Eastern Wayne Today

Wayne State University's volleyball team faced a challenging match against Northern Michigan on Saturday, resulting in a four-set defeat. The match, held at Vandament Arena, marked Wayne State's final GLIAC road game of the regular season. With this loss, Wayne State's overall record stands at 10-17 and 5-11 in the GLIAC.

The match scores were 20-25, -21, 20-25, and 27-29. Northern Michigan started strong with a hitting percentage of .310 in the first set. Wayne State responded with their best performance in the second set, achieving a .313 hitting percentage. They managed to overcome a two-point deficit with a significant 7-1 run to win that set.

Both teams displayed equal offensive efficiency in the third set with identical percentages of .143. Despite leading 18-13 at one point, Wayne State allowed Northern Michigan to score 12 of the last 14 points, giving them an advantage going into the fourth set.

The final set was closely contested with multiple ties and lead changes. Five of these ties occurred within the last few points of the set as Wayne State fought hard to stay in contention. However, Jacqueline Smith from Northern Michigan secured victory for her team with consecutive kills after it was tied at 27-all.

For Wayne State, Molly Miller led with 18 kills while Kayla Giroux added another 15 and Ella Uganski contributed ten. Carly Rodman achieved three aces for her team. Giroux also made five blocks during the game.

Kayla Dulgar stood out by reaching over fifty assists for the fourth time this season and notably doing so within just four sets against Northern Michigan.

This loss marked only the second time this season that Wayne State lost despite having a higher hitting percentage than their opponent or when they hit above .240 as a team.

Wayne State is scheduled to return home to play against Parkside on Friday, November 10th for Family Night at Matthaei starting at 7 p.m.