By Journal Sports Staff

INDIANAPOLIS — The Northern Michigan University volleyball team has started a new winning streak after defeating Cedarville University in four sets to open the Midwest Region Conference Crossover on Friday afternoon.

With the 26-24, 25-12, 24-26, 25-10 victory, the Wildcats have won two straight to improve to 12-8. NMU opened the season with nine straight wins before losing eight of nine matches. The downward string ended with a win at Purdue Northwest on Sunday.

This was the second time the Wildcats have defeated Cedarville (8-14) this season. The first was also a four-setter at the season-opening Illinois-Springfield Capital Classic on Aug. 25.

Northern has two more matches in Indianapolis today, facing Southern Indiana at 10 a.m. and Missouri University of Science & Technology at 4 p.m.

Against Cedarville on Friday, senior Autumn Monsma led the Wildcats with 12 kills and 11 digs while adding three blocks, as junior Sarah Kuehn also had 12 kills and mixed in five blocks. Seniors teammate Jessica Skonning and Maggie Liebeck each had eight kills, while senior setter Lynzi Svoboda finished with 36 assists. Liebeck also had two blocks.

Freshman Alli Yacko tied her career high with four service aces, while senior Rachel Braunschweig and junior Gabriela Martinez added two each. Braunschweig had 10 digs, Svoboda nine, Martinez eight and Yacko seven.

The opening set featured 13 ties, including at 24-24, before a pair of Cedarville attack errors ended it. NMU took a quick 15-3 lead in the second set, while in the third, Northern had leads of 16-10 and 24-20 before losing the final six points, three on successful kills by Cedarville.

NMU took another early lead in the final set, 15-5, only adding to it down the stretch to secure the match.

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