@UNCBearsVB Falls to Southern Utah In Four

Thursday, October 22

Cedar City, Utah

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

8-14 (4-5)

Southern Utah

14-8 (5-4)

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Northern Colorado	22	25	22	23	1
Southern Utah	25	22	25	25	3

Photo by: Breelyn Bowe

10/22/2015 10:24:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

UNC volleyball dropped a hard fought match to Southern Utah in four set Thursday night

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

CEDAR CITY, Utah – Northern Colorado (8-14, 4-5 Big Sky) volleyball faced Southern Utah (14-8, 5-4 Big Sky) Thursday night, falling in four tough sets, 3-1. The match featured 25 ties and eight lead changes.

"It is a disappointing loss at this point in the season. I thought we had really turned a corner last Saturday. It came down to mental errors on the service line and effort plays," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "It is positive to know that they are fixable mistakes we are making. We have the talent to be a great team, we just need to make that commitment to it."

UNC ended up with eight service errors on the night.

SUU's defense proved why it's one of the best in the Big Sky holding UNC to .151 hitting, well below their season average of .196.

Despite the tough defense from the T-Birds, three Bears ended up hitting well for the team, led by Timarie Nymeyer's .500 attack percentage, while tallying up 12 kills. Nymeyer was one kill behind teammate Alex Kloehn for the team lead on the night. Kloehn not only had 13 kills, but hit .435 for the match and had five blocks.

Fellow middle blocker Emily O'Neil also had a good match for UNC, finishing with eight kills on a .300 attack percentage and team leading six blocks.

"Our quick attacks scored well for us with Emily, Alex and Timarie tonight, but we were just not balanced enough to come out with the victory," Oates said about the team's attack.

While Northern Colorado's middles had a good match, their outsides struggled, while combining for 21 kills, they also had 22 attack errors.

With the quick sets working for the Bears, UNC's setter Ashley Guthrie recorded 51 assists on the night. She added in 14 digs too, for her fourth double-double of the season.

Meagan Garcia led the Bears in digs with 23, while Kendra Cunningham also had double figures in digs with 13.

UNC both out-dug (87-68) and out-blocked SUU (13-12).

Each set of the match was decided by a big run from either team near the middle, or end of the set.

In the first set UNC got out early, but Southern Utah battled back. With the teams tied up at 18, the
Thunderbirds ended up going on a 7-4 run to close it out and win it 25-22.

In the second set UNC once again got out to a quick start, before SUU battled back again. This time Northern Colorado was able to get the run to close out the set, this one a 6-1 rally to even the match up at one set a piece with a 25-22 win.

The Bears looked to be in good shape in the third set up 10-5 when Southern Utah went on a big 16-4 run and take a 21-14 lead. The Bears tried to fight back, but ran out of time dropping it 25-22.

The final set featured 10 ties and 4 lead changes. It came down to a small 3-1 SUU run with the score tied at 16 to give them enough breathing room to take the final set 25-23.

Northern Colorado will look to regroup and get back in the win column on Saturday when they travel to Northern Arizona with first serve scheduled for 1:00 pm mountain time.