set, 25-17 as the Cardinals improve to 5-3 and 1-0 in CCIW play.

As a team, North Central recorded 40 kills to Augustana's 26 while holding the Vikings to a .017 hitting percentage on the night. With their eight service aces in the match, the Cardinals have now tallied more aces than their opponents in six of their eight contests.

Brown led the way with a season-best 15 kills while Battle and Abbi Barickman posted seven. Maddi Barickman sent out 30 assists with Elischer tallying four total blocks. Stallmann led the team with 16 digs and four aces over the three sets.

The Cardinals return home after their four-match road trip to welcome Wheaton College to Gregory Arena on Friday night.

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