12th-ranked Northwestern fell to Morningside in a five-set thriller played Tuesday at the Rosen Verdoorn Center in Sioux City, Iowa. Individual game scores were 27-29, 25-22, 25-19, 18-25 and 16-14. The Red Raiders lost for the first time in seven matches and drop to 7-2 in GPAC play, 16-5 overall.
Lauryn Hilger was one of three Red Raiders to put down double figure kills, matching her career-best with 24 kills in 65 attacks. Josie Blankespoor floored a career-best 17 kills and Makenzie Fink added 14, hitting a team-best .314 over the five-set match.
Both teams hit .250 and Northwestern held a slight edge in blocking, 8.5 – 7.0. Lacey Wacker put up 54 assists in leading the Red Raider offense while Emily Strasser led the backrow with 17 digs, one of three players with 10+ digs. Allison Koehlmoos matched her career-best with 10 digs and Hilger totaled 12, recording her ninth double-double of the season.
