UNIVERSITY CITY, Mich. — The Saginaw Valley State University volleyball team dropped a 25-16, 25-19, 25-12 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup at home to Northern Michigan University on Friday afternoon at the Hamilton Gymnasium.

The visiting Wildcats improve to 19-7 overall and 11-4 in the GLIAC, while the Cardinals slip to 10-16 on the season and 5-10 in the conference.

Rylee Zimmer led SVSU with nine kills and 14 digs, while Sage Schumacher notched a career-best four total blocks to pace all student-athletes.

For NMU, Jacqueline Smith posted a double-double with match-highs of 15 kills and 15 digs to go along with three service aces.

The match started well for SVSU which went up 4-1 in the first set behind a kill by Peyton Gerstacker, another kill from Zimmer, and Gerstacker and Patricia Pratt had block assists to end the run.

But the Wildcats reeled off a six-point run to go up 7-4 and they never looked back in winning the opening stanza by nine points.

In the second set, the teams battled back and forth until NMU turned a 15-11 advantage into a 23-14 lead.

Saginaw Valley kept battling in the third set as NMU went up 8-7. But the Wildcats sealed the win by taking 17 of the next 22 points.

The Cardinals' offense had trouble getting in sync all afternoon long on a .011 clip. Meanwhile, the Wildcats registered a .222 attack percentage. But SVSU held a presence at the net with nine team blocks compared to six for NMU.

Saginaw Valley will host Michigan Technological University on SVSU Senior Day at 4 p.m. Saturday.