The Northern Kentucky University Norse women’s soccer team (1-6-1 overall, 1-2 Horizon League) broke through for the first goals and victory of the season with a 3-0 win over the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis Jaguars on Tuesday.
Prior to the game, freshman midfielder/forward Emilie Doersching had one shot on goal. But She broke out in huge ways scoring her first and second career goals in the 58th minute off a rebound then in the 63rd minute off a corner kick that landed at her feet in the box. Freshman Shannon Crogan scored her first collegiate goal in the 77th minute to make the final score.
Junior Mickayla Kowalski had the second clean sheet of the season and her career turning aside three IUPUI shots in the win.
The Norse could not continue that momentum into Sunday losing 1-0 on the road to the Cleveland State Vikings (5-4-2, 2-2). NKU resides in eighth place in Horizon League play with three points.
Cleveland State outshot NKU, 9-4 including 4-0 on goal. The Vikings scored the game’s lone goal just 2:34 into the game. Kowalski made three saves for NKU.
The Norse take on Robert Morris (6-2-3, 1-2-1) on Saturday at noon at home.
Volleyball
NKU opened up Horizon League play with two road wins. The Norse are 4-9 overall.
“I think that’s what the tough non-conference play was all about – learning how fast we need to play, how efficient we need to be with our movements,” said Liz Hart, NKU head coach. “I thought that we were able to execute that these last two days. We had three hitter options most of the time for our setters and honestly, we were able to get our middles a lot of kills.”
The Norse had a sound 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-22) victory over the Oakland University (Michigan) Grizzlies. The Norse have a record of 5-3 to open league play since joining the Horizon League.
NKU had 44 kills on 135 attempts with just 15 errors for a .215 hitting percentage to go with 41 assists, six aces and 10 blocked shots. Oakland had 25 kills on 127 attempts and 21 errors for a .031 hitting percentage to go with 24 assists, three aces and five blocks.
Redshirt senior Abby Kanakry had a team-high 12 kills to go with a .36 hitting percentage and two blocks. Senior Anna Burke had 26 digs and 78 assists.
Junior setter Torie Houston had 18 assists and seven digs with freshman setter Madison Tracy tallying 16 assists and nine digs. Senior outside/right side hitter Reilly Briggs had nine kills and three blocks.
Then on Saturday, NKU swept Cleveland State in three games by 25-18, 25-21, 25-23 scores. The Norse had a .264 hitting percentage landing 46 kills minus 17 errors on 110 attempts to go with 44 assists, 10 aces and six blocks. The Vikings had a .167 hitting percentage with 29 kills minus 12 errors on 102 attempts to go with 29 assists, four aces and six blocks.
Graduate student Anna Brinkmann had 10 kills and a .429 hitting percentage to lead the Norse to go with 10 digs. She has six double-doubles this year.
“We were in a tight spot at the end of the game (at Cleveland State),” Hart said. “Anna Brinkmann did a nice job. She had two aces to finish a game. It was good to see them stay calm. They just made the big plays when pressure was on them.”
Kanakry had 11 kills one block and one dig. This marked the ninth match of the season she had 10 or more kills. Briggs added 10 kills for a .400 hitting percentage.
Burke had 21 digs and three aces moving closer to 1,000 career digs at 880 for her career. This marked the sixth match with 20 or more digs.
Tracy and Houston continued to do their things at setter, Tracy had her third match of 20 assists of 20 more with 21 to go with six digs and one ace. Houston had 17 assists and nine digs.
“I think a lot of it has to do with our mentality change,” Houston said of the team’s Horizon League success. “We have really high expectations for the season so I think all of us have stepped up and really focused on what we can do for each other.”
NKU plays its first home game on Friday at 6 p.m. against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (12-5, 3-0). The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (4-10, 3-0) comes to town Saturday for a 4 p.m. match.
Men’s Soccer
The Norse (3-5-1, 1-2-0) went 0-1-1 on the week.
The Norse tied Western Illinois, 1-1. The Norse trailed 1-0 in the 30th minute when Western Illinois scored. But NKU tied the game in the 78th minute when freshman forward Hunter Sekelsky scored on an assist from senior forward Sam Robinson .
Western Illinois outshot Northern Kentucky, 11-9 including 6-5 on goal. Graduate student goalkeeper Daniel Bermingham had five saves. Senior forward Brodie Sallows had two shots with one on goal.
NKU then lost a 1-0 decision at rival Wright State on Saturday. The Raiders scored the lon goal in the 39th minute off a header. The Norse still reside in fourth place in Horizon League play with three points.
The physical game had a total of 27 with 14 going to the Norse. Wright State outshot NKU, 17-16 including 9-5 on goal. Bermingham had four saves.
Robinson had four shots with one on goal. Norse senior midfielder/forward Ben Hegge had three shots on goal and junior midfielder/forward Deryn Armstrong two shots on goal. Freshman midfielder/forward Parker Vasic had three shots with two on goal.
NKU returns home Saturday taking on Wisconsin-Green Bay (3-2-2, 0-1) at Scudamore Field. Game time is 3 p.m.
Men’s Golf
The Norse finished fifth with 887 strokes out of 17 teams in the Valpo Fall Invite on Tuesday.
Graduate student Alex Doss put in another solid performance finishing in a tie for fifth overall with an even-par score of 216. He had 10 birdies in the tournament including three in the final round.
Senior Miles Parroco finished in a tie for eighth overall posting a one-over score of 217. He had nine birdies including three on the second day of the tournament.
The Norse play again Monday and Tuesday in the Tontimonia Invitational in Westlake, Ohio at the Lakewood Country Club. Cleveland State plays host to the two-day tournament.
Men’s Tennis
The Norse played in the two-day James O’Connell Memorial Tournament that the University of Dayton played host to for the first fall action this season.
On the first day, the Norse won three singles games. Graduate student Nick Nienhaus made his Norse debut beating Dayton’s Conner Bruce by 6-2, 6-2 scores.
Junior Trevor Ball knocked off Dayton’s Matt Demarco, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9). Then Tom Berry beat Dayton’s Oliver Dune by 6-0, 7-5 scores.
On Saturday, Berry, freshman Emilio Bravo and junior Santiago Casamayor had singles victories against Ball State. Berry beat Eli Herran by 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) scores and Bravo beat Parish Simmons, 6-2, 2-6, 10-6. Casamayor beat Abe Wojtalik 6-3, 6-2.
Against Xavier, graduate student Bartosz Losiak earned his first career NKU victory defeating Jorge Santamaria 6-4, 6-3. Casamayor won his second game of the day with a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-4 win over Pascal Mosberger.
Next up for NKU are the ITA Regionals at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center in Louisville. The Ohio Valley Regionals start Wednesday, Oct. 10 and go through Saturday, Oct. 22.
