Ashland, WI-

The Northland College Lumber Jills split their two games on Friday afternoon to open their home tournament.  The Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves got the best of the Jills in the opening match with a 3-0 win, but the Jills bounced back in their final game of the evening with a 3-0 win over the Crown College Storm in a non-league matchup.  The win evened the Jills record at 3-3 on the year.

The Jills are in action next on Saturday at 10:00am when they host Concordia University-Chicago.  They also play later in the day at 4:00pm when they host Finlandia University. 

Game 1:  Nebraska Wesleyan 3, Northland College 0
The Jills lost the opening match of their home tournament in straight sets by scores of 25-15, 25-16, and 25-9.   The Prairie Wolves were led by Hannah Bellinghausen who had eight kills on the day.  Cora Svoboda, Maisie Ohlrich, and Nyah Chambers each chipped in with six kills as well.

              The Prairie Wolves started strong in the opening set by quickly jumping out to a 4-0 lead.  The Jills responded with a four point run of their own featuring back to back kills from Dez Lapointe.  Both teams battled back and forth until midway through the set when the Prairie Wolves started to pull away.  Already leading 17-13, the Prairie Wolves would take advantage of a Jill's attacking error and rattle off the next four points to extend their lead to 21-13.  The Jills couldn't recover from there as the Prairie Wolves saw their way to a 25-15 win. 

              The second set was decided in similar fashion as once again both teams were close early on.  The Prairie Wolves started to gain separation with a four point run after leading 13-11.  Down 17-11, the Jills briefly stopped the momentum after a service error, but the Prairie Wolves quickly took back control with a six point run before eventually closing out the set at 25-16. 

              The Jills looked to battle back in the third set but the Prairie Wolves went on a seven point run early in the set to pull ahead 19-5 before closing out the match at 25-9.  The Jills were led by Bailey Wynn who had six kills.  Kennedi Bernia led the team defensively with 13 digs and Emma Rusch had 15 assists.

Game 2:  Northland College 3, Crown College 0
The Jills rebounded from their opening match and made quick work of the Crown College Storm with a 3-0 victory by scores of 25-20, 25-20, and 25-22.

              With the match tied at 3-3 in the opening set, the Jills got a kill from Dez LaPointe and than went on a 3-0 run to pull ahead 6-3.  From there, the Jills never relinquished the lead despite the Storm's continuous efforts to keep the set close.  The Storm pulled within four points at 21-17 but they couldn't get any closer as the Jills would trade off points and eventually close the opening set at 25-20.

              The Jills fell behind early in the second set and trailed 8-5 early on.  They responded with a 10-0 run featuring four kills from Justine Litherland, and from there they were able to close out the set at 25-20.

The Storm rallied back several times in the third set and looked poised to push the match to a fourth.  The Jills, however, had no interest in another game and won a critical point from a service error at 23-22, before Nora Hagen finished the match off with a kill to close the third set at 25-22.

              The Jills were led by Justine Litherland who had 17 kills in the match.  Bailey Wynn added 10 kills and Kennedi Bernia had 11 digs.  Karissa Steinkamp and Gracie Zieroth paced the storm with six kills apiece.  Madeline Svoboda led the Storm with 15 digs.  With the loss the Storm drop to 2-2 on the year.

Northland College is an NCAA Division III institution located in Ashland, WI. The LumberJacks and LumberJills sponsor 14 varsity sports and compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.