Northland International University

The NI men’s volleyball team played four matches in two days after their trip to MTU on Thursday, February 24. The Pioneers entertained UW Stout and Moody on Friday, February 25, and then battled Moodyand UWGB on Saturday, February 26. “The scheduling was intentional, not meant to be problematic. These matches are on our schedule to test our resolve mentally/ emotionally and our reserve physically. They are meant to drive us together, not apart!” commented Coach Herron. 

On Friday, February 25, NI welcomed Moody up from downtown Chicago. The Archers play in a strong  NAIA conference and know how to compete. The Pioneers were glad to be home and came out playing well, taking the first two sets 25–18 and 25–16. A lineup adjustment in the third set did not produce a winning execution, and the set was lost by NI, 14–25. Coach Herron stated, “There is a huge difference between being ready and being prepared. I know all my players are ready to play, but it shows sometimes that they are not prepared. That has to happen in practice with committed repetitions and a willingness to change!” Set four momentum was recaptured by NI when they won, 25–20. Micah Herron had 11 kills, followed by Isaac Cummins and Stephen Yates with 9 each. Andrew Schilling had 41 assists and served 100 percent to help in the win. 

The next match of the evening was against UW Stout, a conference DI team who had taken Lakeland to five sets twice. Andrew Schilling commented, “We wanted to do well against a good team.” The first set went to the Blue Devils by a score of 25–20. NI reduced their careless errors and took the next two sets by scores of 25–21 and 25–20. The pioneers were playing good defense and had a multiple offense as well as the momentum. Coach Herron adjusted the rotation in an attempt to win a couple of matchups at the net. UWS scored some easy points, and NI could not recover them, losing set four by 21–25. The deciding set had UWS open up a “block party,” and the NI offense could not get a ball across the net, losing 8–15. Stephen Yates and Micah Herron had 14 and 17 kills respectively, but Coach Herron said, “That was the extent of our offense; we had no middle attack to speak of so it was easy to play D against us.” 

Saturday brought the Archers back into the PAC for an 11 a.m. match with NI. Coach Herron was determined to give some playing time to other players in the program. “We have a good group of freshman that need to feel some competitive adversity so as to learn how to respond.” Set one was close with MBI winning 25–23. Bryce Guerrrero, Josh Netz, and Jason Lorch helped hold play for the Pioneers. NI controlled set two with a 25–17 win. Set three had Coach Herron again giving reps to some talented freshman. Inconsistent effort and execution put NI behind by a 10–20 score. From this point the Pioneers responded to some sideline encouragement and outscored MBI 6–6; however, they could not overcome the deficit and lost 16–25. Set four had NI up 18–16 when the Pioneers put together their “hit parade.” Consecutive kills by Aaron Wright, Andrew Schilling, Isaac Cummins, Andrew Summers, and Micah Herron helped NI roll to a 25–19 win. Set five was close up to a 7–7 score. The Archer’s offense suffered some hitting errors that gave NI a 10–7 lead. Andrew Summers scored a “net ace” that gave the momentum to the Pioneer side and an 11–9 score. NI continued their hold on play and swept to a 15–9 set and match win. 

The last match of the weekend had the Phoenix from UWGB come into the PAC. Coach Herron alerted the NI team about the “two-ball Danish” offense that would come from the UWGB side of the net. The Pioneers applied the pressure and took set one 25–10. Set two saw a six- to eight-point lead throughout and went to the favor of NI with a 25–17 score. Set three had NI clicking with conversions and a 16–8 lead that was pushed to a 20–12 margin. Coach Herron began to insert some of the deserving freshman to play. Bad habits allowed UWGB to gain some gift points and outscore NI 4–2. With the score 22–16 in favor of the Pioneers,Justin Delizo and Andrew Schilling put a ball away at the net. UWGB then had a hitting error that gave NI a three-set sweep at 25–19. Delizo had 8 kills, Summers collected 7, and Herron had 16 to help the NI offense. Josh Netz, a freshman libero, had 16 digs and passed at 87 percent for serve receive.