No.4 Northwestern College earned a 3-0 sweep (27-25, 25-20, 25-22) over Briar Cliff in the final match of the regular season played tonight in Sioux City, Iowa. Northwestern ends the regular season with a 14-2 conference record, 27-3 overall and Briar Cliff moves to 8-8 in the GPAC, 18-10 overall. 

Lauryn Hilger led all players with 13 kills and both A.J. Horstman and Anna Kiel added 11 kills each for a Red Raider offense that hit .336 for the match. Makenzie Fink hit a season-best .533, totaling nine kills in 15 attacks, and Lacey Wacker put up 40 assists. Karsyn Winterfeld led the backrow with 11 digs and Wacker added nine.

Northwestern Uses Late Rally For First Set Win

The Red Raiders scored four of the final five points and overcame set point to defeat Briar Cliff 27-25 in set one. Down 24-23 and following a Red Raider timeout, Horstman and Josie Blankespoor combined for a block to start the rally and, tied again at 25, Horstman put her team up (26-25) with a successful attack. Serving for the set, Kiel and Hilger recorded  another block to put Northwestern on top, 27-25. 

Northwestern fell behind early but used a 7-1 run, behind the serving of Kiel, and went up 11-9. Briar Cliff came back later with a 5-1 surge for a 20-19 advantage and the set was tied six times thereafter, the final one at 25. 

Big Advantage At Net Leads To Second Set Win

Northwestern hit 45% compared to 9% by the Chargers to claim a 25-20 set two win. The Red Raiders were down just once (5-4) but took command with a 5-0 run with Horstman serving. Kills by Hiilger and Kiel down the stretch put the Chargers away and gave NWC a 2-0 lead.

Northwestern Overcomes Big Deficit For A 3-0 Sweep

The Red Raiders fell behind by as much as seven (16-9) but closed on a 16-6 run to earn the sweep. Successful attacks by Kiel and Fink followed by a serve receive error by BCU made it a one-point game (19-18). Northwestern eventually tied it at 21 after kills by Fink and Horstman and, tied again at 22, kills by Fink and Hilger along with an error on BCU completed the comeback. 

By the Numbers...

Northwestern hit .336 compared to Briar Cliff at .146

The Chargers held a slight edge in blocks (7-6) and Northwestern had the advantage in ace serves (6-4)

Kiel has hit for double figures in 24 of the Red Raiders' 30 matches this season; Horstman has 15 matches with 10+ kills, Hilger has eight with 10+ kills

Winterfeld has 10+ digs in 13 matches; Winterfeld also pushed her ace serve total to 81, passing Jill Zylstra (1995) for eighth place all-time for ace serves in a season

Kiel led the Red Raiders with two blocks

Briar Cliff was led by Toni Beck with nine kills and both Courtney Schafer and Melissa Ditter put down six each