Northern Colorado Volleyball Defeats Idaho State In Four
Oct. 6, 2007
GREELEY, Colo.- The duo of Kenzie Shreeve and Allison Raguse led the offensive attack with over 20 kills each as Northern Colorado's volleyball team (5-14, 3-4 Big Sky) won a four-game set from visiting Idaho State (3-14, 0-6 Big Sky) on Saturday evening. The game scores went 30-23,30-26, 26-30, 30-21.
Shreeve tallied a career-best 25 kills on a .281 hitting percentage (25-9-57) to lead the offensive attack. Raguse played huge with 23 kills on only 34 swings for .618 hitting percentage. The 23 kills for Raguse were also a career-high. She also registered two services aces, a team-high four blocks and 27.5 points. Taylor Smith totaled nine kills, four blocks and 11.5 points for the Bears. Senior Dulcie Stone had a strong all-around performance with nine kills, 15 digs, two service aces and three blocks. Junior Lauren Carter came off the bench to lead the team in both digs (18) and assists (34). Freshman Lindsey McDaniel also reached double figures with 31 assists. Senior Abby Mayne and sophomore Breanna VanDerMost also reached double digits with 15 and 12 digs each, respectively. Freshman Julie Stephenson had one of her better matches of the season with nine digs.
The Bears won the first game and outhit the Bengals .167 to -.053. Shreeve led the way for the Bears with four kills on a .333 hitting percentage. Raguse had a strong early performance with three kills and three blocks.
The second game was more of the same, as NC outhit ISU .212 to .143. Raguse and Shreeve continued their strong performances with eight kills each in the second stanza. Raguse did all her damage on only 13 swings for a .615 hitting percentage.
The Bears had a slow start in the third game, quickly falling behind 12-5, before fighting back to tie the score at 23, 24 and 25. The Bengals were eventually able to pull away in the end due to 5-1 rally to end the game. Raguse did her part in the third game with five kills on only five swings, but Idaho State's Emily Waldron bettered her effort with seven kills in the frame.
NC regrouped in the fourth game and played their best game of the match. The Bears outhit Idaho State.348 to .237 in a thrilling 30-21 match victory. The duo again did their part with both Shreeve and Raguse registered seven kills. The two also combined to hit .650 as Raguse nailed at .700 clip (7-0-10) and Shreeve put together a .600 hitting percentage (7-1-10) for the game. Carter nearly had a double-double in the fourth game alone with 21 assists and seven digs.
Waldron led the Bengals' attack with 16 kills. She also had a double-double with 11 digs.
"After seeing the way Idaho State choose to defend Allison today we were able to adjust and set her a little differently," Lyndsey Benson explained. "We were able to slow down the set to her and this allowed her to see the floor and avoid the defense and the block. Allison did a great job executing when we got her the ball. We began to see Allison coming on in our Portland State match and she has shown steady improvement since that point. I think she is just going to continue to get better since she is only a sophomore. We knew to win the match Kenzie needed to play well She is doing a great job of mixing up her shots and that is making her tougher to defend. This was a must-win match for us with Idaho State having a similar record if we wished to attain our goal of staying in the top half of the Big Sky standing and reaching the tournament this season."
Northern Colorado will now travel to Laramie and take on Wyoming at 7 p.m. on Oct. 9.
