By Don Owen
NKyTribune reporter
Less than 24 hours after sweeping past Youngstown State in just 63 minutes, Northern Kentucky University found itself in a first-set marathon against Cleveland State on Saturday.
How long? Try about 31 minutes worth of action, with numerous substitutions and some heavy offense by both teams. And after watching her team ease past Cleveland State by scores of 29-31, 25-20, 25-10, 25-21 in Regents Hall, NKU head coach Liz Hart joked about the long, entertaining opening set that included just about everything.
“I’d never had a defensive specialist play the front row before, so that was new,” Hart said of the wild opening frame, when Cleveland State fought off six set points to claim a 31-29 win. “In the second set, we switched our defense halfway through and were able to get some better blocks on their attackers, and I thought that made a big difference as well.”
“They obviously have some very talented hitters with Trinniti Hall and Hannah Greene, but I thought we did a good job of bouncing back after that first set,” Hart said.
NKU improved to 9-5 overall, 2-0 in the Horizon League. Cleveland State — which lost a five-set heartbreaker at IUPUI on Friday night — dropped to 4-9 overall, 0-2 in the Horizon League.
NKU featured four players who finished with double-figure numbers in kills. Abby Kanakry smashed 15 kills in 32 attempts while hitting .406. Anna Brinkmann terminated 14 balls, while Laura Crawford (13 kills) and Bailey Western (10 kills) also reached double figures.
“We had four players with double-digit kill totals, so I liked the balance in the offense,” said Hart, who noted her team hit .291. “I thought our serving was really good again. We had a lot of servers that were able to go on good runs.”
One of those big runs occurred in the third set, when NKU used a 12-0 spurt to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 13-2 lead en route to a 25-10 win. The Norse attacked at a blistering .424 clip in the third frame and limited Cleveland State to a .000 hitting percentage.
Ashton Terrill served up 11 points during the big spurt, including an ace. Terrill also keyed the NKU defense by scooping up 19 digs, and she chipped in 10 assists for her first career double-double.
“I thought Ashton made plays all day, sometimes one-handed,” Hart said of NKU’s junior libero, who scooped up several missile-like attacks from the Cleveland State hitters. “Anna Burke, she was a serving sub for us, and it seemed like every time she entered the game she was able to get a hand on the ball. I thought she did a great job in her role tonight. Our outsides that play six rotations did a good job as well.”
Natalie Hardig attacked at a .545 clip with six kills and a team-leading five blocks for NKU. Kanakry, the 6-foot-1 redshirt freshman, added three blocks and has become a major factor in the Norse lineup.
“Abby is so talented, and her ability to terminate from the middle part of the court is outstanding,” Hart said. “She’s making really smart decisions, attacking when she needs to attack and tipping when that’s needed. I’m really excited about her decision-making, and she’s hitting for a high percentage.”
Greene led Cleveland State with 12 kills and hit .312 with four blocks. Hall finished with 10 kills, but NKU’s defense held the star attacker to a .161 hitting percentage. London Portis attacked at a .350 clip and had nine kills, while Lydia Latimer finished with 11 kills.
Hart, whose youthful rotation includes three freshmen, three sophomores, two juniors and two seniors, is pleased with the 2-0 start in the Horizon League. She’s also excited about the improvement shown since the start of practice in August.
“At the beginning of preseason, we talked about urgency and playing faster,” she said. “About three weeks ago, we started playing faster against tougher competition. I was always concerned at the beginning of the year about the urgency. And this was the first weekend I didn’t have to call a timeout and say, ‘Hey, we need to go. We need to go.’
“They came into this weekend with a lot of focus and urgency. They knew what they needed to do and didn’t need to hear it from the coaches.”
NKU hits the road for Wright State — which is 13-1 overall with 13 consecutive wins — at 6 p.m. Friday.
Contact Don Owen at don@nkytrib.com and follow him on Twitter at @dontribunesport