The Aurora University women's volleyball team opened the Northern Athletics Conference regular season schedule Tuesday evening by defeating the Eagles of Benedictine University 3-2 (26-24, 25-21, 18-25, 19-25, 15-11). 

The Spartans took the first two games with scores of 26-24 and 25-21. The Eagles then made a comeback winning the next two games 25-18 and 25-19, which sent the match into five games. AU came back to win the decisive game five with a score of 15-11.

In the fifth game, the Spartans jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead on the Eagles. Benedictine quickly began a comeback, but they were not strong enough to defeat the Spartans. This defeat over Benedictine

gave AU their first Northern Athletics Conference win of the season. 

The Spartans were led by seniors Jill Smart (24 kills and five digs), Christine Ozlanski (28 assists and four digs) and Cortni Ramm (16 assists and six digs). Also contributing to the Spartans win was junior Amy Reynolds (seven kills and 16 dig) and sophomore Carly Blask (26 digs) also played an important role in the victory for the Spartans.

With the win, AU improves to 3-6 overall and 1-0 in the Northern Athletics Conference. With the loss, Benedictine now has an overall record of 2-7 and 0-1 in NAC play.