@UNCBearsVB Falls to #15 Arizona State

Saturday, September 5

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

2-3

Arizona State

6-0

ASU

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

9/5/2015 9:32:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado Challenged ASU in the first set, but end up falling in three sets

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY—Northern Colorado volleyball hosted the #15 Arizona State Sun Devils Saturday night, falling to the visitors in three sets (25-22, 25-15, 25-13). The Bears competed well with ASU in the first set, even out hitting them .277-.275. The team unfortunately couldn't keep that up the rest of the match hitting below .100 in the final two.

"I loved the way we attacked the match, I thought we played some of our best ball this season in set one. We are taking the right strides and going in the right direction," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "We came out with good energy tonight, which we talked about after last night and it showed for us."

Alex Kloehn continues to show her growth tying for the team lead in kills (10) tonight, while hitting above .300 for the second straight game. She finished tonight's match with a .421 hitting percentage.

"Alex is really growing up. I think she will just continue to get better every match," Oates said of her sophomore middle blocker. "If she continues to make this growth and continues to be as coachable as she is, we are going to see maybe one of the best middles we have had in a UNC uniform."

Kendra Cunningham was the other Bear to finish with double-digit kills, at 10 as well.

The Bears came out with lots of energy to start the match taking an early 7-3 lead forcing ASU to call a timeout.
UNC continued to lead in the set, until the Sun Devil's went on a 6-3 run to tie the set up at 12. The teams exchanged points until ASU took the lead for good on a 3-0 run to go from being tied at 16 to up 19-16. The Bears wouldn't back down though getting within one point.

After the first set ASU's size started to make a difference, including recording 8.5 of their 12.5 blocks in the second set. The Bears continued to fight to make a comeback, but untimely hitting couldn't get the team back into it, allowing the Sun Devils to complete the sweep.

"We just couldn't maintain that level of energy from the first set," Oates said. "They made an adjustment to our attack behind the setter and we just couldn't get a second gear going."

The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Bears as the take on currently ranked #9 Colorado State on Tuesday in Fort Collins Starting at 7:00 p.m.

"Our next four teams are top 40 teams. If we can knock off one or two of those opponents we are doing great things," said Oates.

Following that match Northern Colorado travels up north to Wyoming to take on three more top 40 teams, Marquette, Kansas and Wyoming, in the Pistol Pete Challenge next Friday and Saturday.