Northern Michigan University’s Kaylie McIntosh, center, and Emilia Gulock, right, go up to block a hit by a Roosevelt player at the bottom left during their GLIAC volleyball match played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Sept. 27. (Photo courtesy NMU)

HAMMOND, Ind. — The volleyball team at Northern Michigan University faced a trio of teams with winning records at the Midwest Region Crossover over the weekend, only winning one of their matches.

The Wildcats were swept in three sets by Findlay of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and Quincy of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, then pulled off a sweep of Ashland, another G-MAC team.

All matches by the 38 teams in attendance were played in Hammond, Indiana, home of Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference member Purdue Northwest.

Northern fell to 8-11 overall but still stands 5-2 in the GLIAC after this group of three nonconference encounters.

Findlay, a former member of the GLIAC, improved to 13-2 and was just outside the nation’s top 25 in last week’s American Volleyball Coaches Association poll in 27th, and had been 25th the week before.

Quincy is 14-5 after their win over NMU, while Ashland, another former GLIAC member, was still 11-8 after their loss to the Wildcats.

Northern will pass the halfway point of its conference season this week, hosting Grand Valley State at 4 p.m. Friday and Wayne State at 3 p.m. Saturday, both at Vandament Arena.

Here are details from the Midwest Crossover:

Findlay 3, NMU 0

On Friday afternoon, the Oilers prevailed 25-20, 25-17, 25-14, making 45 kills with just 13 errors for a .344 attack percentage.

Kaylie McIntosh led the Northern offense with nine kills as she also had two blocks, McKenzie Gruner had seven kills and four blocks, while Kaysie Bakke made five kills.

Allie Barlow had three service aces and 21 assists, while Liesl Haugen, two-time defending GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week, made 12 digs and had three assists.

While McIntosh scored the match’s first point on a kill, Findlay quick assumed the lead before the Wildcats ran off four straight points for an 8-7 advantage. In that streak, McIntosh had another kill as the Oilers made three attack errors.

The set turned into a series of three- and four-point streaks by each team, NMU falling behind 11-9, then going up 13-11, then behind 16-14 and ahead again 17-16.

But Findlay had the final say, scoring seven of the first set’s final eight points for the win.

Though Barlow had an ace as Northern scored the first three points of Set 2, Findlay again turned it around to take a 12-5 lead. The Wildcats couldn’t put more than two points in a row together after that as the Oilers again prevailed.

NMU couldn’t get the lead in the third set, though they tied it several times early and still only trailed 9-8 before Findlay put on an extended run to clinch the set and match.

Quincy 3, NMU 0

Later on Friday afternoon, the Hawks won 25-19, 25-12, 25-22 as Quincy had more kills, 42-31, and a .294 attack percentage vs. .129 for NMU.

McIntosh again led Northern’s offense with 10 kills while making six digs, Gruner added eight kills and three blocks, while Sydney Bartels had 10 digs and Barlow contributed 27 assists and seven digs.

The teams started the match just about even before the Hawks got out ahead 9-5. NMU answered with a 3-0 run, including a kill by Madison York, to pull within 11-9.

The Wildcats were still only down 21-19 when Quincy scored the final four points of the first set.

In Set 2, Quincy stormed out to an 11-2 start, and despite NMU’s 6-1 run, the Wildcats still trailed 21-11. That spurt included two kills each by McIntosh and Emilia Gulock, but the Hawks had their own streak to end it quickly.

The third set was competitive even as, with a narrow one-point lead, Quincy scored seven straight to go up 15-7.

That’s because the Wildcats dug deep to come up with their own 5-0 run to get within 17-14. That streak included three straight kills by McIntosh.

The teams traded points or pairs of points after that, and McIntosh had another kill when the Hawks had match point at 24-21. But NMU couldn’t save another as the match ended.

NMU 3, Ashland 0

On Saturday morning, Northern regrouped to pull out a 25-19, 25-21, 25-13 victory by winning the kills battle, 49-31, and having a .285 attack percentage compared to .190 for the Eagles.

York led the Wildcats’ offense with 15 kills as McIntosh had 10 to go with three aces. Bakke made nine kills, while Barlow had 10 digs and 38 assists, and Haugen 10 digs, three aces and five assists. Teammate Taylor Smaka also had nine digs.

In the 35th all-time meeting with Ashland, this was Northern’s first sweep since 2003.

In the opening set, Ashland took an early lead before the Wildcats caught them at 5-5 on a Barlow kill. Then Northern established a 12-7 advantage after a 7-1 run that included a pair of kills from both York and McIntosh.

The Eagles again evened the score 16-16 and only trailed 20-19 before NMU reeled off the final five points of the set following a pair of Bakke kills, one by York and an ace by McIntosh.

AU jumped out 15-10 in the second set before Northern’s extended 12-2 run put the Wildcats in a powerful 22-17 advantage.

With Northern leading 24-20, the Eagles saved one set point before McIntosh put an end to the set with a kill.

NMU took control from the get-go in the final set, going up 8-2 after two kills apiece by Bakke and York and back-to-back aces from Haugen.

A second big 8-0 run, spurred by four kills from McIntosh, made it an insurmountable 17-5 edge as the Wildcats cruised from there.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press releases reviewing the matches. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.