@UNCBearsVB Drops Two at Pistol Pete Showdown

Friday, September 11

Laramie, Wyo.

10:00 am

University of Northern Colorado

2-5

Kansas

7-0

Northern Colorado

Kansas Jayhawks

9/11/2015 8:09:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Northern Colorado volleyball fell to Kansas and Marquette Friday

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

LARAMIE, Wyo.--Northern Colorado volleyball opened its weekend at the Pistol Pete Showdown Friday with two matches. The Bears faced #22 Kansas in the morning and Marquette in the evening dropping both matches in four sets.

Kansas was the third straight ranked opponent on Friday morning when they took on #22 Kansas.

"I liked our energy and the way we attacked the match. I thought we played maybe some of our best volleyball so far this year. We competed well in some things that we had not been doing so well at this year," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "The errors we were making were unique to Kansas and not us repeating errors from earlier this season."

UNC was led by it's do everything player, Kendra Cunningham. She led the team in both kills (17) and digs (15) recording her fourth double-double of the season.

It wasn't just Cunningham making all the plays for the Bears though, as three other Bears recorded five plus kills and four with five plus digs. The three other players that recorded five plus digs were Katie Champion (7), Emily O'Neil (6), and Alex Kloehn (5).

"We really need to be balanced offensively and have people come off our bench score for us as well, I thought Katie (Champion) had a really good match for us," Oates said about the offense.

O'Neil and Kloehn the team's middle blockers not only combined for 11 kills, but also blocked 5.5 KU attacks. That accounted for half of the teams 11 total blocks in the match, equaling the same amount as KU.

"Our two middles Emily and Alex have been doing a good job blocking. Even if the stuffs are not showing up in the stats they have really grown throughout this year," said Oates.

The Bears backline defense stepped up after losing usual libero Meagan Garcia to an injury.
Cunningham along with Michaela Nelson (9 digs), Makenna Meier (8), Ashley Guthrie (7) and Kayla Uyemura (5) didn't miss a beat for UNC.

Between the blocking of the middles and solid serve receive of the back row, Northern Colorado held Kansas to .186 hitting.

In the evening match Northern Colorado's offense played better, but their back line defense struggled against the Golden Eagles. UNC hit .218 in the match, with MU hitting .331.

The Bears had three players finish in double digit kills, led by Cunningham with 17. Katie Champion and Emily O'Neil added in 12 and 11, respectively.

With all of the offense from UNC, setter Ashley Guthrie dished out 50 assists and added in 13 digs for her second double-double of the season. Fellow classmate Makenna Meier added in a season high 18 digs, one shy of her career high 19.

On the other side of the net Marquette used a one-two punch of Taylor Louis (25 kills) and Jenna Rosenthal (16) to get past Northern Colorado.

The Bears finish the Pistol Pete Showdown tomorrow night when they take on host Wyoming with first serve at 6:30 p.m.