APPLETON, Wis. – The Northland College Volleyball team won its two games against Lawrence University 3-1 (25-12, 25-19, 21-25, 31-29) and Mount Mary University 3-0 (25-17, 25-8, 25-17) Saturday afternoon at the Lawrence Invitational. Senior Alexa Zadra recorded her 1,000^th career dig in the win over Lawrence.
 
The Jills started the morning off hot scoring seven of the first eight points with four kills coming from four different student-athletes. Elizabeth Montgomery capped off a six-point run with a kill assisted by Megan Van Gheem to put the Jills up 13-2. Annika Herlevi scored the first ace of the match to increase the Northland lead to 12. Van Gheem soon after recorded back-to-back service aces in a four-point run. Selby Justman closed out the first set with a kill to give set one to Northland 25-12.
 
Set two, the Jills picked up where they left off with three unanswered points, two from Britta Josephson. Another three-point run gave Northland an early six-point edge after Montgomery recorded her first point of the second set. It did not take long until she scored her next two scoring the 11^th and 12^th points. Van Gheem again recorded back-to-back aces, this time going up 15-9. A few runs from Lawrence made the set a little closer, but Northland held them at bay winning 25-19.
 
The third set did not go in the way for the Jills, with the Vikings going ahead early. It wasn't until 10-9 Northland took its first lead of the set after an attack error. They did not keep it long with Lawrence scoring the next four points. Northland was able to tie the set up three more times but was never able to retake the lead falling 21-25.
 
In the fourth, it looked like it was going the same way as the third, with the Vikings taking a large lead. The largest lead Lawrence had was six points at 14-8. The Jills began to chip away at the lead with a pair of kills from Josephson. Lawrence regained that lead and added to it finding itself match point at 24-16. The Jills did not back down, it started with a service error and kill from Bailey Wynn. Then Van Gheem continued her dominant serve with two more aces. Wynn and Van Gheem traded scoring the points and Northland ended up going on a nine-point run to go up 25-24. Both teams traded points, and Montgomery scored the final point of the match, winning Northland's first match 31-29.
 
 
Match two the Jills continued to ride their momentum. Northland went up 7-3 from a kill from Josephson. Northland retained the lead for the rest of set and won 25-17 with Montgomery scoring the final point. Set two the Jills had their biggest margin of victory at 25-8. NC was able to do that with a seven-point run capped off with a kill from Montgomery. That was shortly followed up by an eight-point run with Wynn scoring three points. Wynn capped off the scoring with another kill. Set three continued the dominant performance for Northland. After both teams traded a few early points the Jills put the set away with an eight-point run that led to a 25-17 win.
 
On the day Montgomery led the team with 25 kills, 15 coming against Lawrence. Behind her were Josephson and Wynn at 22 and 21 respectively. Also, on the attack, Justman tallied 12 kills, nine coming in the first match of the day. From the backline, Van Gheem totaled 10 aces, eight against Lawrence. She also had 74 assists, 42 against the Vikings.
 
Defending Zadra recorded her 1000^th career dig with the final dig against Lawrence. She tallied 32 in that match and followed it up with 19 against Mount Mary. Behind her was Wynn with 28 digs. At the net, Montgomery led the Jills with three solo blocks spanning two games.  
 
The Jills begin conference play in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference on Tuesday as they host the University of Wisconsin-Superior at 7 p.m.
 
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, Midwest Lacrosse Conference, and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.