University of Northern Colorado Athletics
University of Northern Colorado
6-5
UC Davis
4-8
Bears Sweep Day to Win Tournament
9/20/2014 2:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Northern Colorado volleyball defeats UC Davis and Wyoming to capture Hampton Inn and Suites Northern Colorado Classic title.
GREELEY – By defeating UC Davis and Wyoming, Northern Colorado Volleyball went on to claim the Hampton Inn & Suites Northern Colorado Classic championship.
The Bears went 3-0 in the tournament, which was highlighted by junior Kendra Cunninghambeing named MVP of the tournament, joined by teammates Brianna Strong and Ashley Guthrie on the All-Tournament team.
In the night cap the Bears defeated Wyoming in four sets (20-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-21). Just like the match-up with UC Davis, Northern Colorado used a balanced offensive attack to get past the Cowgirls. Kim Weissmann, Timarie Nymeyer, Andrea Spaustat, and Cunningham all finished with double-digit kills. Cunningham led the group with 16.
"This was our most compete win of the year," Oates said. "We played as well against Wisconsin, but came out with the result we want tonight.
We need to be balanced on offense going into conference play, and the development over this tournament will help us. Kendra makes the hard plays look easy, she was the catalyst of our defense tonight and looked ahead of the game."
Nymyer and Weissmann both finished the match with a career-highs of 11 kills, and Nymyer led the team in hitting at .435.
The Bears and Cowgirls battled back and forth in the first set until Wyoming closed out the set on a 6-2 run.
After hitting .161 in the first game, the Bears offense rebounded the rest of the match, going .353 in the second, .438 in the third, and .378 in the fourth. Nymyer started the charge for the team in the second set, putting down four kills and no errors in four attempts to hit 1.000.
After the intermission, both teams were firing on all cylinders in the third set, combining for 31 kills and just seven errors on 60 total attempts. Northern Colorado had seven players record a kill in the set.
Unlike the first three sets, that combined for 24 ties and 6 lead changes, the final set was all Northern Colorado. Audrey Landry started the set serving for the Bears, helping to get them out to an early 3-0 lead. The Bears then went on an 8-3 run in the middle of the set and never looked back. Cunningham helped slam the door on Wyoming, accounting for six of the Bears' 21 kills in the set.
Northern Colorado (6-5) defeated UC Davis (4-8) in a thrilling five set match (23-25, 25-24, 25-16, 26-28, 15-12) earlier Saturday.
A few Bears broke records during the match, both school and personal. Spaustat had five total blocks in the match and moved into first place on the school's Division I career blocks list, passing, Lizzy Rhoads (2003-06) for the record at 349. Senior middle blocker Brianna Strong set a career high 20 kills in match.
"It is amazing (to get the record), I have to give a ton of credit to my teammates and coaches for helping me get the record," Spaustat said.
"Andrea has had a great career from freshman of the year to all-league, and is a versatile player for us," head coach Lyndsey Oates said.
The Bears and Aggies went back and forth in the first set, until the Aggies went on a 6-0 run to go from down two to up three and never relinquishing the lead after that. UC Davis was able to tally 18 kills and hit .282 in the set.
Northern Colorado responded defensively in the second set, holding the Aggies to a .086 hitting percentage. Cunningham recorded 6 of her 19 kills in the second set, causing issues for UC Davis and opening up the middle for Brianna Strong to dominate the rest of the match.
"The team knew we needed to pick it up and step it up (defensively)," Spaustat said. "We on the front row had to help our back row and build their confidence."
After the intermission Northern Colorado was able to stay hot offensively, hitting .333 in the set, and slowing down UC Davis to hit only .028. The teams were tied at 6 before the Bears went on an 11-3 run. Strong recorded eight kills during the set, including four during the run.
The fourth set featured 13 ties and 7 lead changes. After being held below .100 hitting in the second and third set, UC Davis responded by hitting .389 in the fourth compared to the Bears' .170 mark, leading to an all decisive fifth set.
"We knew they were a streaky team coming in, and understood we would have to battle through it, not letting their streak dictate the game," Oates said.
Just like the fourth set, the fifth set was extremely close, combining for 7 tie scores and 5 lead changes. The teams were squared at 11 when Landry went to serve for the Bears, leading to a 3-0 run, getting the Bears one point away from victory. Cunningham finished the match off for Northern Colorado with an emphatic kill.
Northern Colorado now enters into conference play at home next hosting Big Sky returner Idaho on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.
All-Tournament Team
MVP- Kendra Cunningham, Northern Colorado
Brianna Strong, Northern Colorado
Ashley Guthrie, Northern Colorado
Bridget Shanahan, Wyoming
Kayla Henderson, Wyoming
Valerie Brian, UC Davis
Vendula Strakova, Hampton
