@UNCBearsVB Sweeps North Dakota, Completes Homecoming Sweep

Saturday, October 17

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

8-13, 4-4Big Sky

North Dakota

16-9, 4-4Big Sky

Team	1	2	3	Final F
North Dakota	16	16	19	0
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Rob Trubia

10/17/2015 10:04:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado Volleyball swept North Dakota Saturday night and completed the homecoming sweep with football

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado volleyball not only swept North Dakota (25-16, 25-16, 25-19), but also completed the Homecoming sweep after football won today as well.UNC (8-13, 4-4 Big Sky) had its most complete team match of the season in Saturday night's victory.

"I thought it was a good match for us. I thought we put together a complete match without lapses, which we haven't done yet this conference season," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "Unlike other matches we took a step forward not getting passive, when our opponent did and stayed aggressive throughout the match."

UNC out-hit (.327-.146), out-dug (52-36) and out-blocked (7-3) UND in the match, and never trailed in the first two sets.

The Bears finished with two players in double digit kills, Kendra Cunningham (17) and Alex Kloehn (11). Plus the team had four players hit above .300 for the night in Cunningham (.500), Kloehn (.318), Michaela Nelson (.333) and Katie Champion (.429).

"They have good middles who are big and strong blockers so on the pin it is easier to tool, and Ashley (Guthrie) did a great job of pushing me out and see the block develop," Cunningham said about the team's offensive output.

"North Dakota has two very good middles, but we didn't try to go away from them. With Kendra scoring so well tonight we just kept feeding her and she was making some very good decisions hitting high and staying aggressive," Oates added about the team's offensive production. "I thought she scored well because our middles in Alex and Emily were scoring making us more balanced."

Nelson chipped in big time on both sides of the attack with her high hitting percentage and three kills, plus finished second on the team with 13 digs.

"Michaela had a very good match tonight and was reading well tonight," said Oates. "What she brings for us is that back row attack which allows us to set her when we are out of system instead of always going to Kendra."

With all of the offense for Northern Colorado on the night, setter Ashley Guthrie quickly tallied up the assists, finishing with 47. She also chipped in five digs, three blocks and a serving ace.

"I think we had a really good game plan coming into tonight," Guthrie said. "I was able to see their middle blockers well at times, but when Kendra is hitting the way she was tonight it opens it up for everyone else. Alex and Emily had great games as well."

Two other Bears had a very good game although the stats didn't completely show it in Emily O'Neil (7 kills, 3 blocks) and Kortney Lockey (5 kills).

"Kortney continues to really develop for us. She had a great game against Sac State and continued that development tonight," Oates said about her freshman. "She didn't have as many attempts tonight, but still played really well and continues to show improvement in every match."

In both the first and second set Northern Colorado jumped out to quick leads of 8-1 and 5-1, never looking back in either set. The teams battled in the third set for awhile, but the Bears went on a decisive 5-1 run after being tied at 15.

"Today was a big step for us on moving forward as a team. We took a step backwards on Thursday, but took a step forward today," Oates said. "We have to now take a mentality of 'so what'. Southern Utah isn't going to care that we just swept North Dakota and we need to continue to work on getting one percent better each and every day."

UNC now hits the road for a week, looking for that elusive first road win of the season when they take on Southern Utah at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday October 22.