Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
DUBUQUE, Iowa (Sept. 3, 2022) - Moving to 3-0, the North Central College women's volleyball team swept Knox College before securing a hard-fought comeback win in five sets over Wisconsin Lutheran College on Saturday afternoon as part of the Dubuque River City Classic.
With the first set tied at four, the Cardinals scored the next three points to gain an early 7-4 edge. After the Prairie Fire stormed back to take an 11-9 lead, Anna Gawron capped off a 7-2 run for North Central, giving them a 16-13 advantage. The Cardinals held their lead the rest of the way as Katie Little's kill secured the opening set win, 25-18.
Maddi Barickman started the second set off with a kill as the Cardinals jumped out to a 5-3 lead. After scoring five of the next six points, North Central found themselves in the driver's seat as they took a 19-10 lead. Three straight kills from Abbi Barickman with two kills from Danni Moser put the Prairie Fire away as North Central won set two, 25-15.
Continuing that momentum into the third set, Brooke Duncan used her third kill of the day to open up an 11-1 start for the Cardinals. Three more kills by A. Barickman pushed North Central's lead to 15-3. With a 16-6 advantage, two service aces from Emma Happ and three Prairie Fire errors extended North Central's lead to 21-6. To close out the three-set victory, A. Barickman tallied her ninth and tenth kills of the match as the Cardinals earned a 25-12 win in set three.
In their second match of the day, the Cardinals ran out to a 14-8 lead in the first set. A kill from Brown and a service ace from Emily Stallmann pushed their lead to 19-12 before a Taylor O'Malley ace secured the first set, 25-14. Both teams came out swinging in set two as a kill from Little knotted the set at 10-10. Guerrero gave North Central a slight 16-15 lead. Wisconsin Lutheran posted back-to-back aces to propel them to a tight 25-23 second set victory.
The Warriors started the third set on a 7-3 run, but the Cardinals answered with five straight points of their own to retake the lead. After more back-and-forth action, Wisconsin Lutheran held an 18-14 advantage. Not giving in, North Central fought back to tie the set at 24-24, but the Warriors scored the final two points to take a 2-1 edge in the match.
Needing to win the fourth set to stay alive, North Central led 5-1 early in the contest. The Warriors again tied the set at six but never led as the Cardinals went on a 13-3 rally on their way to a 25-15 victory in set four.
The final set saw each team tally four points before a kill from Little gave the Cardinals a 7-4 advantage. Kills from Little and Duncan followed by two Warrior errors gave North Central control of the fifth set. Duncan, Guerrero, and Brown notched three straight kills to clinch the fifth set as North Central improves to 3-0 on the season.
Little tallied 16 kills while Guerrero (15) and Brown (13) all finished with double digits. M. Barickman posted 39 assists and 16 digs for the Cardinals who hit .274 in the match while holding Wisconsin Lutheran to .189.
North Central hosts their next match on Sept. 13th as they welcome Lake Forest College to Gregory Arena at 7 PM.
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