The Norse were up 14-10 in the fifth set. The fans were on their feet, chanting “N-K-U.” Their voices filled Truist Arena, and Abby Pickard stepped up to serve. She jumps up, hits the ball “smack,” and the ball goes flying through the air.
The ball flies over the net and is dug up by IU-Indy. The ball finds the Jaguars’ Grace Purichia, who sets it up for Morgan Ostrowski. Ostrowski winds up and hits the ball. The ball flies through the air, going straight out of bounds, almost hitting NKU’s head coach, Liz Hart.
The team jumps up in the air, and Hart hugs her coaching staff as they beat IU-Indy 3-2, punching their ticket into the Horizon League championship game. Moving their win streak to 14 and their overall record to 22-8 on the season.
Northern Kentucky battled with IU-Indy the whole game. In the first set, the Jags jumped out early, but that didn’t matter for NKU, as they closed out the set on a 5-0 run, winning 25-21.
The second set started with a lot of back-and-forth play. The Norse had a 16-12 lead thanks to a kill by Sydney Bray, but once again, IU-Indy didn’t go away. The game was tied up 21 all and the Jaguars shocked the Norse, going on a 4-0 run to close out the set, 25-21.
The third set of the game was a dog fight as the game went on for multiple plays, and the Norse won 28-26. The fourth set wasn’t any different as IU-Indy had its fans on its feet, forcing a set five with a 25-21 victory.
The fifth set was the loudest Truist Arena has been all season. NKU led 8-7 as they switched sides. Switching sides proved to be the moment boost for them, going on a 7-3 run to end the game as the Norse jumped to a 15-10 victory.
Bray and Allison Risley, both all-Horizon League first team selections, shined when the lights were at their brightest on both ends of the floor. Bray had 21 kills, 20 digs, five block assists and two aces, while Risley had 15 kills, 10 digs and five block assists.
The third Norse selected to the all-Horizon League first team and Freshman of the year, Abby Pickard, passed the ball all over the floor, having 52 assists while also adding 10 digs.
Libero Lucy Cluxton anchored the back row with a team-high 26 digs, while posting a .952 reception percentage and one service ace.
Hart talked about what it means to her to be named coach of the year in the Horizon League.
“It’s just been an incredible season. We have a really special team that is all about what’s best for the team, and that’s just been what’s maybe been the most special thing about the season, Hart said. “I think one of the things that has really been kind of an emotional thing, but thing I’m super excited about, is the amount of alums that have reached out to me. That’s been really, really cool to hear from them and just their excitement about our season and all the great accomplishments that our players have had.”
Risley also talked about being picked for the All-Horizon first team, giving all the credit back to her teammates.
“I gotta credit it back to my team, because, you know, gotta get a pass to get a set and a hit. And our defense and our service setter and libero has been doing amazing. Abby’s been doing so good, giving me good balls. So yes, it’s a great award, but it’s everyone,” Risley said.
With this being the first time the women’s volleyball team has played in Truist Arena, Hart is extremely grateful they’ve gotten to play in Truist.
“First off, I’m super grateful. I mean this, like I had to kind of take it in in the warm-up, because I started seeing people filing in, and I was like, oh, it’s starting to become real. And I saw fans that we have not seen this year. And so it was so incredible that we had the administrative support to be able to pull this off, and then the staff to be able to put this whole thing together,” Hart said.
Risley also talked about what it meant to play in Truist, as well as being extremely grateful and saying it’s been an amazing experience.
“We’re just really grateful as players like this is so cool. Like when we walked in, we were all in the little tunnel. We’re like, this is going to be epic. We walked out, and it was literally so loud you couldn’t even hear yourself talk. And that’s just such a cool atmosphere to play. like, you’re not going to get that anywhere else. We have the band, the cheer dance, like everyone, so many alums, let’s say we looked up at one of the sides and like, we don’t recognize a single person, which is awesome,” Risley said.