SUPERIOR, Wis. -- Fifth-ranked Northwestern earned a 3-0 sweep of the UW-Superior volleyball team on Saturday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium on Saturday.
 
The Yellowjackets gave UNW a fight in the third set before falling, 27-25. Northwestern won the first two sets, 25-13 and 25-19, to improve to 24-2 overall and 11-0 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.
 
Kendra Hardy tallied a match-high 13 kills, hitting .522, to lead the Eagles, while Ari Schmidt had 12 kills and Abby Glanzer chipped in with 11 kills and 15 digs.
 
Senior Alexie Pryd (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove Senior) paced Superior (14-10, 10-2) with 12 kills, adding nine digs. Sophomore Jenna Anderson (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji) totaled 23 digs. Freshman Colleen Claude (Centuria, Wis./Homeschool) and senior Cassy Teff (Foley, Minn./Foley) combined for 30 assists with Claude dishing out 17.
 
Northwestern hit .258 and limited the 'Jackets to .113 on the day.
 
The first set was tied, 10-10 after a Maiana Stark (Germantown, Wis./Germantown) kill and UNW error, but the visitors used a 5-1 run to force a timeout at 15-11. A Northwestern error after the break cut the lead to three prior to the Eagles asserting themselves to finish off the set with a 10-1 run.
 
UWS led, 3-1, early in the second stanza on two kills from Teff and a UNW error. The Eagles rallied to take a 6-4 advantage. UWS took their final lead of the set with a Pryd kill to make it 8-7, as UNW engineered a 7-1 stretch to take control at 14-9. Three consecutive points on kills by Plautz and Stark sandwiched by a block from Plautz and Teff cut the deficit to 14-12. Kills by Teff and Pryd along with a Glanzer error made it 16-15. The teams traded the next two points, with the Eagles getting the following three, forcing a timeout.
 
A Schmidt kill pushed it to 21-16 lead with a solo block by Stark making it a 22-19 deficit. The Eagles won the final three points for a 2-0 edge in the match.
 
Kills by Pryd and Teff and a block by Kielan LaPlante (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) and Pryd forced a Northwestern timeout at 18-16 in the third. Another block by LaPlante and Stark made it 21-19 for UWS, which called timeout. At 22-20, the Eagles took three consecutive for a 23-22 lead. A kill from Plautz and block by Teff gave UWS set point, but UNW won four of the final five points to secure the match victory.
 
The Yellowjackets play their final regular-season non-conference match Tuesday at UW-Eau Claire on Tuesday. First serve is set for 7 p.m.