Fort Wayne, Ind. - IU Northwest women's volleyball battled over a two day span at the Liz Lykowski Memorial Tournament hosted by Indiana tech in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
RedHawks got off to a slow start for the tournament dropping a pair of matches on day one and straight sets to the host Warriors (23-25, 21-25, 21- 25) and Rio Grande (20-25, 21-25, 21-25).
In the match versus Indiana Tech, the RedHawks were led by
Erica Packwood and
Josephine Mulligan who combined for 9 kills and 16 assists.
Briah Strezo and
Eva Everett combined for 19 digs.
Later that day, IU Northwest received strong performances by Packwood and Strezo who combined for 13 kills and
Josephine Mulligan who dished out 18 assists. Strezo was stellar on the defensive end with 15 digs, while
Eva Everett tallied 11 saves.
On day two, the RedHawks ended a seven-match skid by outlasting the Lourdes Grey Wolves in a five sets (25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 28-20, 15-9). The red ox jumped out to a 2–0 sets lead in the match. However, before the Grey Wolves would back to claim ets three and four by narrowest of margins and force a decisive final set. The RedHawks would start strong and step five and control the set to earn their sixth victory of the season.
Packwood and Strezo would pace the RedHawks offense with 13 and 12 kills each while Mulligan added 10 kills of her own to go with 15 assists and 15 digs in an outstanding all around performance. Packwood set the table effectively for the RedHawks offense with a match high 20 assists and was named to the all-tournament team. Packwood and Strezo were stingy on defense leading the RedHawks with 29 and 24 Diggs.
In their final match of the tournament IU Northeast faced off with IU Southeast for the second time this season. The RedHawks controlled the match from the beginning and cruised to a 3-1 win (25-21, 15-25, 25-18, 25-18) to claim their seventh victory of the season.
Strezo, Packwood and Mulligan once again let the way for the RedHawks. Packwood tallied 12 kills, 17, assists and 12 digs. Strezo added 12 kills and a team high 23 digs while Mulligan 7 kills, 19 assists and 18 digs.
The RedHawks return to action when they open up CCAC conference play this Tuesday when they travel to region rival Calumet Saint Joseph for a 7 p.m. start.