The
Northland men’s volleyball team began a weekend that called for 4 matches in 2
days. This would come at the end of a challenging ‘Heart Conference’ on campus
during the week. The Pioneer men started
the weekend with travel to the campus of Marquette University for a Friday pm
match on March 2nd. This was a non-conference standings match
against very talented Golden Eagles. The Northland team is still finding its rhythm
with new players in the line-up. “We came from behind to almost win the first
set 23-25, and then came from ahead to lose the second set 28-30. We were
competing hard so if we could keep our focus and energy I knew we could turn
it.” Set three had MU jump to an 11-4 lead and it looked like a sweep was about
to happen. The Northland leaders though had other plans. Great defense by Josh
Netz, intelligent set placement by Andrew Schilling and efficient attacking by
Miles Herron and Andrew Summers turned the third set around as the Pioneers
tied the score at 16-16 and 21-21. Kills by Herron and Minshik Park got
Northland a 25-23 win. Pioneer men continued to hold play with a convincing set
four win 25-14. Coach Herron called for a block adjustment and Northland got an
8-6 lead on the 5th set court switch which the Pioneers increased to
13-8. Jason Lorch put match point away with a kill in the middle and Northland
won 15-9. Andrew Schilling said afterward, “This was a good win for us but we
knew that the next day we would play them in a match that would count toward
conference seeding. Coach Herron cautioned us to not get too excited or stomp
around a lot after.” For this match Miles Herron hit .325 with 21 kills in 42
attempts. Andrew Summers followed with a .265 hitting % and 12 kills. Josh Netz
served at 96% and had 15 digs. Andrew Schilling had 47 assists for the match.
On Saturday, March 3rd the Northland Pioneers
would be playing at Moody for the second go round of the Wisconsin Volleyball
Conference DII tournament. The first match of the day was against UW Whitewater.
The Warhawks would enjoy a size advantage in the middle and opposite positions.
Coach Herron anticipated a need to encourage focus and energy coming off the
extended play from the night before. Northland responded and steadily built a
5-6 point lead that they kept up to a 25-21 set one win. Set two began with UWW
improving their play and the score was never more than 2 points either way. With
the score tied at 21-21. The Pioneers rotated into a strong rotation and worked
hard enough to stay in it, score 4 straight and take the match with a 25-22
win. The biggest match of the day would be against Marquette University. The
conference standings for the #3 seed in the WVC State Tny would be influenced
by the results of this match. MU came out very strong and served their way to a
23-18 lead. Northland rallied and got back to a 21-24 score. The Pioneer’s
showed great resolve and tied it at 24-24 on strong intelligent serving. MU
held on in the end and won 28-26. Set number two had the Golden Eagles get a 4
point lead that they would not give up gaining a score of 14-10 and 21-19.
Pioneers could not overcome and lost 22-25. “Our best players must play their
best in the most important moments for us to be successful. We have a reserve
of either talent or experience to fall back on. I am proud of what this group
has done but we have room for improvement,” mentioned Coach Herron afterward. The
third set of the day had Northland battle UW Platteville; a match that would
allow for some rotational changes and repetitions for other players. Northland
won 25-12 and 25-17 and ended the day 2-1. In WVC play they are now 4-2 with
one more round of play on February 25th at UW Oshkosh. For the day
at MBI Herron hit .279 with 21 kills and 18 digs. Andrew Summers hit .160, had
12 kills and 10 digs. Andrew Summers set at.89 efficiency for the day.
Northland will return to WVC play when they host Lakeland on Feb.16th
and then Concordia and Marquette in a tri-match on Saturday Feb.18th.