Northern Kentucky University brought its intensity to Regents Hall as they blew past the University of Charleston (W. Va.), ending the regular season by reaching the 20-win mark once again.
The Norse took the Golden Eagles 30-25, 30-16, 31-29, clinching the three-game sweep improving NKU to 20-12.
Junior Liz Holmes brought her A-game with a .562 hitting percentage along with ten kills and six blocks. Holmes continues to climb the ladder in the record book with 1,274 kills.
Senior Andrea Lanham contributed 37 assists in her final home match as a Norse. Lanham was also able to add six digs and served two aces in the win for NKU. During her career, Lanham has totaled 3,477 assists at NKU.
Junior Tristen Dye pounded nine kills and racked up ten digs in the Norse victory. With the impressive play from Dye, the Great Lakes Valley Conference rewarded her play by naming Dye the GLVC Player of the Week. Throughout the year, Dye averaged 2.84 digs and 3.65 kills per game.
The Norse will now hit the road and head to Edwardsville, Ill. The 2006 GLVC Tournament begins Nov. 2 when NKU and Indianapolis University battle at 5p.m.
This season, NKU has played Indianapolis twice and fell twice to the Greyhounds.
The GLVC tournament shapes up with the nationally ranked Southern Illinois University Edwardsville as the host and also the No. 1 seed taking on the No. 8 seeded Bellarmine University on Nov. 2. In other first round action, the No. 2 seeded Rockhurst University is set to battle the No. 7 seed University of Missouri- St. Louis. The No. 3 seeded Lewis University will step on the court to face Southern Indiana University.
With the hopes of capturing a GLVC title, NKU knows the competition ahead will be rough seeing as the Norse are 3-6 this season against the tournament competition. Besides SIUE remaining undefeated in the GLVC, the road to the 2006 championship seems to be a toss up due to the vast competition the GLVC brings to the table.
With first round tournament action starting Nov. 2, the semi- finals will be played Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at SIUE. After the long fought battles, the finals of the 2006 GLVC Championship will be held at 2 p.m. in the Vadalabene Center.