Box Score

WILMINGTON, N.C. - UNCW turned the tables on the Northeastern women's volleyball team on Friday night, winning the fourth and fifth sets to defeat the Huskies 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-10).
 
The win is the Seahawks' first in 17 tries against Northeastern, and snaps the Huskies' streak of seven straight wins at Hanover Hall.
 
Four NU players finished the match with double-digit kills, led by Brigitte Burcescu who threw down 17 on the night. Sophomore Jamie Bredahl collected another double-double on the season, finishing the match with 15 digs, and 13 kills. Ava Cramp and Taylor Reiter posted 12 and 11 kills, respectively.
 
Freshman setter Kristen Walding tagged 46 assists for Northeastern, while Natalia Skiba led the NU backcourt with a season-high 38 digs. Ashlee Asada earned a season-best four aces along with 10 digs.
 
UNCW (11-4, 1-0 CAA) had 14 fewer kills than Northeastern (7-7, 0-1 CAA), but hit at a slightly stronger percentage, .152 to the Huskies' .151. Morgan Kline led the match with 20 kills, and also earned 13 digs and three blocks for the Seahawks.
 
Trailing 4-3 in the opening set, Reiter jumpstarted the Northeastern offense by landing three kills, helping the Huskies rattle off four in a row to take a 7-4 lead. Two blocks by UNCW cut the lead to 9-8, and both teams were content on trading points until Morgan Kline netted an ace for the Seahawks to tie the set at 13-13.
 
Both teams had difficulty pulling away from the other, until UNCW answered a two-point Northeastern run with four straight points to take a 21-18 lead. The Huskies made nine attacking errors compared to the Seahawks' three in the first set, and UNCW ran away with a 25-19 victory.
 
Northeastern heated up early in the second set, scoring seven out of the first 10 points in the set to build a 7-3 lead. UNCW would chip away at the Huskies' lead and cut it to two at 10-8, but a kill by Burcescu sparked a six-point run for Northeastern that extended the lead to 16-8.
 
Burcescu joined Reiter above the net to stifle a Seahawk attack at 18-11, and Asada dialed up an ace four plays later to give the Huskies a 20-13 advantage. However, UNCW capitalized on two NU attacking errors before cashing in on a kill by Kaitlyn Cobb, and the Seahawks were soon within three points at 22-19. Walding found Bredahl for a kill to stop the UNCW run, and the Huskies held onto the second set 25-22 to tie the match at 1-1.
 
After landing 14 kills in the second set, Northeastern kept the pressure on UNCW with an even stronger attacking performance in the third set. Burcescu drilled back-to-back kills to open a 6-4 lead for the Huskies, and a big swing by Bredahl led to a blocking error by Meredith Peacock to give NU an 8-7 edge.
 
UNCW responded by scoring four of the next six points to take an 11-10 lead, but a kill by Cramp followed by two straight kills from Burcescu forced a Seahawks timeout, trailing 15-12. Victoria Phillips assisted on two kills out of the timeout, but the Huskies strung four straight points together to build a 19-14 lead. Northeastern would drop only four points the rest of the set, closing it with five more kills and a block en route to a 25-18 win, and a 2-1 match lead.
 
Northeastern scored three straight points to tie the fourth set at 5-5, and threw together another three-point run to take an 8-7 lead early in the frame. Alexa Armstrong and Bredahl put the Huskies ahead 10-9 with a block, and Walding found Cramp for the second of two back-to-back points to push the lead to 13-11.

UNCW stayed the course with strong play above the net, and scored three straight after trailing 17-16 to retake the lead at 19-17, causing Ken Nichols to call timeout for the Huskies. Northeastern responded with two straight out of the huddle, but UNCW would land kills by Kline and Kristen Powell, and five points later pushed a decisive fifth set with a 25-22 win in the fourth.
 
With a solid record in five-set matches this season, Northeastern appeared confident in the early fifth set, scoring four out of the first five points to lead 4-1. UNCW head coach Amy Bambenek called a timeout to slow down the Huskies, and the coaching move worked, as the Seahawks scored three straight points to tie the set at 4-4.
 
The Huskies would hold leads at 6-4 and 7-5, and a kill by Reiter widened the NU lead to three at 9-6. Reiter would go on to tag her final kill of the match at 10-8, but it proved to be the last of the scoring for the Huskies, as UNCW went on a 7-0 run to win the fifth set 15-10, and the match 3-2.
 
Northeastern looks to win its first conference match of the season at Elon this Sunday, Sept. 28, at 2 p.m.