@UNCBearsVB Earns Spot In Big Sky Tournament with Sweep of Montana

Saturday, October 29

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

15-9, 9-3BSC

Montana

4-18, 1-11BSC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3
Montana	23	18	21	0

10/29/2016 9:20:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

UNC volleyball sweeps Montana and earns Big Sky Tournament Berth

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

MISSOULA, Mont. – Northern Colorado volleyball completed a 2-0 weekend with the sweep of Montana, and qualified for the Big Sky Tournament Saturday night.

How It Happened
It was a slow start for Northern Colorado as Montana built a 17-13 lead, but they would battle back. The Bears ended up going on a 6-1 run later on in the set to take a 21-20 lead. After getting down 22-21 again, UNC closed out the set on a 4-1 run, started by back to back kills from Kortney Lockey and Alex Kloehn.

After coming back in the first set, the Bears started the second set on an 8-2 run. Seven of those eight points came on kills from UNC. The Griz worked on coming back on the Bears making it a 20-17 set, before Northern Colorado closed it out. For the set the Bears hit .310 to UM's .075.

Following the break, both teams traded early 3-0 runs, as they were tied at seven. A pair of Timarie Nymyer kills would spark another quick 3-0 run for the Bears as they started to take control of the set. Montana ended up getting within two midway through the set, but never got any closer as Northern Colorado competed the sweep.

Game Changer
While the Bears attack struggled at times through the match, senior libero Makenna Meier kept the team's defense on track. She finished the match with a team leading 13 digs and helped set up a defense that held Montana under .100 hitting at .081.

Notables
- The win tonight puts the Bears into their 11th straight Big Sky Tournament. Including UNC, five teams have already claimed a spot in the tournament, in Northern Arizona, North Dakota, Sacramento State and Idaho State.
- Northern Colorado's offense had four players finish with at least nine kills on the night. Emily O'Neil led all players with 10 kills on a .625 attack percentage. Timarie Nymeyer followed up a big night against MSU with another nine kills and .500 attack percentage Saturday.
- The Bears defense was busy Saturday night with 59 digs, eight blocks and forcing Montana into 24 attack errors. Along with Meier, Kortney Lockey and Taylor Els each recorded double figure digs with 11 and 10, respectively.

Quotable
Head coach Lyndsey Oates
"We played solid in a few key areas to keep our rhythm tonight. Timarie was our go-to hitter once again tonight and very effective. Our middles also did a good job of scoring tonight."

What's Next?
After two weeks away from Bank of Colorado Arena, the Bears return Thursday night at 7 pm to take on Idaho. The Vandals come into Greeley after going 2-0 this past weekend.