Volleyball Sweeps Past Portland State

Thursday, October 30

Portland, Ore.

8 pm

University of Northern Colorado

15-8, 8-3BSC

Portland State

7-16, 5-6BSC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3
Portland State	19	20	19	0

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

10/30/2014 10:04:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

UNC volleyball keeps on its hot streak defeating Portland State on the road Thursday night

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

PORTLAND, Ore.—Northern Colorado (15-8, 8-3 Big Sky) volleyball continued its hot streak on Thursday night sweeping host Portland State (25-19, 25-20, 25-19). It is the team's fifth win in a row and eighth win in nine matches.

Despite the sweep it was a highly contested match featuring 27 ties and 10 lead changes throughout.

Timely serving and an effective offense were the keys to the Bears win over the Vikings (7-16, 5-6 Big Sky). UNC out hit PSU on .282 to .168, and won the kills battle 50-34.

This was the seventh straight match the Bears held their opponent under .200 hitting. Meagan Garcia posted her 13th straight match with double-digit digs (20), and second straight with twenty plus.

"It was a match where we had to battle defensively," said head coach Lyndsey Oates. "We had to make some adjustments, and the team responded well to them."

Northern Colorado displayed a balanced offensive attack with five players tallying seven or more kills on the night. Two players even reached double figures. They were Kendra Cunningham (11) and Katie Champion (10). Brianna Strong led the Bears in hitting (.412) while adding in nine kills.

"Katie Champion started the match for us tonight, and responded well to that. She hit for a high percentage and made good decisions." Oates said.
Makenna Meier's tough serving helped the Bears at the end of each set. In the first set she capped off a 5-1 run with back-to-back service aces. She finished the night tying her career high with three aces.

Meier found herself at the service line again at the end of the second set, setting up a Cunningham kill to give UNC the 25-20 set win. The Bears finished the set on a 7-1 run.

It was déjà vu in the third and final set, with Meier's serving help set up a Cunningham kill to end the match. Once again UNC finished the set strong this time with a 5-1 run.

"We have some areas to clean up, but overall it was a solid sweep going into our match with North Dakota" said Oates.

Northern Colorado travels to Grand Forks, N.D., to face the University of North Dakota Saturday at 11:00 a.m. UNC, UND, and Idaho currently sit in a three way tie for first place in the Big Sky North Division.