ASHLAND, Wis. – The Northland College Volleyball team starts conference play in the Upper Midwest Athletics Conference Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. against the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The Jills are coming off back-to-back wins at the Lawrence Invitational and look to ride that momentum into conference action.
 
This is the second time early this season that the Jills and Yellowjackets will match up. In Northland's first game of the season, they fell 1-3 to UW-Superior at the Stinger Classic. NC held with the 2022 UMAC runner's up going 20-25, 25-20, 19-25, and 19-25 in its first match. Leading the Jills were Bailey Wynn and Britta Josephson on the attack tallying 12 kills. Alexa Zarda had her second-best defensive match of the season with 29 digs.
 
The Jills head into UMAC action after finishing the Lawrence Invitational 2-1. Head Coach Hope Neargarder picked up her first collegiate win with a 3-1 victory over Lawrence University. In the win, Zarda reached 1,000 career digs after totaling 32 in the four sets. On the attach Elizabeth Montgomery and Josephson led the Jills with 15 kills and Wynn was right behind with nine. Northland continued on the hot streak defeating Mount Mary University 3-0. NC put on an impressive performance winning the sets 25-17, 25-8 and 25-17. Wynn had her fourth game reaching double-digit kills at 12 and Montgomery had her third with 10.
 
Northland had three student-athletes with 60 or more kills early in the season. Leading the pack is Wynn at 69 with Josephson and Montgomery behind her at 65 and 60 respectively. Megan Van Gheem has surpassed the 200 assists mark at 216, averaging 8.31 assists per set. She also leads the team with aces with 16, and 10 coming from last weekend.
 
Zarda and Wynn are over 100 digs on the season at 137 and 104 respectively. Zarda hit the milestone of 1,000 digs in the sixth game of the season. At the net, Montgomery has a team-high 12 blocks, nine solo and three assisted.  Ellie Kracht is right behind her at seven.
 
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.