After a deflating straight-sets defeat to Summit League outfit St. Thomas tempered the mood around Northwestern’s otherwise stellar non-conference season, coach Tim Nollan was searching for a response from his squad in its Saturday afternoon clash with Campbell.
The Wildcats (10-2, 0-0 Big Ten) duly delivered, dominating the Camels (8-3, 0-0 CAA) wire-to-wire in a 25-12, 25-18, 25-19 victory that got NU back on track ahead of its Big Ten opener Wednesday.
“I thought we were ready to play from the opening whistle,” Nollan said. “Our first nine points we executed at a really high level — serving, attacking, block lineups — so I give the team a lot of credit.”
No player embodied that instant precision more than senior outside hitter Rylen Reid, who pounced on an errant Camels pass for a clean kill on the match’s first point.
Reid went on to notch four kills in the aforementioned opening nine points, helping NU to a 7-2 lead.
“Honestly, I owe it all to the setters,” Reid said of her early exploits. “They put up great balls today, and I just try to stay focused on the little things.”
The ’Cats kept their paws on the gas pedal, going on an 11-3 run to earn a deluge of set points leading 24-10. A Campbell player going down with injury after the visitors saved the first set point briefly delayed the inevitable, but freshman outside hitter Bella Bullington closed the set out two points later with a perfectly-placed spike that landed just inside the baseline.
The second set provided more jeopardy than the first — but, while the Camels kept pace with NU up to a 14-14 deadlock, they never held a lead at any point in the set. The ’Cats pulled clear from that point on, and Reid dispatched a crosscourt spike on set point to put the home side up two sets to none.
It was Reid’s 10th kill of the match, marking the ninth consecutive match she has achieved double-digit kills. She would go on to lead all players with 14 kills, cementing her status as NU’s most ubiquitous hitter.
“The coaching staff and I really worked together on out-of-system shots and my shot selection in general,” Reid said of her offseason improvements. “Also in the weight room, I just put in a lot of effort to increase my vertical and get stronger.”
Campbell grabbed a lead in a set for the first time all afternoon when it won the first point of the third set, but never pulled away by more than one.
With NU leading 15-10, the Camels had one last trick up their hump, launching into a 6-2 run to pull within one. However, Campbell committed a service error on the next point, and junior outside hitter Campbell Paris followed that up by tallying a kill, prompting the Welsh-Ryan Arena PA announcer to declare “Campbell on Campbell” conflict.
The ’Cats did not give their opponents another window back in. On match point, Campbell’s Hannah Pattie botched a set, and NU clinched a much-needed bounce-back victory.
“We talked in the locker room beforehand that you’re gonna have setbacks in sports. That’s how it is,” Nollan said. “The perfect season almost never happens for anyone. But that’s not what’s gonna define you or your team — what’s gonna define you is how you respond after you have setbacks.”
Behind Reid’s team-leading 14 kills, graduate student outside hitter Ayah Elnady added nine, and Bullington finished with eight. Paris was the most efficient attacker on the day, killing seven of her 14 total attempts.
Elnady led the team with 13 digs, a personal season-high mark. Nollan praised Elnady’s defense, crediting her diligence to better understand the team’s defensive alignment.
“She’s really put in the time to come and talk to the staff and watch film and (is) always asking questions,” Nollan said. “Today, I think, was the start of her breakout of really understanding how we play the middle-back and how she can help us really vacuum up and scoop up some balls back there for us.”
NU opens its Big Ten campaign Wednesday at home against Indiana at 8 p.m. The ’Cats finished conference play 3-17 in Nollan’s first season in charge, but the NU coach said he is hopeful the team has learned lessons in its non-conference season that will prepare it for the “onslaught” of Big Ten play.
“Any given night, everyone’s got enough talent and the coaches are good enough that they’re going to push you, they’re going to expose your weaknesses, they’re going to make you have to make adjustments,” Nollan said. “As a staff, we have to know what Plan B and Plan C is, and the team’s got to be really good at executing Plan A so we hopefully never have to get to it.”
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