Watching the Norse: Athletics recap and review

Jakob Staley, Sports Editor

September 2, 2025

Caption: Women’s triathlon competed in the Geist Sprint Triathlon, finishing third. This is their first podium finish in their two years as a team.

Previous week recap:

Thursday, Aug. 28

Women’s soccer drew level against in-state foe Bellarmine, 1-1. The first half was a standstill, as NKU recorded a trio of shots on goal and six corner kicks. The Norse’s defense was playing well, limiting the Knights’ opportunity on offense. The Knights opened the second half scoring in the 63rd minute, but NKU quickly responded seven minutes later. Off a corner kick, Lilly Yordy, the nation’s assist leader, whipped in a perfect ball on the near side to Erykah Cornett, who slipped it past the defense and keeper to level the score, marking Yordy’s sixth assist of the season. The Norse fought hard the rest of the game, but couldn’t get another shot to hit the back of the net.

Friday, Aug. 29

Women’s and men’s cross country compete in EKU Invitational, finishing second and third.

Women’s side: NKU ran six total student-athletes on the women’s side. Annabelle Hageman paced the Norse with a finish of 16:05, finishing 7th out of 19 total participants. Following Hageman, Shelby Bastin finished 9th overall with a time of 16:12 in the 4-kilo race. Allie Atchley finished in 10th overall, running a 16:18.00. Chloe Johnson followed her, running a 16:21.00, while Emme Greely (12th, 16:25) and Abby Slife (14th, 16:32) rounded out the group for NKU.

Men’s side: Brady Messer led NKU’s six runners on Friday, finishing in 19:47. Shortly following Messer was Nathan Ruth, who finished in 19:48 in the 6K race. Robert Wilke (12th, 20:20) and Gregory Beard (13th, 20:22) kicked off their sophomore campaigns with solid finishes. Brayden Rice (16th, 21:12) and Brayden Holland (18th, 21:34) rounded out the group of Norse men.

Women’s volleyball played a double header in the 2025 USI Invitational in Evansville, picking up one win. 3-0 loss to Saint Louis: Sydney Bray led the Norse in both kills (ten) and blocks (three assists), hitting .300 in the opener with a line of 10-4-20. Lucy Cluxton led the Norse in digs, posting 12 total. Freshman setter Abby Pickard led the Norse in assists, recording 19. The Billikens were very efficient in their win, hitting .270 as a team, while the Norse hit .091. 3-2 win over Valparaiso: Allison Risley led the Norse on the offensive side, posting a game-high 19 kills while hitting .197. It marked the first double-double of the season for the sophomore, who also contributed 15 digs. Defensively, it was Lucy Cluxton leading the way for the Norse with 29 digs. Cluxton also posted a trio of aces. Abby Pickard racked up a game-high 32 assists, also posting 14 digs. Ava Hoying finished with 13 kills, hitting .200, while Sydney Bray finished with five kills and 13 digs. NKU posted 38 block assists and three solos, as Katie Noschang led the way with 11 block assists.

Saturday, Aug. 30

Women’s volleyball lost against Southern Indiana 3-0 in the 2025 USI Invitational. Southern Indiana posted 12 more kills than the Norse, hitting .168 on the day while NKU hit just .064. The Norse’s best set came in the first, as they fell by a score of just 25-22, and hit .128. NKU’s second set saw the Norse commit more errors than kills, and a dominant attack from the Screaming Eagles in set three sealed things early. Allison Risley led the Norse with seven kills. She also posted six digs and three aces. Lucy Cluxton led the Norse in digs with 19, also putting up four assists. Lainey Green led NKU in assists with 13, also posting five digs. Katie Noschang had the highest block total for the Norse, posting two solos and five assists.

Sunday, Aug. 31

Women’s Triathlon competed in the Geist Sprint Triathlon, finishing third. The podium finish is the first podium team finish in the brief 2-year history of the women’s Norse triathlon program. The women’s team had seven total student athletes compete for the Norse, the most in program history and were led by Alisha Detmer who finished with an swim time of 7:19, bike in 38:01, and 5k run in 20:39 for an overall time of 1:07:19. Fallon Bright finished 15th and completed the swim in 7:56, bike in 37:56, and the 5k run in 24:55 for an overall time of 1:12:02. Maddux Bigam finished third amongst the Norse and 22nd overall, completing the swim in 10:21, the bike in 40:12, and the run in 22:53 for an overall time of 1:15:25. A trio of Norse athletes finished in 25th, 26th and 27th, with Bailey Reeves finishing in 25th with a time of 8:21, the bike in 40:12 and the run in 27:05 for an overall time of 1:17:40, just out-sprinting fellow teammate Warren Lampkowski-Sowle. Lampkowski-Sowle completed the swim in 7:11, the bike in 38:59 and the run in 29:30 for an overall time of 1:17:40. The final trio of Norse finishers back to back to back was Maggie Wilson. Wilson completed the swim in 8:12, the bike in 40:17 and the run in 26:08 for an overall time of 1:18:06. The final finisher for the Norse was Molly Eide. Eide completed the swim in 7:58, the bike in 42:38, and the run in 31:57 for an overall time of 1:26:04.

Women’s soccer beat Morehead State 5-0. Lilly Yordy put in two goals and an assist to increase her season points total to 13. Natalie Newman scored her first goal of the 2025 season. Sophia Kapszukiewicz put in her first assist of the season on the first goal of the match. NKU outshot Morehead State 21-11 and 9-6 on goal. NKU won the corner battle 3-2.

Men’s soccer took on Western Illinois, winning 1-0. Alex Kron came up big with a penalty kick save in the 26th minute, diving right to keep the score level. Ali Taleb netted his second goal of the season in the 74th minute, lifting NKU past Western Illinois. The Norse outshot the Leathernecks 13-8 and 9-4 on goal. The Norse registered just four corner kicks to WIU’s nine. The second half saw things get physical, as five yellow cards were issued to Norse players.

Sports this week:

Thursday, Sept. 4

Women’s volleyball will remain on the road to take on Western Michigan in the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., at 4 P.M.
Women’s soccer will face off against Ohio in Athens at 4 P.M.

Friday, Sept. 5

Women’s volleyball will take on Indiana at 10 A.M., then take on SEMO at 4 P.M. in the Indiana Invitational in Bloomington, Ind.
Men’s and women’s cross country will compete in the Baumer XC Classic in Dayton, Ohio, at 6 P.M.

Saturday, Sept. 6

Men’s soccer will play a home game against Belmont at 7 P.M.

Sunday, Sept. 7

Women’s golf will compete in the Athletes In Action’s Total Athlete Collegiate in Xenia, OH
Men’s golf will compete in the Marshall’s Joe Feaganes Invitational in Huntington, WV
Women’s soccer will face off against Cincinnati on the road at 6 P.M.

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