The Benedictine University women's volleyball team earned their fifth Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference win on Tuesday night, defeating Aurora University in straight sets.

The Eagles (7-18, 5-3 NACC) took an early lead on a 8-2 run in the first set. Aurora's (19-8, 5-2 NACC) offense came alive, taking the 15-14 lead. The set saw four ties and two lead changes but after two blocks and a kill from BenU, the Eagles forced set point. Aurora climbed back with four unanswered points until Ashley Karsten secured the win with a kill, 25-21.

Both teams battled back and forth in the second set until BenU pulled away 14-7. The Eagles connected for 14 kills en route to the 25-17 win.

The Eagles took another early lead in the final set but Aurora didn't let down to tie the game at 14. Several BenU errors gave the Spartans the 19-16 lead but kills from Emily Chitwood and Erin Wiegand gave the Eagles the momentum as they tied the game at 20. Kara Epping and Ashley Karsten took care of the net for BenU, tallying three blocks and stopping the Spartan offense. A Chitwood kill tied the game at 23 and two Aurora attacking errors gave BenU the 25-23 win.



As a team, the Eagles out-hit, out-dug and out-blocked the Spartans, tallying 38 kills, 58 digs and nine blocks.

Chitwood and Wiegand recorded 10 and nine kills, respectively while Karsten had seven kills and six block assists. Keriann Groen had two block assists and five kills and Abby Screnock had 30 assists and 13 digs. Defensively, Andraia Leja led BenU with 15 digs while Caitlyn Martin had two aces adn 13 digs. Kelcey Adams rounded out the dig-leaders with 14.

The Eagles continue NACC action this Friday when they travel to Edgewood College for a 7:00 pm contest.