No.8 Northwestern College lost to 25th-ranked Marian (Ind.) 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-16) in the opening pool H match played tonight at the 2018 NAIA Volleyball National Championship held at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. The Red Raiders are 0-1 in pool play and 24-8 overall.
Lauryn Hilger put down a team-high 11 kills, Makenzie Fink added 10 in leading a Red Raider offense that hit .178 for the match, its third lowest hitting percentage of the season. Lacey Wacker put up 30 assists and seven digs and Emily Strasser totaled a match-high 12 digs.
After falling behind early in the first set, Northwestern used a 9-3 run to pull ahead by two (10-8) on an ace serve by Ann Pater. Two successful attacks by Bekah Horstman and a kill from Hilger gave the Red Raiders their largest lead (15-11) and forced Marian into a timeout. The Knights rallied, however, and came back to take the lead (18-17) and the teams traded points for a 21-21 tie. Kills from Horstman and Fink and an error by Marian put Northwestern a point away from the first set (24-22) but the Knights came back to score the final four points for the come-from-behind win.
Northwestern fell behind early and could not recover as the Knights won set two 25-18. Down by as many as six (13-7), Van Den Bosch’s squad began to rally, getting kills from Fink, Horstman and Harold to get within two, 17-15. Marian came back to score the next two points, however, and closed with an 8-3 run to take a 2-0 sets lead.
For the third straight set, Northwestern trailed early as a confident Knights squad jumped out to an 8-3 advantage. The Red Raiders closed the gap to two four different times, the final at 13-11 after a successful attack from Hilger. Still down just three (17-14), Marian sealed the match with an 8-2 run, scoring the final five points, to earn the sweep.
