ASHLAND, Wis. – Nebraska Wesleyan continued their impressive start to the 2019 volleyball season by winning a pair of matches on Friday (Sept. 6) at the Northland College Invite in Ashland, Wis.  NWU defeated Concordia-Chicago 3-1 to start the day then rolled past the host school Northland 3-0 in straight sets.
 
The Prairie Wolves are now 5-1 on the year and will play two more matches on Saturday at the Stinger Classic hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
 
NWU dropped the opening set of the day against Concordia 15-25, then got their act together and earned three set victories in scores of 25-17, 26-24, 25-21.
 
Errors were the story of set one with NWU committing nine attack errors for a .028 team hitting percentage.  In the second set, the Prairie Wolves trailed 9-7 then went on a 5-0 run to regain the lead and they would never trail again.  Concordia cut the lead to 15-13 but NWU outscored them 10-2 to end the set.
 
Set three was back and forth with seven lead changes throughout the set.  It appeared the Prairie Wolves finally gained control as they led 22-16.  Concordia went on an 8-1 run to take the lead and had set point.  Nicole Gonzales recorded a kill to tie it at 24-24, then NWU took the lead on an attack error.  They were able to close the set on a kill from Anna Gottsch.
 
In the final set, the two teams were tied at 21-21 before the Prairie Wolves reeled of four straight points to clinch the match.
 
Whitney Jensen led the way for NWU with 15 kills and a .462 hitting percentage.  Gonzales also reached double figures in kills with 10.  Gottsch dished out 19 assists and Kelsie Stovall had 17 digs with three service aces.
 
Against the host school Northland, the Prairie Wolves flexed their muscles and opposed a strong will leaving no doubt in the match.  They won in straight sets of scored 25-15, 25-16, 25-9.
 
Northland (2-3) ended the match hitting a negative percentage of -.057 with 18 kills and 23 errors.  NWU (5-1) was completely the opposite hitting .341 as a team with 35 total kills and only seven errors.
 
Hannah Bellinghausen led the Prairie Wolves with eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage.  Nyah Chambers, Cora Svoboda and Maisie Ohlrich each had six kills in the match.  Kennady Klein led the way with 11 digs and Gottsch dished out 10 assists.