The NKU volleyball team beat Milwaukee 3-0 on Saturday afternoon at Regents Hall, 25-12, 25-19, 25-15.

The Norse started the afternoon by honoring Keely Creamer, Taylor Snyder, Lauren Hurley, and Tristen Simpson as part of senior night festivities.

“They’re fantastic kids first and foremost. They’re great people and it’s been a joy coaching them. They work very hard,” Hart said. “They’ve always stepped up to the challenge and they continue to improve.”

The Norse jumped out to a 16-4 lead against Milwaukee in the first set. NKU started quick in sets two and three as well and never looked back, winning the final two sets 25-19 and 25-15 respectively.

Snyder, recorded 40 assists this match. After being injured and unable to play in the five set loss to Milwaukee earlier in the season, Snyder has seen a lot of improvement from the Norse.

“There’s been tremendous growth all around from our defensive and serving, to our block getting some great touches, and we’re playing fantastic in transition,” Snyder said.

Creamer, fueled by the early season loss to the Panthers, recorded 15 kills and 3 blocks in the match. .

“Everyone was ready tonight to take it to them because we wanted revenge for the first time that we played them,” said Creamer. “We all just fed off of each other’s energy and it worked out in our favor.”

On a night where four seniors swept their last home game, Hart couldn’t have been happier.

“I’m so happy that they’re playing their best volleyball at the end of their senior years,” Hart said. “They all have their own different ways of leading and it inspires their teammates.”

The Norse will end the regular season with two road games, starting Wednesday against Youngstown State and finishing on Saturday against UIC.

Norse start fast, finish strong in victory over Green Bay

The NKU volleyball team beat Green Bay 3-2 on Friday night, 25-17, 20-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-13.

In the opening set, NKU got off to a fast start, at one point leading 13-4. From there, NKU kept a safe lead for the rest of the set and was able to win it pretty easily.

According to Lauren Hurley, NKU’s senior libero, it wasn’t on accident that NKU get off to a fast start.

“We were definitely ready to go today,” said Hurley. “I think we might have caught Green Bay off guard a little bit and we were playing really clean.”

The Norse dropped the second and third sets, after head coach Liz Hart noticed a change in her team’s mentality.

“I thought that we lacked our aggressiveness and their serving picked up a lot which got us out of system more,” Hart said.

Ultimately, that lack of aggressiveness and an uptick in Green Bay’s serving lead to some mistakes from the Norse.

“We made errors trying to do shots instead of swinging and getting kills,” Hart said.

In the fourth set, Green Bay jumped out to a lead. The Norse came storming back, however, winning the set to force a fifth set.

Lead by players like Laura Crawford, a freshman outside hitter who set a career high with 16 kills, the Norse clawed back to win the fourth set.

“We set a tone for ourselves after our losses last weekend and we needed this win tonight,” said Crawford. “I was ready to play tonight.”

The fifth set of the match turned into a back and forth affair, with both teams trading points. The turning point of the set happened during an extended rally in the middle of the set, that was ended by a kill by NKU sophomore Haley Libs.

“It was huge to win it, I can only imagine how demoralizing it would have been to play such a long rally and not get the point,” said Hart.

Using the momentum from that play, NKU got to a match point at 14-13, and Lauren Hurley proceeded to finish the match with an ace. The ace surprised Hurley, who had never ended a match with an ace.

“I was just trying to lollipop it in and thought it was going to be out for sure,” said Hurley. “I’ve never had an ace like that before, but I’ll take it for sure.”