Weissman's Big Night Leads @UNCBearsVB Past Idaho

Thursday, November 3

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

16-9, 10-3

Idaho

9-16, 4-9

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Idaho	25	14	23	16	1
Northern Colorado	23	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

11/3/2016 10:14:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Kim Weissmann had a career high 16 kills in UNC's 3-1 win over Idaho

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado picked up another important win Thursday night, defeating visiting Idaho in four sets. The win is UNC's sixth in its past seven matches.

How it Happened
Northern Colorado started the match up 8-4, before a 7-1 Idaho run put the Vandals in the lead 11-9. The Vandals continued to build upon that lead as the Bears struggled with attack errors during the set. UNC climbed its way back into the set with a late 6-2 run to get within one at 22-21, but the UI would not surrender the lead taking the first set 25-23.

After dropping the first set, Northern Colorado came back strong in the second. Kim Weissmann led the charge for the Bears during the set with six kills. UNC took control with a 4-0 run, to go up 10-6 and continued to build on the advantage from that point on, including closing the set on a 7-0 run to even the match at 1-1.

Coming out the break, the teams went blow-for-blow, never letting the other to get up by more than three throughout. The set featured 12 ties and five lead changes.
Idaho led the beginning part of set three getting up 3-0, and then again by three at 8-5, before the Bears came back to even the set through the middle part of it. After going down 22-20, UNC responded with a 5-1 run to end the set and take the match lead, 2-1.

UNC took the early advantage in the fourth set with a 4-0 run to go up 11-7. The Bears took control of the set and match with a 6-1 run to go up, 19-11, putting the set well out of reach. The duo of Alex Kloehn and Weissmann had nine of the team's 14 kills in the set as they won it 25-16, and the match 3-1.

Game Changer
It felt like as Kim Weissmann went, so did the Bears Thursday night. After hitting .000 in the first set, she responded with six kills in the second set and finished the night with a match-high and new career-high 16 kills. She hit .250 for the night and also added in a block.

Notables
- UNC was very efficient at getting sideouts Thursday night at a clip of 70.9 percent including getting 15-of-16 in the final set.
- The Bears had three players finish the match with double figure kills in Weissmann (16), Alex Kloehn (14) and Timarie Nymeyer (10). Kortney Lockey just missed joining her teammates with nine kills.
- After Idaho hit .286 in the first set, Northern Colorado held the Vandals below .200 the rest of the night, including to -.054 in the second set.
- Makenna Meier once again led the way for the Bears' defense with 21 digs. Lockey and Taylor Els added in 17 and 12, respectively. While that trio was taking care of the back row, Alex Kloehn was taking care of the front line with four total blocks, including two solo.

Quotable

Head coach Lyndsey Oates
The importance of winning in four and starting strong in the fourth set:
"We definitely did not want to go five. After the third set I felt like we had squeaked that one out and didn't earn it. So after that, we wanted to get out to an early lead and get some momentum going on our side. We weren't able to go on big serving runs consistently tonight, but we did do that well in the second and fourth set."

On how well the team is playing currently:

"We are playing well at times. We are not playing consistent enough. We didn't start the match off the way we needed to tonight, and our team knows that. I did like the way we responded, and we also still have some time here in early November to get there."

Junior middle blocker Alex Kloehn
On how the team responded after the first set:
"We proved to ourselves after the first set that we can go down, but come back as a team. Once we lost that we knew we had all the tools to beat them. We just came out reduced our errors and started stronger."

Junior outside hitter Kim Weissmann
On her big night:
"A lot of the times there were double blocks tonight. I just know I had to be smarter, swing high, hit it off their hands and it worked out. Ashley was setting it perfectly and I was seeing their hands and just going for it."

What changed after the first set:

"As a team in the first set we came out a little slow. We knew we had to pick it up we knew we had to serve better. Defensively we had to be feisty and blocking we had to adjust to them. We really bounced back after not starting out well in the first set."

Senior libero Makenna Meier
On how the team improved offensively throughout the match:

"We got our tempo going in our offense and that really helped. The hitters adjusted well to the big block Idaho had and we were able to play well."

What's Next?
UNC will close out its 2016 home schedule on Saturday when they host Eastern Washington at 7 pm. EWU took on North Dakota Thursday, falling to the Fighting Hawks 3-0. Before the start of Saturday's game the Bears will honor their four graduating players in Ashley Guthrie, Makenna Meier, Audrey Landry and Timarie Nymeyer.

Fans who attend the football game earlier on Saturday can present their ticket at the Bank of Colorado Arena box office for complementary entrance into the game.