@UNCBearsVB Heads to Houston for First Road Trip of 2016

Friday, September 2

Houston, Texas

3:30 pm

University of Northern Colorado

North Florida

9/1/2016 8:47:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

UNC heads to Houston for three matches this weekend

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – The Northern Colorado volleyball team will hit the road for the first time this season when they head to Houston, Texas for the Barcelona Labor Day Classic. The Bears will play three matches over the two days facing North Florida on Friday and Houston Baptists and Penn on Saturday.

Match Notes: Northern Colorado | Big Sky
vs North Florida, Friday, September 2: Live Stats | @UNCBears VB | Gameday Central
at Houston Baptist, Saturday, September 3: Video Stream | Live Stats | @UNCBears VB | Gameday Central
vs Penn, Saturday, September 3 3: Live Stats | @UNCBears VB | Gameday Central

GREELEY, Colo. – The Northern Colorado volleyball team will hit the road for the first time this season when they head to Houston, Texas for the Barcelona Labor Day Classic. The Bears will play three matches over the two days facing North Florida on Friday and Houston Baptists and Penn on Saturday.

Quick Sets
• Northern Colorado started the season at home, going 1-2 in the three matches. The Bears defeated North Dakota State in five sets while falling to both Saint Mary's and Colorado State in four sets each.

• This weekend is the first road trip of the season for UNC. The team will be away from Bank of Colorado Arena for eight of their next nine matches.

• Kortney Lockey had a career game against NDSU last Saturday, recording 27 kills and 16 digs, both career highs for her.

•Natalya King has been a spark for the Bears so far this season. Against North Dakota State she sparked a run for UNC with her first two career aces. Then against Colorado State, she had two solo blocks and three blocks assists during a 6-0 run for the team as the Bears went on to win the set.

Scouting the Bears
Northern Colorado rode the arm of Kortney Lockey during its first weekend of play, as she averaged 13.5 swings a set, and produced 3.85 kills a set. She is not just a one trick pony for the team though, playing all six rotations and averaging 2.31 digs per set.

Setting up Lockey and the rest of the Bears offense, once again is Ashley Guthrie who looked conferrable on the court. She is averaging 9.23 assists per set, but also coming up big on the defensive side as well. Opponents have been targeting Guthrie to get the team out of system. She has stepped up to that challenge with 2.92 digs a set and recording double figures in the stat column every match.

The trio of Taylor Els, Makenna Meier and Kayla Uyemura have been patrolling the back row for UNC. Meier, who stepped into the libero position this season is leading the team with 4.62 digs a set, while Els and Uyemura have been adding in 2.38 and 2.23, respectively.

Up front, Alex Kloehn and Natalya King have been leading the way for the team. Kloehn has 27 kills and 10 blocks on the season, while King has 15 kills and 15 blocks.

Scouting North Florida
North Florida opened the season with four matches at the Florida Atlantic Tournament. The Ospreys went 3-1 in the matches only losing to Northeastern 3-1 in the final match.

UNF has a balanced offense coming into the weekend with four players averaging over 2.00 kills per set. Carina Hoff leads the team with 2.89. Defensively it starts at the net with Morgan Van Alstine and her 1.28 blocks per set, with Ashley LaBorde cleaning up the back row with 4.17 digs a set.

Coming into the 2016 season, the Ospreys were picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic Sun this season.

Scouting Houston Baptist
Houston Baptist is hosting its second tournament of the year, after hosting its first last weekend. The Huskies went 1-2 during it, and then also fell to Rice on Tuesday night. One of the team's HBU faced last week was fellow Big Sky member Weber State, who swept the Huskies.

HBU has three players averaging over 2.00 kills per set, and being set up by setter Kayla Armer's 8.64 assists per set.

Defensively, Houston Baptist has three players with 2.00 digs per set, led by Hailey Ericksons 3.79 digs per set. Up front Blair Gillard is averaging a block a set.

The Huskies were picked to finish third by the coaches and fourth by the SIDs of the Southland Conference.

Scouting Penn
Penn had the first weekend off, and will get its 2016 season started this week. The Quakers are coming off of a 13-13 2015 season.

The team returns four starters from last season, but does lose second team All-Ivy League player Alexis Genske. Genske was the team's leader in kills last season, while the team also lost setter Ronnie Bither.

Returning this season for Quakers will be a key pair of juniors in Michelle Pereira and Kendall Covington.

Last Time vs
North Florida
Northern Colorado and North Florida have only faced each other one time. That meeting took place on August 26, 2000, where the Bears won in five sets.

Houston Baptist and Penn
This is the first time UNC has faced both Houston Baptist and Penn.

On the Date
September 2
UNC has had plenty of success when playing on September 2nd. The team holds a 6-1 record on the date including a perfect 6-0 mark in neutral site matches. The last time the team played on the day was in 2011 when they matched up against Texas Pan-American and won in straight sets.

September 3
The third day of September has been another successful day for the Bears, and a very busy one for them as well. Over the 16 matches played on the date by the team, UNC holds a 10-6 record. Although the past three times Northern Colorado has hit the court on the date, they have lost, including the most recent time out in 2014 to Colorado State.

Setting the Way
Senior setter Ashley Guthrie is set up to have a solid 2016 season. Last year she became just the seventh player in program history to record 3,000 career assists and earned a spot on the first team All-Big Sky. She ended it with 3,609 just 25 shy of sixth place. She has the team's DI record for assists in sight, currently held by Marissa Hughes at 4,877.

She begain the season on the right foot, recording a double-double in the first three matches of the year. In the North Dakota State match, Guthrie ended up one assist shy of tying her career high at 62. She now sits in sixth place in the record books after recording 120 assists the first weekend.

Locked and Loaded
Sophomore Kortney Lockey is coming off a successful freshman season and is set up to have an even better sophomore year. She will be stepping up to be the team's go-to player on the outside. As a freshman she finished fourth on the team in kills with 205.

She didn't take long to show why she will be a threat for the Bears all year long. In the team's match against NDSU she set career highs in kills (27) and digs (16). Lockey has been busy at work through the first three contests, averaging 13.54 attacks per set, and the most in the Big Sky and ninth most nationally.

Digging Bones
Northern Colorado's backline defense has been tough to score against this season. Behind the lead of Makenna Meier the team is averaging 16.85 digs per set, ranking 50th in the nation. Against NDSU the Bears had 106 digs, the most since 2011. Five different Bears had at least 10 digs.

Career Night
During Saturday night's victory against North Dakota State, UNC players set a few career highs.
- Kortney Lockey led the way for the team with 27 kills and 16 digs.
- Makenna Meier set a new personal best with 25 digs.
- Two other defensive specialist set highs for digs in Kayla Uyemura (16) and Taylor Els (15)

Spark Plug
Natalya King was quit the spark plug for UNC during its first three matches. Against North Dakota State she started a big run for the team in the second set with a pair of service aces, the first two of her career. Then against CSU in the second set, King came up with two solo blocks and three block assists during a 6-0 run from the Bears. For the season she is currently leading the team with 15 total blocks.

Work In Progress
Northern Colorado's offense is still a work in progress so far this season. The team has struggled at times to be error free hitting below .100 five times. There have been sparks of what can be though including the fourth set against North Dakota State when they hit .378.

Adding to a Legacy
Entering her 12th year as the head coach at Northern Colorado, Lyndsey Oates has made a name for herself. During her time at the helm she has led the program into the Division I era and seen plenty of success. She has led four teams to NCAA Tournament appearances and five to Big Sky championships. Along with those accomplishments, Oates has also been a three time recipient of the Big Sky Coach of the Year honor (2009, 2011, 2014). She is now closing in on another honor, 200 career wins. Going into the weekend Oates is four wins shy of 200.

Veteran Leadership
Head coach Lyndsey Oates has a plethora of veterans to lean on this season with 12 returns on the team. Of those 12 players, 10 are letter winners.

Preseason Expectations
Preseason expectations are nothing new to the Northern Colorado volleyball program. This season the Bears are once again expected to compete for the Big Sky title, being picked second in the preseason poll. UNC is also seeing national attention, receiving votes in the VolleyballMag.com preseason Top 25.

Up the Midd-Al
Middle blocker Alex Kloehn put herself into the UNC record book last season recording 18 solo blocks. That was just five shy of former teammate's Brianna Strongs DI record of 23 set in 2013. This season she will look to form a wall on the front line for the Bears along with fellow middles Emily O'Neil and Natalya King.

Finding the Right Spots
Junior outside hitter Timarie Nymeyer was the most efficient hitter in the Big Sky last season with a .324 attack percentage. She wasn't just effective, but she finished second on the team averaging 2.40 kills per set.

Freshman Five
UNC brought in five new faces for the 2016 season in freshmen Anna Graham, Taylor Els, Alyssa Chisholm, Sarah Wyland and Kaitlyn Detlefsen. Even with the 12 returners on the team, don't be surprised to see the freshmen to be key contributors as well.

Who's the Libero?
With the graduation of Meagan Garcia, UNC had a hole to fill at libero. Senior Makenna Meier has stepped up into that position for the team, and has taken on the challenge full charge.

Same Face, New Place
Fans will continue to see the familiar face of Kendra Cunningham around the UNC program. Cunningham's playing days may be over, but now she is the team's Director of Operations.

Welcome Guch
UNC welcomed a new assistant coach over the offseason in Jon Haruguchi. He came to Northern Colorado from Dartmouth where he was an assistant coach for the Mean Green. He brings over 15 years of coaching experience to the team.

Making the Grades
For the fifth straight season UNC volleyball earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association academic honor. The team posted a GPA over 3.30 to earn the honor. The Bears also had 12 players from last year's team earn All-Big Sky Academic honors as well.

On the Tube
Northern Colorado will be on a TV near you again this season thanks to CET Sports. For the second straight year CET Sports will carry select UNC volleyball games. This year's matches broadcasted will be a pair of intra-state rivalries with Colorado State on August 30th and Denver on September 7th.

Big Sky TV
In a partnership with EverSport.tv all home Big Sky school matches will be streamed for free on Big Sky TV once again for 2016. The Northern California-based company will provide service for streaming all Big Sky football, volleyball and basketball events both on PC or laptop along with any tablet and phone through the Watch Big Sky app.

UNC Bears Focus
Back again this year for all Northern Colorado athletics fans is the UNC Focus presented by Advantage Bank. The UNC Focus is a weekly radio show. The Voice of the Bears Troy Coverdale will host it each Wednesday night on 1310 KFKA from 5pm-6pm.

Looking Ahead
Northern Colorado has another big week coming up with four matches over four days. They will begin the week at home when they host Denver at 7 pm Wednesday. They will then travel to Stockton, California to compete against Pacific, South Dakota and Oregon State in a two day tournament over September 9 and 10.