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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Northern Kentucky University reached the 20-win plateau for the 14th consecutive season by sweeping past Charleston (W. Va.) in Regents Hall on Monday night. The Norse hit .381 as a team and rolled to a 30-25, 30-16, 31-29 victory over Charleston in a non-conference match. NKU improved to 20-12 and is now 7-0 all-time against Charleston. Liz Holmes attacked at a .562 clip with 10 kills and six blocks to lead NKU. Holmes, a junior middle hitter, also served up two aces and finished with seven digs. A graduate of Mercy High School in Cincinnati, Holmes now has 1,274 career kills at NKU. Andrea Price recorded a team-leading 12 kills and hit .370 for the Norse. The freshman outside hitter from St. Henry High School added nine digs. Price and Kristina Eisenmenger helped NKU rally from a 27-24 deficit in the final game with two kills apiece. Price converted an attack to tie the game at 29-all, and Holmes capped the sweep on match point with a kill. Norse senior setter Andrea Lanham dished out 37 assists in the final home match of her career. Lanham, a graduate of Notre Dame Academy, added two service aces, six digs and two blocks. Lanham upped her career total to 4,675 assists, which ranks No. 2 in Norse history. Eisenmenger finished with 10 kills and hit .474 for the Norse, while teammate Tristen Dye slammed down nine kills and had 10 digs. Earlier in the day, Dye was named Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Week. Freshman Megan Dooley served up four aces and added eight digs for NKU, which limited Charleston to a .149 hitting percentage. The Golden Eagles, co-champions of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, had just one block the entire match and dropped to 25-7. NKU is the No. 5 seed in the GLVC and will meet No. 4 seed Indianapolis in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament at 6 p.m. (EST) Thursday at Edwardsville, Ill. NKU and Indianapolis played twice this season, and the Greyhounds won both meetings with the Norse. NKU has never lost three times in a season to Indianapolis, which is 23-9 entering the GLVC Tournament. |
