@UNCBearsVB Sends Seniors Off With a Sweep

Saturday, November 5

Greeley, Colo.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

18-9, 12-3

Eastern Washington

11-12, 6-8

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Eastern Washington	19	14	20	0
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Barry Lapoint

11/5/2016 10:16:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

UNC volleyball swept Eastern Washington on Senior Night

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado volleyball sent its seniors out on a high note with a sweep of Eastern Washington on Saturday night.

How it Happened
Eastern Washington jumped out to an early lead in the first set going on a 5-0 run to lead 5-2, but the Bears battled back, going on a 3-0 run to even it at 10. UNC continued to grow its lead slightly at 21-19, before finishing the set on a 4-0 run. The Bears ended the set with a .417 hitting percentage.

The strong offensive effort didn't slow down in the second set either. The duo of Kim Weissmann and Emily O'Neil went off for 10 of the team's 19 kills in the set as UNC hit .531 in it. Northern Colorado used a 10-2 run in the middle of the set to take control with an eight point advantage. The team used the momentum to finish the set 25-14 and take a 2-0 led to the locker room.

Following the break both team's struggled offensively. The Bears were held to a .091 attack percentage while EWU hit -.091. As both offenses struggles, just a small 3-0 run by UNC to go from tied at 10 to up 13-10 proved to be the key moment in the set. The lead grew to five and the sweep was in sight. The Eagles tried to avoid it with a late run, but fell short at 25-20.

Game Changer
The double trouble duo of Alex Kloehn and Emily O'Neil were too much to handle for Eastern Washington. They combined for 19 kills and just three attack errors, hitting .667 in the match. They also contributed in all four of the team's blocks for the night.

Notables
- UNC honored four seniors on Saturday night in Ashley Guthrie, Makenna Meier, Audrey Landry and Timarie Nymeyer. They all fared well in their final match in Bank of Colorado Arena.
- Ashley Guthrie finished the match with 38 assists, three digs and two blocks.
- Makenna Meier led the team with nine digs.
- Timarie Nymeyer had five kills along with a dig and an assist.
- Audery Landry recorded a dig and an assist on the stat sheet, but what didn't show up was her tough serving.
- No Bear finished the match with double figure digs, but four had seven or more in Meier (9), Taylor Els (8), Alyssa Chisholm (7) and Kortney Lockey (7).
- Kim Weissmann followed up her career-high 16 kill match against Idaho with another 11 Saturday.

Quotable

Head coach Lyndsey Oates
Overall thoughts on the match:
"Offensively we were pretty good in the first two sets. We were efficient and I thought Ashley was making good reads on the court. We were getting the quick backset that scored a lot of points for us. We lost some of that in the third set being too high error. Some of that though, was they were playing it better defensively. For us defensively, I was a little bit frustrated. I thought we could have blockedmuch better tonight."

Redshirt sophomore Emily O'Neil
On the strong play of the middles:
"They played a little deeper in middle back tonight and the shorter swings were more effective tonight for us compared to the big swings."

About how the team has progressed towards the end of the season:
"Lyndsey always says we need to peak at the right time. We have had a solid few weeks of practices and have continued to improve during that time. We have dropped some sets during that time, but have been able to regroup and comeback to take the match."

What's Next?
UNC has just two matches left in the regular season, both on the road. The first of which takes place on Thursday at Southern Utah. First serve for the match is set for 7 pm. The Bears then close out the regular season at North Dakota on Saturday.