NIC Volleyball grabs a win over Columbia Basin

The number-one-ranked NIC volleyball team came out victorious in a match against Columbia Basin Wednesday night.

Last week’s East region defensive player of week Kynzey Mitzel is currently sixth in the NWAC in digs with 331.

The Cards came out of the gate slow, and were even down 6-10 in the first set against the Hawks (2-7, 13-16). NIC eventually rallied to pull ahead at 25-19. The second set was tightly contested, the score was tied 6 times and the largest lead of the set was Columbia Basin by three points. NIC managed to stave off the attack and win the set 25-23 off of a few well placed serves by Elise McCammond.

“We just had to put trust in each other,” Journey Tupea said. “Elise went back to the line, and we know she has that killer short serve, so we had our trust in her and she had faith in herself.”

NIC then put their foot down and jumped out to a quick 15-2 lead and eventually took the third and final set 25-13. 

Leading the way offensively for the Cards was Journey Tupea with 11 kills and 13 digs, followed by Hannah McPhetridge with 10 kills and Chloe Knudson with 9 kills. Also contributing in the 25-19, 25-23, 25-13 victory was Kynzey Mitzel who came up with 21 digs, and Hokulea Vargas who dished out 39 assists.

200-200 club? Journey Tupea is one of only 10 players in the NWAC with more than 200 kills and more than 200 digs. Teammate Chloe Knudson is also one of the players currently holding this distinction.

The Cards only have three matches left until their final game of the season, which happens to be the the highly anticipated rematch against Spokane, but the Cards are not looking that far ahead.

“We’ve kind of lost ourselves a little,” Tupea said. “So we have to focus on who we have next, and that’s Walla Walla.”

Up next for the Cards is the aforementioned battle at Walla Walla (4-4, 14-13), who NIC previously beat 3-0, Friday Oct. 18. The Cards then return home to play Yakima Valley (2-7, 6-22), who the Cards also defeated 3-0 earlier this season, Friday Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.