HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team opened its home schedule in style with a commanding 3-0 win (25-9, 25-17, 25-10) over Northwood. The win pushes the Huskies to 10-2 overall and 4-0 in the GLIAC.
The Black and Gold played phenomenal volleyball this evening, hitting an efficient .484 on attack and featuring four players with an attack rating at or above .500. Sophomore Olivia Ghormley was the player of the match, hitting .500 with 18 kills and three digs. Sophomore Laura DeMarchi set up 42 assists on the night and pitched in eight digs on defense.
“I’m pleased, I’m very happy with the 3-0 win,” said head coach Matt Jennings. “We know those don’t come easy in this conference, and Northwood was playing some good ball coming into tonight. We had our guard up and we were ready for them.”
The Huskies were well-positioned in their back-court as they outperformed the Timberwolves (5-7, 2-2 GLIAC) 46-31 in digs and limited them to an abysmal .051 attack percentage. Sophomore Anna Jonynas led the squad with 12 digs, and sophomore Megan Utlak was close behind with 11.
Mariah Sherman crossed the 1,000-point plateau this evening with 10 kills on 15 attempts. The senior outside hitter finished the night with an efficiency rating of .600, tallying only one error on the night.
Michigan Tech opened the first set by scoring 10 of the first 11 points and didn’t look back, rolling to a 25-9 win to open the match. The Huskies hit .654 as a team, with Ghormley, Sherman, and Jonynas all hitting .750 or better against the Timberwolves. The Huskies only recorded one error in the entire frame, winning the set with ease.
“It was a clean match, we played really clean volleyball,” said Ghormley, who was named GLIAC North Player of the Week on Monday. “I think they had one run in the second set, but we took care of business and pushed through that. Our passing was on point, and I think it was a really clean match tonight.”
Tech began the second set with three straight points before surrendering the lead to the visiting Timberwolves. It went back and forth for most of the action before the Black and Gold pulled away late with alert defending, precise passing, and accurate attacking to eventually defeat the Timberwolves 25-17.
The Husky offense refused to relent in the third set, netting 17 kills and an attack rating of .593 to race ahead to an 11-5 lead before Northwood called timeout.
With attacks coming from both pins, Michigan Tech scored 14 of the last 19 points in the set, including five straight to close it out for their fifth straight win.
Michigan Tech is back in action on Saturday when it hosts No. 11 Ferris State (9-3, 4-0 GLIAC) at 4 p.m. The Bulldogs, who swept Northern Michigan 3-0 Friday night, are the four-time defending GLIAC Champions.
“You’ve got to come out and play your best ball against a team like Ferris,” Jennings said of Saturday’s opposition. “They don’t lose to a lot of teams, and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The teams last met in the 2017 GLIAC Tournament Final, and it was the Bulldogs who came out on top 3-0 (20-25, 23-25, 25-27) over the Huskies in a thrilling championship match.
