Northern Michigan University volleyball players, from left, Liesl Haugen, Kaysie Bakke, McKenzie Gruner and Madison York celebrate a point during a match against Lake Superior State at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The volleyball team at Northern Michigan University took care of business over the weekend to insure the Wildcats will host a conference tournament quarterfinal match on Wednesday evening.

NMU defeated 10th-place Lake Superior State in three sets and ninth-place Saginaw Valley State in four sets at Vandament Arena to finish in a top-four position in the standings of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

That was important as the top four teams host the next four in this week’s quarterfinals.

Northern ended in a tie for third place with a 12-4 GLIAC record, currently sporting a modest 14-13 overall mark.

The Wildcats tied Grand Valley State in the standings and won a tiebreaker with the Lakers, likely due to NMU winning their lone match against GVSU during the regular season.

Those teams finished a single victory behind regular-season co-champions Wayne State and Ferris State, both at 13-3, while Northern and GVSU ended up three games clear of a trio of teams at 9-7 — Michigan Tech, Wisconsin-Parkside and Davenport.

As the No. 3 seed, the Wildcats will host No. 6 Parkside at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Vandament. Wednesday’s other quarterfinals pit No. 7 MTU at No. 2 Wayne State, No. 5 Davenport at No. 4 Grand Valley and No. 8 Purdue Northwest at No. 1 Ferris.

If NMU gets by Parkside, the Wildcats will face the Wayne State-MTU winner in the semifinals on Saturday, with the tourney championship match on Sunday, all hosted by highest remaining seed after the quarters.

Here is information from last weekend:

NMU 3, LSSU 0

On Friday evening, Northern prevailed 25-8, 25-19, 25-23 as the Wildcats made 55 kills with just 11 errors, amassing a sparkling .407 hitting percentage.

It was a balanced attack, with five players accumulating at least eight kills — McKenzie Gruner had 14, Madison York 13, Sydney Bartels 10, Emilia Gulock nine and Kaysie Bakke eight.

“It was a team effort tonight,” York said afterward in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the result. “Glad we got it done in three (sets)!”

Bartels also paced Northern with 12 digs, while Gruner and Gulock each had two blocks.

Teammate Liesl Haugen had nine digs, two service aces and four assists, while Allie Barlow distributed 46 assists to go with eight digs, two aces and a block.

The Wildcats got off to a fast start, scoring the first six points as York had two kills, Gulock one and Barlow two aces.

Another 7-0 run in the first set made it an unassailable 20-5 lead as Bartels had five kills in that streak. Finally, Gulock made back-to-back-to-back kills to end the set.

NMU also led 3-1 in the second set, though this time the Lakers (1-21, 1-14 GLIAC) tied it 4-4. But Northern regrouped and built a 16-11 lead before LSSU again came back to tie it 18-18.

The Lakers couldn’t answer the Wildcats’ final run, 7-1, that ended the set. That last run included three kills by York and one apiece by Gulock and Bartels.

In the competitive third set, Lake State went on a 6-1 run to take a 9-7 lead, though the home team answered with a 5-1 streak to go back on top 12-10. That streak included Gruner and Bartels kills.

The back-and-forth continued, however, as LSSU went on a 4-1 run for a 15-13 lead, then the Wildcats replied with a 7-1 spurt to retake a 19-15 advantage. That streak included two kills apiece by Bakke and York and one each by Bartels and Gruner, along with a Haugen ace.

Still, the Lakers answered with an identical 7-1 run to go back on top 22-20.

NMU had one more streak, 5-1, that ended the set and match. That last string included three kills by Gruner and one apiece by Bakke and Gulock.
 

NMU 3, Saginaw Valley St. 1

On Saturday afternoon, this match turned into a marathon even without a fifth set, NMU winning 25-18, 25-17, 23-25, 32-30.

Gruner led the Northern offense with 19 kills, adding in a team-high five blocks along with an ace. Bartels made 13 kills and had 17 digs, while Gulock had 11 kills.

Haugen led the Wildcats with 19 digs and five aces, while Lauren Cardwell made 14 digs and Barlow had 55 assists, four aces and two blocks.

After giving up the first two points of the afternoon, Northern answered with four in a row as Bakke had two kills, York one and Haugen an ace.

The Cardinals (8-20, 2-14 GLIAC) came back with a 5-0 string to go up 7-4 before a back-and-forth exchange saw neither team go up by more than three.

That was until the Wildcats scored three in a row to take a 19-14 advantage, two of the points on Haugen aces.

NMU finished off the set with another three straight, Gruner and Gulock getting kills and the deciding point coming on an SVSU attack error.

The Cards put another early string together in the second set, going up 5-3 and leading until Northern tied it 9-9. But the Wildcats had a couple big streaks in them, the first six in a row to make it 16-11 as Bakke and Gruner had two kills apiece, York one and Haugen another ace.

The final spurt, 5-0, ended the set as Bartels had a kill and the Cardinals committed four straight errors.

In Set 3, NMU went on a 5-1 run to go ahead 9-6. SVSU caught them several times, but couldn’t take the lead until a Cards’ 7-0 run got them to four set points, 24-20.

Northern saved three of those points, a Bartels ace and York kill among them, but Saginaw got the final point to shave the Wildcats’ lead to 2-1.

The crazy fourth set was close in the early going before the Cardinals went on a 7-1 run to go ahead 12-6.

Soon after, NMU answered with a 7-0 spurt to go back on top 15-13. In that run, Gruner had three kills with one apiece from Bartels, Gulock and Barlow, while Haugen pumped in another ace.

After the Wildcats increased their lead to 18-14, SVSU answered with a 5-0 run to go ahead 21-20.

The teams traded three-point runs to leave the Cards at set point, 24-23, but Northern came through twice in a row to save the set, then forced SVSU to do the same three straight times.

NMU again saved the set with a Gulock kill to tie it 30-30, then her teammates tacked on two more in a row with kills by Bartels and Gulock to end the set, the match and the regular season.

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