By Patrick Stumpf
GREEN BAY, Wis. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – Meeting for the first time in over 29 years, the Green Bay volleyball team dropped a marathon five-set match (23-25, 25-13, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12) to Northern Kentucky on Friday night in its Horizon League home opener at the Kress Center.
Sophomore middle blockers Lydia DeWeese and Taylor Totka recorded 16 kills apiece for head coach Sean Burdette's Phoenix, who also received double-digit efforts from sophomore Abby Jeffcoat (14 kills) and freshman Samantha Anthon (11 kills). Senior setter Emily Riese tied a career high with 54 assists on the night, while also posting 10 digs for her team-leading ninth double-double in 2015.
Additionally, Riese (2,690) surpassed Whitney Schott (2,664) for 5th place on the school's all-time assists list during the match.
With the Norse leading 24-21 in the opening frame, Green Bay staved off two set points to pull within a point, 24-23, but NKU triumphed by the slimmest of margins, 25-23, to take a 1-0 match edge. The Phoenix used an eight-point run in set No. 2 to take a 13-5 lead, and finished it off on a Totka kill to even things at one set apiece.
Green Bay began the third set on a 6-1 run, but Northern Kentucky answered right back with a 6-1 run of its own to tie the set at seven, and later went ahead by three, 10-7. The Phoenix responded, however, tying it up at 16 and later taking a 2-1 match lead after a kill by junior Megan Powers.
In set No. four, the Norse grabbed an 8-1 lead before Green Bay mounted a comeback to pull within three late, 20-17, coming up just short, 25-21. In the final frame, the teams battled back-and-forth throughout, and found themselves tied at 12, before Northern Kentucky took the next three points to earn its first Horizon League victory in program history.
The schools played each other for the first time since Sept. 19, 1986. The Norse now lead the all-time series 3-0.
The aforementioned Totka set a new career-high with 16 kills in the match, surpassing her previous high by five (prev. 11, Marshall, Sept. 6, 2014), while DeWeese's 16 kills tied a career-high set earlier this season on Sept. 11 vs. Drake, also establishing a new team season-mark with 20.5 points (prev. 18.5, Powers, Sept. 18 vs. IPFW). It was the most points in a match by a Phoenix player since Powers had 21.0 points on Nov. 8 last season vs. Youngstown State.
BOX SCORE – NKU 3, GREEN BAY 2
UP NEXT
Green Bay (10-7, 1-3 Horizon League) will return to the home court tomorrow afternoon when it welcomes in Wright State (11-7, 0-3 Horizon League). First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m. As a reminder to all fans, tomorrow's action will be broadcast live on Time Warner SportsChannel.
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