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ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse women's volleyball team played another marathon match Monday night, and came through in the clutch to beat the Muskegon Community College Jayhawks, 3-2, at the Bay College Gym.
The win moved the Norse into first place in the MCCAA North Conference standings, and it completed a season sweep of the Jayhawks. Before this season, Bay had never beaten Muskegon since the Norse joined the conference four years ago.
This one, like many of the Norse matches this fall, did not come easy. Bay won the first set, 25-19, but lost the second set, 25-18. The Norse bounced back to win the the third set, 25-20, but the fourth set was miserable as the Jayhawks rolled to a 25-12 win.
But Bay battled back in the Race To 15 in the deciding set, taking a 3-0 lead right off the bat. The Norse led, 13-7, but Muskegon had one more push, getting to within 13-11.
That's when Ava Johnson and Josie Mechling combined for a huge block at the net against the taller Muskegon players, and after a Muskegon side-out, Johnson put the match away with another block near the net's antenna, 15-12.
It was the eighth time this season that the Norse have played a five-set match. They've won six of those matches, and now are in the driver's seat in the conference race.
Ava Maki led the Norse with 14 kills. Hope Varoni was credited with 33 assists. Kharman Loya led the defense with 20 digs while Johnson and Varoni had 15 apiece. Audrey Franz added 12 digs. Mechling and Johnson both ended up with three assisted blocks in the match.
Muskegon was led by Alissa Klopp who had 20 kills and Jaelyn Laird, who recorded 17 kills. Maddy Mitchell added ten kills while Maddilyn Dyer had 46 assists. Ari Bryant brought a ton of energy to the Jayhawks group and picked up 36 digs to lead the defense. Laird had a solo block and four assisted while Klopp had five assisted blocks for Muskegon.
Bay is now 6-2 in the conference standings (12-6 overall), while Muskegon fell to 4-3 (9-9 overall) and dropped into third place. Delta College is in second place at 7-3 (12-11 overall), but the Norse have already swept the Pioneers and Jayhawks, and hold the tiebreaker over both.
NORSE PLAYER GETS ALL-CONFERENCE NOD: Bay College's Kharman Loya has been named the MCCAA Northern Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season, this time for her play in two matches during the week of October 5-11. The Norse were on the road and toppled Delta College on Monday three sets to one. Loya picked up 24 digs in the contest. On Wednesday the Norse travelled to Alpena and swept the Lumberjacks in three setS. Loya added 17 digs to her total for the week. For the week Loya totaled 41 digs. She ended up with 5.86 digs per set. The Norse have had four honorees for the Player of the Week this season, and this is the third time Bay has had the Defensive Player of the Week in the North.
