Bears Split Saturday's Matches Against Eastern Kentucky and Indiana

Saturday, September 19

Greeley, Colo.

Noon

University of Northern Colorado

4-7

Eastern Kentucky

1-12

EKU

Northern Colorado

9/19/2015 4:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Northern Colorado defeated Eastern Kentucky in four sets, behind Alex Kloehn's attack, before falling to Indiana in the night cap

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Alex Kloehn and the rest of the Northern Colorado volleyball team were too much to handle for Eastern Kentucky Saturday afternoon inside Bank of Colorado Arena. The Bears (4-7) hit above .300 for the first time this season in a four set victory over the Colonels (25-22, 27-29, 27-25, 25-12).

After the first three sets that featured 31 ties and nine lead changes, Northern Colorado took care of business in the final set, charging out to a 10-2 lead, including an 8-0 run, to take care of Eastern Kentucky and earn their second straight win.

"I thought we finished the match strong and found some good rhythm. We found some things offensively that were working and really executed that in sets three in four," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "We did well with the game plan in sets three and four with the game plan and getting Alex going. It's a big benefit to have a different kills leader the past three matches."

Alex Kloehn had herself a match with a career high 16 kills and a .591 hitting percentage. It was the first time a Bear had hit over .500 for a match with at least 12 kills since Brianna Strong did so against Southern Utah last season.

"We ran a C9 against them and it's just too many options for the middle to block," Kloehn said. "I had a lot of deep middle available to me today and it was a lot of fun to take advantage of it."

Behind Kloehn and Timarie Nymeyer's 10 kills and .450 hitting percentage UNC hit .306 as a team. All three sets that Northern Colorado won, they hit above .300

"Once we started to see what EKU was doing and that they couldn't defend both Timarie and Alex at the same time we made that adjustment and took advantage of it," senior Kendra Cunningham said.

Cunningham once again proved to be her steady self, recording her sixth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 11 digs.

UNC's defense played their role in the win as well. EKU (1-12) was held to .143 hitting, including -.111 in the final set. Meagan Garcia once again led the Bears with 16 of the teams 60 digs. Those digs not only kept rallies alive for UNC, but also helped set up the offense well.

"Meagan does a great job of helping set up our offense with her passing and opens up our offense," said Kloehn.

Kloehn didn't just contribute on the offensive side, also led the team in blocking. She finished the match with two solo blocks and two block assists. Fellow middle blockers Emily O'Neil and Natalya King added in a solo block and two block assists combined as well.

UNC finished it's weekend taking on Indiana in their second match of the day. The Hoosiers would sweep the Bears (25-21, 25-14, 25-23) in the nightcap.

"It's a disappointing match for sure. It was a good opportunity for us and we let it slip away. We have to go an learn from this match to improve for Tuesday against Denver and then conference play," head coach Lyndsey Oates said.

Katie Champion led the Bears offensivley with six kills along with Timarie Nymeyer. Champion and Megan Garcia earned All-Tournament honors, both their first of the season. Garcia finished the match with six digs, ending her streak of 24 straight matches with 10 plus digs.

Northern Colorado outhit IU in the first set .240-.129, but five service errors by the Bears came back to hurt them. Indiana took advantage of them to win the set 25-21.

After that set Indiana's offense took over the match hitting .379 and .361 in the final two sets.

The Bears close out their non-conference schedule on Tuesday when they drive down to Denver to face the Pioneers with first serve at 7:00 p.m.