The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team opened a weekend homestand with a 3-0 sweep over Lindenwood on Friday evening at Bearcat Arena. The win moves Northwest to 10-15 on the season and 4-8 in MIAA play. Lindenwood drops to 5-16 and is now an even 5-5 in conference action.

The Bearcats hit .382 in the first set as they nearly lead wire-to-wire. After tying the match up at 5-5, senior Bridget Hanafin served six straight points to help Northwest pull away to win, 25-17. In the second set, Northwest used a 6-1 rally to pull ahead 13-6 and never looked back. Lindenwood made a late six-point rally to pull the match to 23-21 before kills from senior Mackie Keller and junior Abby Graves finished off the set, 25-22.

After the break, Northwest wasted no time establishing a quick 9-3 lead before forcing a Lindenwood timeout. The lead would grow to double-digits at 14-4 and would never get closer than 10 the rest of the way with Northwest winning, 25-10.

As a team, Northwest hit .392 while holding Lindenwood to .078 for the match. Sophomore Shelby Duren had a game-high 12 kills to go along with 10 digs. Junior Kirsten Hudgens had 41 assists and three service aces. Hanafin had 43 total assists. Junior Bailey Vance had 15 digs. Junior Gabby Kuhl hit .583 and had seven kills while appearing in all three sets. Classmate Brooke Bartosh had a game-high three blocks defensively.

Northwest will return to action tomorrow against Missouri Southern at 7 p.m. at Bearcat Arena.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State women’s soccer team fell to No.12 Central Missouri in their final home game Friday, 5-0.

UCM came out on the offensive as they put in three goals in the first half.

The Bearcats managed five shots in the first half but could not get an open try as they headed into halftime down 3-0.

The Jennies added two more goals in the second half as Northwest could not get anything going offensively and were shutout 5-0.

The Bearcats move to 4-11-2, 2-8-1 on the season. Northwest will take on Missouri Southern Sunday in their final game of the 2013 season. Kickoff in Joplin, Mo. is scheduled for 1 p.m.

— Northwest Sports Information —

Northwest Missouri State senior quarterback Trevor Adams was named a National Scholar-Athlete by the National Football Foundation (NFF), in a release by the organization on Thursday. Out of 171 semifinalist nationwide from all divisions of play, Adams was one of 16 student-athletes to be named as a Scholar-Athlete. He will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship and is now a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation.

“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Trevor for almost five years now and there is no individual more deserving of this award than him,” said head football coach Adam Dorrel. “He is a leader who Northwest fans can be proud of and someone the community can look up to. His contribution to Bearcat football has been immeasurable and I know that whatever he decides to do, he will be successful.”

The award nomination process takes into consideration a student-athlete’s success on the field and in the classroom. Community service and testimonials were also taken into consideration when naming the semifinalists and the award winners.

“Northwest is thrilled to have Trevor Adams represent us as a finalist for the prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy,” said former football coach and current Northwest Director of Athletics Mel Tjeerdsma. “ During his career at Northwest, he has been the epitome of a true student-athlete. Besides his on-field and academic accomplishments, the intangibles that he brings in leadership, character and faith make him the perfect candidate for this award.”

The NFF will hold its awards dinner in New York City at the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The ceremony will include the newest members of the College Football Hall of Fame, the National Scholar-Athlete class and other major award winners. At that time, the NFF will award the William V. Campbell Trophy to one of the 16 Scholar-Athletes with the winner’s postgraduate scholarship being raised to $25,000. The Scholar-Athlete Award is in its 55th year of existence. Adams joins former Northwest linebacker John Edmonds (2003) as the only Bearcats to earn this award.

Adams, a team captain this season, has put together one of the best careers in Bearcat football history. Entering Saturday’s game against Washburn, Adams is ranked fourth in career touchdown passes (55), fifth in total offense (6,358), sixth in passing yardage (5,907), sixth in completion percentage (64.6) and eighth in total completions (437). His 73.5 completion percentage is the highest mark in NCAA Division II and he also ranks third nationally with a 189.8 pass efficiency rating.

Adams earned CoSIDA Academic All-America and All-District honors as a junior and has a 3.94 GPA in biology and psychology at Northwest. He will graduate this December and plans on attending chiropractic school in Texas.

— Northwest Sports Information —

Thanksgiving came about a month early for the Northwest Missouri State defensive line.

Excuse the cliché, but the Northwest front line must have been licking their chops Saturday afternoon when Missouri Southern entered Bearcat Stadium running a triple option offense. Although the Lions broke off a couple of nice runs, they were stuffed by the Bearcats much of the game. It was another impressive performance as Northwest won, 43-7, in front of 8,257 fans on a gorgeous Homecoming afternoon in Maryville.

“I am so proud of these kids. This isn’t an easy offense to prepare for,” said Northwest defensive coordinator Rich Wright. “They deserve 100 percent of the credit. They are the ones who busted their tails all week watching the film and the ones who had to execute responsibility football, which is what it takes to be successful against the option.

“They played physical. They flew around to the football and did an awesome job today.”

Northwest, ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II in the AFCA Coaches Poll, improved to 8-0 overall and 7-0 in the MIAA.

Offensively, senior running back Billy Creason was the star. He was selected MVP of the Homecoming game and received the Don Black Award. Creason finished with 94 total yards and scored a touchdown on the ground and one receiving.

But as a unit, Northwest defense played the lead role in the victory.

The Bearcats went five straight quarters without giving up a point until the Lions scored a meaningless touchdown with 4 minutes left in the game.

“We are always looking for the challenge,” said linebacker Eric Reimer. “They put up a ton of yardage running every week. Our goal was to stop them and be physical upfront. Our D-line did an awesome job of creating chaos.”

Despite the one-sided score, Northwest needed to play well in the third quarter to come away with an easy win.

Leading 17-0 at halftime, the Bearcats took their game to another level in the third quarter. Northwest allowed no yards passing in the first half and that continued in the third quarter. The Lions only picked up 41 yards on the ground in the third quarter.

“It is awesome to go against a team that wants to be physical and run it up on you,” said defensive lineman Matt Longacre. “We stopped it fairly well today. They still got yards on us, but we feel very confident going into the next few games that we can stop the run.”

Meanwhile, the Bearcats really got on track on offense. They scored two rushing touchdowns in the third quarter and built a commanding 29-0 lead.

“We always harp on the first drive of the second half is the most important of the game,” said wide receiver Bryce Young, who scored on an 8-yard run that capped a 5-play, 53-yard drive that took just 1 minute, 20 seconds at the start of the third quarter.

“As an offense, we drove down and scored and did a really good job of putting them away and put some doubt in their minds.”

Northwest tacked on two more touchdowns early in the fourth quarter. It was their sixth blowout in their last seven games.

The game was fairly close in the first half. In fact, the Lions had a chance to close to within three-points early in the second quarter.

Once again, the defense showed its toughness when it stopped Southern from punching in a touchdown on 4th and goal from the 1.

It made sense for the Lions to go for it. They were trailing 10-0 and figured they needed a touchdown to keep pace with Northwest.

After all, Southern watched the Bearcats take their first possession at the 39 and needed only 2:08 to go 61 yards and score on a 3-yard run by Robert Burton. The extra point gave Northwest a 7-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game and the Bearcats kicked off.

“It was big because at the time, the game was relatively tight,” Wright said. “If they get a score, they are right back in the game. One thing we talk about is never conceding anything.”

The Lions, though, had one final chance after they failed to score on the goal line. They stopped Northwest and then got the ball at the Bearcats 47.

But the Northwest defense was too much for the Lions to generate consistent offense.

Southern, though, was also playing pretty good defense, stopping the Bearcats.

So it was time for Northwest special teams to step up. Creason was credited with a blocked punt and that gave Northwest great field position.

It only took one play for Creason to rush for a 5-yard touchdown that gave Northwest a 17-0 lead with 9:27 left in the second quarter.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team dropped a tough fought five set match to the Emporia State Hornets, 3-2, in an MIAA contest at Bearcat Arena on Saturday night. The loss moves  the Bearcats to 9-14 overall and 3-7 in MIAA play. Emporia State improved to 15-7 and 6-4 in conference play. Both teams wore pink jerseys in support of breast cancer awareness as part of the Dig Pink campaign.

Late in the first set, Northwest opened up a 19-14 lead. Emporia would battle back, tying the set up at 23-23. The teams would tie the score up five moretimes before Emporia capitalized on a pair of attacking errors to win, 30-28. In the second set, Northwest again found itself in a close fight. This time, with the set tied 20-20, the Bearcats would rally, scoring five of the next six points to even the match going into the break, 1-1.

Despite trailing for most of the third set, Northwest stayed close but wereunable to put together a late rally, falling 25-21. After playing to a 19-19 tie in the fourth set, Northwest got timely kills from Abby Graves, Gabby Kuhl, Jackie Becker and Shelby Duren to even the match at two sets a piece, winning the set, 25-22.

Down 12-9 in the deciding fifth set, Northwest went on a 4-1 rally to tie it up, 13-13. But the Hornets got a kill from Katie Deutschmann and an attack error was called on Shelby Duren, giving Emporia State the 15-13 set victory and a 3-2 match win.

Brooke Bartosh hit a solid .250 and recorded a game-high 15 kills. Graves and Duren each added 14 kills. Mackie Keller had 10 kills, hit .562, had two service aces and recorded four blocks defensively. Miranda Foster had a game-high 14 digs. Bailey Vance added 12 digs and Duren had 10. Jackie Becker was credited with five blocks and Bartosh added four blocks.

Up next, Northwest will head to Missouri Western on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. MIAA contest in St. Joseph, Mo.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team fell to Washburn University on Friday evening at Bearcat Arena in an MIAA contest, 3-0. The win moves Washburn to 21-4 overall and 8-1 in MIAA play. Northwest falls to 9-13 and are now 3-6 in conference play.

The Ichabods  hit .433 and .448 in the first two sets, respectively, to jump out to an early 2-0 lead. In the third set, Northwest held a lead early but with the match tied, 7-7, Washburn went on a 13-4 run to pull away.

Bridget Hanafin had 16 assists for the Bearcats and Kirsten Hudgens added 12. Shelby Duren had three services aces to go along with seven digs and eight kills. Bailey Vance had a team-high 15 digs defensively. Abby Graves recorded nine kills while Mackie Keller matched Duren with eight kills.

Northwest will host Emporia State at 6 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 26, in Bearcat Arena. Admission to the game is free as fans are encouraged to make their way from Bearcat Stadium for the homecoming football game over to Bearcat Arena. The game time was originally set for 7 p.m. but has been moved up one hour to 6 p.m.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State women’s soccer team was shutout by Southwest Baptist Thursday as they fell 2-0.

Northwest could not get any offense going against SBU as the team posted six shots in the game including two shots on goal.

SBU was able to get one goal in the first half in the 26th minute and added a second goal during the 69th minute of the second half.

Northwest moves their season record to 4-9-2, 2-6-1 and will remain on the road as they take on Central Missouri Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. The Bearcats will be back home Nov. 1 for their final home game of the season as they host UCM on Bearcat Pitch with the start time set for 3 p.m.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State volleyball team fell to Rockhurst in a non-MIAA contest at Mason-Halpin Field House on Tuesday evening. The loss moves the Bearcats to 9-12 on the season.

After dropping the first set, 25-13, the Bearcats battled back in the second set. The teams would trade the lead several times down the stretch as the set extended into extra points. Despite having some opportunities, the Bearcats would drop the set, 33-31, and headed into the break down, 2-0. In the third, Northwest again had some strong stretches but fell, 25-20.

Shelby Duren led Northwest with 12 kills on the evening. Bridget Hanafin had 37 assists and Bailey Vance had 13 digs defensively. Jackie Becker had five block assists on the evening.

Northwest will host a pair of conference games this weekend beginning with Washburn on Friday evening at 7 p.m. inside Bearcat Arena. Saturday’s contest will be against Emporia State and will be the Bearcats’ annual Dig for a Cure game. That game time has been moved up from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m.

— Northwest Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State women’s soccer team was unable to get on the board Sunday as they fell to Fort Hays 4-0.

Both teams matched up well in the first half taking six shots each. Fort Hays was able to find the back of the net within the first two minutes of the contest to go up 1-0.

The Tigers were able to add three more goals in the second half.

The Bearcats could not get things going in the second half as the offense added nine more shots, but could not get the ball in the goal.

Northwest moves their season record to 4-8-2, 2-5-1 on the season. Head coach Tracy Hoza’s team will hit the road as they head to Bolivar, Mo. to take on Southwest Baptist Thursday with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m. The Bearcats have one more home game this season on Nov. 1, as they host Central Missouri.

— Northwest Sports Information —

Northwest Missouri State needed only 51 seconds at the start of the third quarter to tie the game against Pittsburg State.

And the Bearcats used that tremendous offensive surge early on in the second half to power their way to a gritty 24-15 victory over Pitt in the Fall Classic at Arrowhead XII in front of 17,679 fans on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Like most of the previous installments, very little separated these two MIAA and NCAA Division II powers.

Northwest entered the game 6-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country. Pitt was also 6-0 and ranked No. 7.

When it is game between two evenly matched, high-ranking teams, it usually comes down to which players make plays in key situations.

The Bearcats knew it needed to do something big early in the third quarter to erase a halftime deficit.

“One of our goals was the will to win,” Northwest coach Adam Dorrel said. “The seniors talked about that on the sidelines when times were tough because times were tough, especially in the first half.

“I can’t say enough about our defense. They kept us in that football game.”

The third quarter started with a very good kickoff return by Bryce Enyard that put the ball on the Bearcats’ 46. The first play from scrimmage was a 4-yard run by Robert Burton. The next was a 42-yard pass from Brady Bolles to Reuben Thomas.

Bolles finished the drive with an 8-yard run for a touchdown. The extra point tied the game 15-15 with 14:09 remaining in the third quarter.

“I thought that was huge,” said Bolles, who entered the game in the second quarter after starter Trevor Adams injured his shoulder.

“Our coaches preach that the most important drive of the game is the first drive of the second half. Our defense had been playing a great game. We had to go out and show them some love because they gave us great field position all game. We had to come out and put some points on the board early in the second half.”

Eleven minutes later, Northwest went ahead 22-15 on a 10-yard run by Bolles.

The defense took over from there, shutting out the Gorillas in the second half. The big play came with just over 4 minutes left and Pittsburg driving to midfield. On fourth down, senior Eric Reimer sacked Anthony Abenoja.

“We stuck to our game plan,” Reimer said. “They have athletes who can make plays. We wanted to come out and be physical.”

When Pitt got the ball back, only 1:59 was left on the clock and the Gorillas had to go 96 yards because of a pinpoint punt by Bolles.

No way was Pitt going 96 yards against Northwest defense. The Gorillas went so far back that Northwest earned its second safety of the game when Pitt was whistled for intentional grounding in the end zone.

“It was huge to hold them scoreless in the second half,” Northwest sophomore linebacker DJ Gnader said. “We go into the locker room at halftime and we got some guys hanging their heads. The seniors and couple leaders on the team continued telling them, ‘keep your heads up. We have been in this situation before. We battled adversity already this year.’

“We went out there and played a great game in the second half. Our offense scoring early really helped out.”

Northwest survived another tough game against its rival in what might be the last showdown at Arrowhead between these two storied programs.

“Offensively, we couldn’t get anything going,” Pitt coach Tim Beck said. “We didn’t get the run game established early on. It forced us to be one-dimensional in the second half, which allowed their defensive linemen to get into a three-point stance and get up the field and rush us hard.”

After four straight weeks of blowouts, Northwest needed to be pushed to see how it would handle a bit of in-game adversity. The Gorillas gave it to them.

The Bearcats went into halftime trailing 15-8 and it could have been worse if not for the stellar play of their defense.

Northwest struggled on offense, compiling 127 totals yards in the first half. Part of the problem was an injury to Adams.

Northwest was playing uphill most of the first half. In the Gorillas’ second drive, they went 46 yards in two plays and scored on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Abenoja to Marquise Cushion with 10:51 left in the first quarter.

The Bearcats defense took over from there. They put Northwest on the scoreboard early in the second quarter. Thanks to a punt by Northwest senior quarterback Trevor Adams, the Gorillas were pinned on their 1.

On the next play, the Northwest defense got a safety, making it 7-2.

It turned out the quick punt by Adams was his last play of the game. He left because of a shoulder injury.

“He suffered an injury a little bit earlier,” Dorrel said. “He is a tough kid. He was trying to battle through it. He obviously wanted to be playing in the last Fall Classic.”

It took Bolles a few series to get going. An interception by Gnader gave the ball to Northwest at the Pitt State 9.

“Our coaches put us in great position to make plays,” Gnader said. “The two interceptions we had in the first half gave our offense the ball in good field position. Honestly, it calmed Brady down a little bit and calmed the offense down a little bit and showed them we got their backs.”

Bolles took advantage of the great field position. He tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Reuben Thomas on third down.

Although the Bearcats failed to convert a two-point attempt, they grabbed an 8-7 lead with 4:25 left in the second quarter.

Late in the second quarter, Pitt State put together a nice drive, going 80 yards in nine plays and scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 2 seconds left in the second quarter. A two-point conversion sent the Gorillas into halftime with a 7-point lead.

— Northwest Sports Information —