Michigan Tech right side hitter Madelyn Torola attempts to get the ball over a Northern Michigan defender during a match Thursday at the SDC Gym. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Northern Michigan Wildcats volleyball coach Mike Lozier knows that what his team did in Houghton Thursday night is not as easy as it appeared at certain points. Trailing 9-5 in the fifth set, the Wildcats stormed back with 10 of the match’s final 12 points to earn a five-set win, 24-26, 25-19, 25-18, 22-25, and 15-11, over the Michigan Tech Huskies at the SDC Gym.

“Really proud of my team,” he said. “Winning in this gym is hard, and we’ve been fortunate to do it in the last couple of years. So, yeah, it feels good.”

It was, by no means, easy.

The Huskies (7-7 overall, 4-2 GLIAC) had raced out to the 9-5 lead, thanks in large part to the efforts of freshman right side hitter Madelyn Torola, who exploded for two kills early in the set as part of a career-high 18 on the night. However, after sophomore defensive specialist Madelyn Elsen posted an ace to put the Huskies up by four, she followed that up with a service error, which gave the Wildcats life.

From there, two kills by Emilia Gulock were part of a run that saw the Wildcats (6-9 overall, 4-2 GLIAC) jump ahead 12-10. They did not look back, holding the Huskies’ offense at bay.

“Emmy Gulock, in particular, had a really standout night,” said Lozier. “She hadn’t played a point for us for two years, and this year, she’s really taken on a bigger role. They had a nice game plan against Kenzie (Gruner). They were slowing her down a little bit. Then, luckily at the end, she started to find her groove as well.

“Anyone who scouts us knows our offense runs through the middle. They’re just going to have to deal with people getting in front of them. I thought they did a nice job.”

Looking at the match as a whole, Huskies coach Cindy Pindral felt her team did not feel her team matched the effort level that the Wildcats brought. The Huskies were led by junior right side hitter Rachel Zurek, who matched Torola’s kill total, and the fact that they had a combined 11 aces as a team.

“We have to be more well-rounded,” she said. “We can’t rely on two people, or one specific area, to do the work for us. I thought Northern played up tonight, and we kind of played medium. We came out flat. That’s not to say everybody came out flat, but generally speaking, we came out flat, and that’s not going to get it done in a rivalry game like this.”

While the Huskies did a good job of containing middle blocker McKenzie Gruner, who had 12 kills and one solo block, freshman outside hitter Kaylie McIntosh made up for it by racking up 19 kills, her highest total of her career.

“She’s been up and down a little bit,” Lozier said. “Freshman go up and down. I’m constantly in her ear going, ‘You are capable of being great. You just have to remember that.’

“When you’re making mistakes, I use the example of Kobe Bryant all the time. Kobe Bryant would miss a 1,000,000 shots in a row, and he would shoot the 1,000,001th shot thinking it was going to go in. You have to have that mentality as an outside hitter, especially. She just found her groove today, and I’m proud of her.”

The Huskies took the first set in extra points, with junior Jacqueline Yancy putting up four kills. However, from there, she was unable to find much more success, picking up only two more kills in the match.

“I think we’re going to have to go back in the film and kind of see what happened,” said Pindral. “She has, with all due respect, been a little bit off. She was off a little bit last weekend, and didn’t play too, too much. Thankfully Brooke (Dzwik) was able to come in and play some too.”

After the first set, the Wildcats came back with wins in the second and third sets, as McIntosh picked up 10 of her kills, five in each set.

“(It) seemed like we took our foot off the gas in that second set,” Pindral said. “They made a decent amount of errors in the first, and I think we kind of subconsciously thought that they were just going to keep making errors, and not really give us much of a fight. But, that’s never going to be the case. There’s no team that wants to beat us more than Northern.”

The Huskies responded strongly in the fourth set, driven by a six-kill set for Torola. Pindral loves what she is seeing out to Torola.

“She had a fabulous night offensively,” said Pindral. “She just continues to get better and better. She’s getting more crafty, and she’s able to handle a large volume of attacks. That’s probably the most she’s ever been set in a match ever. So yeah, she did an excellent job handling that.”

After a key block by sophomore middle blocker Paige Wagner put the Huskies up 17-12, they never looked back, even when the Wildcats fought back late to set close.

Up next

With the loss, the Huskies’ four-match winning streak came to an end. They return to action Sunday, facing Purdue Northwest on the road in their final match before the Midwest Regional Crossover in Hammond, Indiana, next weekend.