University of Northern Colorado Athletics
University of Northern Colorado
2-2, 0-0Big Sky
Colorado State
4-0, 0-0MW
Volleyball Falls to In-State Rival Rams
9/5/2014 1:28:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Bears volleyball falls to #13 Colorado State 3-0.
Greeley—Northern Colorado volleyball dropped their first home match of the year to #13 Colorado State 3-0 (17-25, 13-25, 21-25).
Senior middle blocker Brianna Strong and sophomore setter Ashley Guthrie both put up good efforts in the loss. Strong tallied seven kills and seven blocks on the night, while Guthrie added 6 kills 23 assists and two blocks.
It was an exciting night for freshman Timarie Nymyer and Kim Weissman,who each recorded their first career kill. Nymyer finished with one on the night and Weissman with two.Â
The Bears offense was held in check all night by the Rams hitting .055 for the match.
"We knew they would be a big blocking team and serve aggressive, and that gave us trouble on our side of the net tonight" said head coach Lyndsey Oates about the team's performance on offense.
The Rams came out strong in the first set hitting .333 with 15 kills and not allowing the Bears to gain any momentum from behind the home crowd.
Northern Colorado displayed good defense against the thirteenth ranked team in the nation, decreasing their hitting percentage to .269 in the second set and .149 in the third. The Rams came into the match hitting .310, but were held in check to .239 on the night.
"We did some good things defensively, eight blocks against a team like CSU is impressive, I thought we served aggressively and that is the first line of defense," said Oates, "I thought Audrey Landry did well at libero for her first time in an environment like this."
The third set was the Bears best accumulating 12 kills and had 5 total blocks, including two block assists by Strong and Guthrie during a 7-2 run that closed CSU's lead to 23-20.
"I thought we played well and learned a lot about what we can improve on going forward," said Guthrie, Â "They are a great team and we feed off of the energy from our home court and home fans, and a good starting point for us."
The schedule does not lighten up for the Bears, last year's national runner up and current fourth ranked team in the nation Wisconsin visits Butler-Hancock, Friday, September 5th at 7:00 p.m.Â
