CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Vikings women's volleyball team held its annual NPU Invite over the weekend, hosting U-Chicago, UW-Oshkosh, and Kean University. 

Game 1 pit the Vikings against the Maroons of U Chicago, eventually ending in a North Park victory after 4 sets. The Vikings won sets 1 and 2 by scores of 25-21 and 25-17 before U Chicago came back swinging with a 25-16 victory in Set 3. North Park bounced back in the 4^th set though with a dominant 25-12 victory that sealed the match. 

Adriana Rodriguez and Annaliese Rottman led the Vikings in kills with 16 and 13 respectively, with Christina Gatta leading in assists with 37. Defensively, Rhianna Huebner's 4 blocks paced the Vikings as did Carolina Aviles' 20 digs. Katy Chess's 4 aces were a team high as well, with 3 coming in a single service run in the 3^rd set.

The Vikings had their best performance of the weekend in Game 2 against the Kean Cougars, who they swept through in 3 sets by scores of 25-15, 25-16, and 25-15 while maintaining a .276 hitting percentage. Rodriguez and Rottman again were the only Vikings with double-digit kills, totaling 18 and 11. Huebner, Gatta, and Aviles all led their same respective categories, though this time it was Abby Ames setting the team-high with 5 aces. 

Day 2 for the Vikings started off with a win against the Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets in 4 sets, with scores of 25-20, 23-25, 25-17, and 25-18. This match set a tournament-high for NPU with 61 team kills, with Adriana Rodriguez's 24 kills leading the way and also setting an individual tournament-high. Christina Gatta accomplished the same in the assists category with 46, which also set a season-high for the Vikings setter. Rodriguez and Carolina Aviles both tied for the team leads in aces and digs with 4 and 19. Elsewhere defensively, Raghen Walker's 4 blocks marked a team-high as well. 

The 4^th and final match of the NPU Invite came against the UW-Oshkosh Titans who had also gone 3-0 to this point. One team's perfect record would have to come to an end, and unfortunately it wound up being the Vikings who fell in 3 sets. Adriana Rodriguez and Christina Gatta again led in kills and assists, with 14 and 25 respectively. Jenna Jones notched a team-high 2 aces as did Carolina Aviles, and Aviles also led the team with 19 digs, earning a spot on the All-Tournament team. Rhianna Huebner and Raghen Walker both put up 3 blocks to pace the Vikings in that regard.

The 49 assists registered against Kean by the Vikings on Friday sets a new NPU record for most team assists in a three-set match, snapping the old record of 48 set against Benedictine on September 2, 2015.
 

Additionally, the 61 assists tallied against Baldwin Wallace yesterday by the Vikings sets a new NPU record for most team assists in a four-set match, pretty decisively breaking the old record of 58 set against Knox on September 7, 2018 and then tied at Wheaton against the Thunder last October 27.

Following the 3-1 performance at this year's NPU invite, the Vikings move to 12-4 on the season as conference play begins to ramp up. The Vikings currently hold a 1-1 record in conference play and will travel to Decatur to take on Millikin this Wednesday, September 28^th for their 3^rd CCIW matchup.