Northern Michigan University volleyball players on the court, including setter Caylie Barlage in green jersey at center, huddle up between points during at match this season at Vandament Arena in Marquette. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University volleyball team outlasted Northwood over five sets to pick up a victory at home Saturday in the Wildcats’ quest to reach a .500 record for the season and a winning record in the GLIAC.

With two matches remaining in the regular season — both on the road — NMU improved to 11-13 overall and 6-7 in the GLIAC. Northern is seventh in the overall league standings, a half-game behind Davenport’s 6-6 and a full game behind fifth-place Saginaw Valley State at 7-6.

The Wildcats are also two full games ahead of eighth-place Wisconsin-Parkside, which is 4-9, and three losses ahead of ninth-place Northwood at 4-10.

That would figure to assure the Wildcats a spot in the GLIAC Tournament, assuming it has eight teams, though no official word about the event was available online from NMU or the GLIAC.

Northern’s final two matches are at third-place Wayne State, 11-2 in the GLIAC, at 7 p.m. Friday, and at SVSU at 2 p.m. Saturday.

On Saturday, the Wildcats prevailed over Northwood, 25-10, 25-13, 19-25, 13-25, 15-11, at Vandament Arena in what NMU Sports Information termed “an intense five sets.”

With the extended play, Northern rolled up some impressive statistics. Lizzy Stark led the offense with 17 kills, adding in a tie for the high with two service aces along with 12 digs.

Teammate Jacqueline Smith was right up with Stark with 16 kills, also contributing a team-high four blocks to go with 17 digs and an ace.

In addition, Meghan Meyer also broke into double digits in kills with 13, and with just three errors had a .370 attack percentage. She also had two blocks and four digs.

Caylie Barlage had an NMU-high 18 digs along with two aces, while Lauren Van Remortel had 43 of the Wildcats’ 46 set assists to go with two kills and 10 digs.

And Olivia Webber contributed three blocks and three kills.

This wild roller-coaster ride started low for NMU as Northwood raced to a 6-0 lead in the first set. But Northern found its footing at that point, scoring six of the next seven points to pull within 7-6 as Barlage had two aces and Smith, Stark and Meyer each had a kill.

And that was just the beginning of the comeback, as the Wildcats went on 8-0 and 9-0 runs to make it a 23-9 laugher before closing it out with back-to-back kills by Smith.

Set 2 was more evenly contested to start, but leading 10-9, NMU pulled off a 6-0 run and followed it later with a 7-0 spurt to make it 23-12. Between those two runs, Stark had four kills and Meyer two.

The Wildcats ended this set the same as the first with back-to-back points, though these points came on Northwood errors.

Then the Timberwolves hunkered down, winning the next two sets to force a fifth.

In the final set that is a race to 15 points, Northwood used its momentum from the previous two sets to jump out to a 5-2 advantage.

But that’s when the Wildcats put together a 5-1 run to assume a 7-6 lead. In the run, Smith had two kills and Stark one.

With the score tied 9-9, Smith made a kill that gave NMU the lead for good as it started another 5-1 run to put the home team ahead 14-10.

While Northwood saved one match point, on the next one Stark made a decisive kill to end it.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.