ORANGE CITY, Iowa – The Briar Cliff University volleyball team (0-1 GPAC, 5-6) never stopped fighting in a 3-0 loss (25-17, 25-13, 25-17) to #1 Northwestern (Iowa) (1-0 GPAC, 11-0), Wednesday night at the Bultman Center.
In the first set, Briar Cliff hung in there with Northwestern trailing 9-5. The Red Raiders went on a 9-4 run to effectively end the set.
In the second set, the Chargers exploded on Northwestern. Sophomore Aliyah Basham crushed the ball off a set from senior Olivia Corey. Senior Anesa Davenport stepped up and her serving frustrated the Red Raiders.
When the smoke cleared, BCU was up 5-0. Briar Cliff used timely kills and a strong blocking effort at the net to force several errors.
That forced Northwestern to call timeout, trailing 11-4. The Red Raiders came back out and went on a 12-1 run that turned the tide.
The third set was back-and-forth early on. Senior Taryn Nothem found the back corner to close the gap to 7-5.
Northwestern went on a run to push the lead to nine, 20-11. The Chargers refused to quit. Freshman Aubrey Hoeft blasted the ball down the line.
That cut the margin to five, 21-16. The Red Raiders had to battle for every point the rest of the way to end the match.
For Briar Cliff, Nothem had 11 digs and junior Avery Beller had 10 digs. It was Beller’s 12th straight double-digit match. In addition, Beller went over 900 career digs.
For Northwestern, Jazlin Douma had 10 kills and Jori Hajek had 11 digs.
Briar Cliff Head Coach Lindsey Weatherford
“We knew going into the match that Northwestern was going to be technically sound. We had moments where we were able to get them out of system and play our own game. I was especially proud of how our team came out in the second set to get a 5-0 lead. It says a lot about our effort that they (Northwestern) were forced to call a timeout when we got up 11-4 in that set. Taryn (Nothem) was strong for us in the front and back rows, which was nice since she was playing in her hometown.”
Briar Cliff hits the road, Saturday, Sept. 7, taking on Avila and Peru State. The matches are scheduled to start at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m., respectively.
