Volleyball Sweeps UND to Make Championship Game

Friday, November 21

Pocatello, Idaho

5:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

20-9

North Dakota

26-8

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3
North Dakota	23	23	18	0

11/21/2014 9:12:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Bears volleyball swept North Dakota to make the Big Sky Championship game

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

POCATELLO, Idaho—Northern Colorado volleyball earned a spot in its fifth Big Sky Tournament Championship match in the past six years with a sweep of North Dakota (25-23, 25-23, 25-18) Friday evening.

The Bears will play for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against host Idaho State. UNC handed the Bengals their only conference loss this season, winning in five sets.

UNC (21-9, 12-4 Big Sky) used stellar defense to win over North Dakota, (26-8, 13-3 Big Sky) holding them to .137 hitting.

"We did a great job executing our game plan," said head coach Lyndsey Oates. "We played hard on defense, which is going to be key to win a championship."

It was not just the Bears' defense that helped lead to the win, but also a very balanced offensive attack. Three players had double-digit kills, led by Katie Champion (Logansport, Ind.) with 13. The other two were Kendra Cunningham (Eaton, Colo.) and Andrea Spaustat (Omaha, Neb.) each with 10.

With all of the offense tonight, Ashley Guthrie (Saugus, Calif.) finished with 44 assists.

"We were well-balanced offensively. We mixed up shots and scored from all five hitters. Ashley made great decisions tonight on who to set," Oates said.

Cunningham and Spaustat also chipped in on the defensive end too. Cunningham finished with eight digs, two total blocks and a service ace. Spaustat led the team with four total blocks.

North Dakota got out to an early 4-1 lead in the match, but the Bears just kept chipping away at it. The teams played within a three-point margin the whole set. After UND went ahead 22-20, Oates used a timeout that ended up springing a 5-1 run by her Bears to win the set.

Champion recorded six of her 13 kills in the first set.

UND got out to the early lead again in the second set before UNC went on a 5-0 run to take the lead for good at 8-4. Even though the Bears never relinquished the lead it was still a close set, including North Dakota tying it up at 18.

Northern Colorado entered the match 9-0 when leading at intermission this season, and the Bears were able to keep that record spotless tonight. The Bears came out strong, winning the four of the first five points. Northern Colorado never looked back, finishing the set with 21 kills and hitting .415.

"We showed great maturity tonight in staying composed and playing well through long periods of time," Oates said. "It only gets tougher from here for us and we are looking forward to play tomorrow night."