Norse squeak by Jayhawks for first place in conference
Trending
ESCANABA -- The Bay College Norse advanced to 6-2 in the conference MCCAA North Conference and 12-6 overall as they came out on the right side of a five-set decision here Monday. The win also put Bay in the driver’s seat as they now own tie breakers over the top three teams in the conference as the season winds down.
Physiologically I'm trying to get them to not think about first place," Bay Coach Dan Porath said. "We don’t want to put too much pressure on them but it is important that they understand the situation that they are in. They have been playing good volleyball and have put themselves in position to be in first place."
The Norse jumped out to an early 5-1 lead on a pair of aces and a kill by Ava Johnson. The Norse extended their lead to 12-5 as Ava Maki had a pair of kills and one ace over that stretch. Maki had 12 kills in the contest.
"It feels good to be in first place," Maki said. "They have some really good hitters and we have been working on that a lot in practice."
The Norse led throughout the first set winning 25-19.
The Jayhawks got off to a fast start in the second set as they jumped out to a 5-2 lead and were able to hold that lead throughout the set powered by four kills from Jaelyn Laird as the Jayhawks took the set 25-18.
The third set went back and forth and the Norse tied the game at four on a kill by sophomore Audrey Franz. The game was tied 11 times with six lead changes before a five-point serving run by the Norse ended the set 25-20.
The fourth set was controlled by the Jayhawks. The two teams started off back and forth before an eight-point service run put the Jayhawks ahead 22-10. They went on to take the set 25-12.
The Fifth set had the Norse jump out to an early lead at 3-0 but the Jayhawks answered with four straight points to take the lead but the Norse continued to fight and a huge block by freshman Josie Mechling who also had eight kills put the Norse up 14-11.
"We got the energy back and it helped us finish things out," Mechling said.
The Norse went on to win the fifth set 15-12 on a kill by Ava Johnson who finished with seven kills on the night to go along with three aces and two blocks.
The Norse will be back in action tonight as they host North Central Michigan.