And the event’s No. 2 seed emerged victorious with a hard-fought victory over the No. 7-seeded Cardinals, 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 25-22.

That meant that the Wildcats would advance to the semifinals being held Friday at Ferris State in Big Rapids. Northern was facing No. 6 Grand Valley State in the early evening after the Lakers made the short trip to No. 3 Davenport in Grand Rapids and won in five sets on Wednesday.

The other semifinal pitted No. 1 Ferris against No. 5 Michigan Tech. While the top-seeded Bulldogs won as expected in three straight sets over No. 8 Lake Superior State in their quarterfinal match, the Huskies also needed just three sets to overcome No. 4 Wayne State in Detroit on Wednesday.

Friday’s semifinal winners were to meet at 4 p.m. today for the tourney championship back in Big Rapids.

From left, Northern Michigan University head coach Mike Lozier makes an impromptu appearance with the Wildcats' Lizzy Stark and Angelina Negron on the sidelines to help cheer on NMU's Madeline Crowley at the start of her serve in the first set of a GLIAC Tournament volleyball quarterfinal match played against Saginaw Valley State and held at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

On Wednesday, NMU improved to 23-7 for the season while SVSU’s campaign ended at 10-20.

Jacqueline Smith made 21 kills and Lizzy Stark 20 to lead the Northern offense, while Alli Yacko had 15 digs, Madeline

Crowley 13 and Smith nine. Lauren Van Remortel had 43 assists.

After a feeling-out process where the first set was tied 3-3, NMU took control with a 9-4 lead to keep SVSU on the defensive.

Many attacks were successfully scored against Saginaw. Stark scored three consecutive NMU points on kills.

But the Cardinals were only down 15-12 before Northern scored three straight points, prompting an SVSU timeout after back-to-back Cardinals attack errors.

The Cardinals didn’t do much more than keep pace as Northern won the set.

Saginaw turned the match on its head and took the lead to start the second set. With cheers from the Cardinal faithful in the Vandament crowd, their players landed hit after hit against the Wildcats.

Northern was forced to call a timeout trailing 11-6, then after being caught off-guard by hard attacks from the Cardinals, the Wildcats took another timeout at 17-10.

“We passed a little bit better… served a little bit better, so we kind of evened out the playing field a little bit — just gave ourselves a chance, but offensively they’ve just got some girls that are really, really tough,” SVSU coach Will Stanton said.

Even when the Wildcats got back on their game, Saginaw expertly blocked shots that could’ve easily been kills and prevailed to even the match.

“Saginaw Valley is known for their defense; they’re gritty and they block well,” Wildcats coach Mike Lozier said. “They force you to keep at it and they were unbelievable.”

With both teams fired up, the third set was neck and neck, including at 8-8. After kills from Stark, Smith and Olivia Webber, the Wildcats took the lead once again.

“Rayne Thompson, No. 13, Jacqueline Smith, No. 10, and Lizzy Stark, No. 18, really stepped up… Lizzy was awesome,” Lozier said.

A devastating ace from Yacko inspired Saginaw to call a timeout after NMU scored four straight points to take a 12-8 lead.

The revived Cardinals starting catching up, evening out the score. With a kill from Sarah Veale, they pulled ahead 19-18 and the Wildcats called timeout.

It still remained close until NMU strung together three consecutive points for set point at 24-21. SVSU staved off one of those, but Stark made a kill to end the set.

In a tense fourth set, the lead passed back and forth. After Saginaw tied it 4-4, neither team could score more than two points in a row until the Wildcats took the lead for good with three straight and a 17-14 edge.

The Cardinals stayed close, but after back-and-forth scoring worked for NMU as an SVSU ball handling error ended the set and match.

“It was a good battle, we put up a good fight this time, better than we had the first two times we played them,” SVSU’s Stanton said.

Northern won the teams’ first two meetings in three straight sets each time. In fact, the Cardinals didn’t score more than 21 points in any of those sets.

“It feels amazing,” Lozier said about the win for the Wildcats. “We keep putting ourselves in a position to continue our season, so I couldn’t be happier to still be competing with these guys.”

Alexandria Bournonville can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is abournonville@miningjournal.net.