RICHMOND, Ind. – The Northland College Volleyball team was defeated 3-0 (7-25, 13-25, and 13-25) by Trine University and 3-0 (12-25, 16-25, and 14-25) by Earlham College in the Earlham Tournament on Friday in Richmond, Ind.
 
Trine came out hot in the first set, with an ace on the first service and going on a seven-point run to open things up. A service error gave Northland its first point of the set. Leah Allan had both of Northland's kills. The Thunder had only one attack error and scored 15 points on kills.
 
Northland started set two much better matching the play of Trine. Britta Josephson scored the first point of the set with Kodie Rempp setting her up. Two points later, Allan scored on a Rempp set. The points kept trading until 6-5 with the advantage in Trine's favor. The Thunder would then string together an 8-to-1 run. Kills from Josephson and Rempp stopped the scoring. Northland could not score on consecutive plays to come back resulting in a 25-13 defeat in set two.
 
Just like in set one the Thunder went on a big run to start the third set scoring nine unanswered. Josephson scored the first Northland point of the set getting the assist from Rempp. Rempp set up the next point for Allan to score back-to-back. A service ace from Josephson capped off the three-point Northland run. NC put together a few small runs but could not match the pace of Trine dropping the final set 25-13.
 
Allan led the attack for Northland with nine kills on 36 attacks, Josephson behind her with five kills on 28 attacks. Rempp finished with a .286 hitting percentage scoring on two attacks and did not have an attack error. Josephson had the team's sole ace coming in the final set. Rempp set up eight points and Anna Campbell was behind her with six assists.
 
Defensively Allan also led the team with 13 digs. Hannah Peel and Josephson rounded out the top three with 12 and 6 respectively. Josephson also recorded the only Northland block in the match.
 
The game against Earlham started with a five-point run in favor of the Quakers. Allan recorded the first Northland kill in the match. NCVB put together a three-point run coming from kills from Ellison DeZwarte, Josephson, and Kennedy Gruhlke. Earlham kept stringing together large runs to pull away from Northland. The last point of the set came from a service ace Campbell. Earlham did take the set 25-12.
 
The second set Northland had their best start thus far. After trailing 3-1 NC leveled the game at four and went a five-point rally to take its largest lead of the day. After two errors from the Quakers Northland finished the rally with kills from Campbell and Allan and a service ace from Campbell. That caused Earlham to take a time out and when they came back they went on a 15-point run. Northland would score seven more points but fell 25-16.
 
After going down 3-0 to start set three, Northland came back with the next four points to take an early lead. Points would trade off with Allan scoring on the attacks for Northland to have the set knotted up at nine all. The Quakers would then string together large rallies to pull away from Northland. NC would break them up with a point here and there but couldn't put together runs to catch up. Earlham took the final set 25-14.
 
Just like in match one Allan led the Northland attack this time with eight kills and a hitting percentage of .143. Josephson trailed her by one with seven. DeZwarte, Gruhlke, and Campbell rounded out the scorers with three, two, and one kills respectively. Northland tallied two service aces both coming from Campbell. Rempp set up the attack leading the team with 13 assists.
 
Gruhlke set a career-high 10 digs for the most for Northland. Josephson and Rempp trailed her by one and Peel ended the match with seven.
 
Northland wraps up the Earlham Tournament tomorrow (Saturday) with a 10 a.m., game against the College of Wooster.
 
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.