Middles Show Progress in @UNCBearsVB Loss to Rams

Tuesday, September 8

Fort Collins, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

2-4

Colorado State

5-1

Northern Colorado

Colorado State

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

9/8/2015 10:30:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado fell against Colorado State Tuesday night 3-0

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Northern Colorado volleyball traveled up I-25 to face in-state foe #14 Colorado State Tuesday night. The Rams would sweep the Bears (25-18, 25-14, 25-21) inside Moby Arena.

"I thought we took some steps forward with our middles and right side scoring tonight. That has been sort of an Achilles heel for us so far," said head coach Lyndsey Oates. "I liked that we took a step forward in that area. We obviously needed our left sides to score more and play better to beat a good team like CSU."

Despite the loss UNC saw some good development from its middle blockers Alex Kloehn and Emily O'Neil. They led the Bears in kills with eight and nine, respectively. The nine kills were a career high for O'Neil.

"CSU did a good job of camping out on our left sides and that opened it up for us in the middle tonight and we were able to take advantage of that," Kloehn said about her and O'Neil's performance.

O'Neil not only led Northern Colorado in kills, but also attack percentage. She hit .412 with only two errors.

"The more that Alex and Emily work and continue to progress, they help open up shots for our outsides and make us harder to defend," setter Ashley Guthrie said about the continued progress of the team's young middle blockers.

For the match, UNC struggled on offense, hitting .106 overall. The Bears best hitting set was in the first with a mark of .143.

Despite the poor attack number on the night for the team, Northern Colorado fought hard against the Rams.

In the first and third set the teams were tied six times each.

The closest set between the two was the third when UNC got out to an early 9-5 lead forcing a CSU timeout. From that point on Colorado State went on an 8-4 run to tie it up at 13.

The teams traded points back and forth until CSU went on a decisive 4-0 rally to go up 19-15 and put away the match.

Northern Colorado will return to the court on Friday when they take part in the Pistol Pete Showdown hosted by the University of Wyoming. UNC will play two matches Friday first against #22 Kansas followed up later in the day against Marquette.