@UNCBearsVB drops match against Duke

Saturday, August 26

Greeley, Colo.

7pm

University of Northern Colorado

0-2

Duke University

3-0

Duke

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

8/26/2017 10:39:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Blue Devils sweep Bears

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo.- Facing its second top-40 team in two nights, Northern Colorado's volleyball team was swept by Duke on Saturday night and fell to 0-2 on the season.

The night started out rough fashion for the Bears when Duke (3-0,0-0 ACC) opened the match with an 8-1 run. UNC could not recover from the initial Blue Devil surge and the first set ended with a 25-8 defeat for the Bears. Offense was a problem for Northern Colorado, as the Bears committed 10 errors that led to a -.167-attack percentage. The offense for Duke powered the team to victory with a blistering .533 attack percentage, including zero errors.

UNC head coach Lyndsey Oates changed up her rotation in the second set to try to find an answer for Duke's speed at the net. The offense for UNC tightened up and cut down its errors from 10 to three. Kim Weissmann and Kortney Lockey stepped up their attack and improved the team attack percentage to .240 in the second set. Daisy Schultz carried over her performance from Friday and recorded six assists for the Bears and a .667 attack percentage. Unfortunately, Duke's offense continued to produce with a .333 attack percentage and used 15 assists in the set to secure an 25-18 victory and a 2-0 advantage over UNC.

Down two sets in the third, Northern Colorado's resolve would be tested early in the 2017 season. The sense of urgency was apparent as Alex Kloehn knocked in four kills and Lockey added another four to try to power the Bears to a comeback victory. Ryleigh Haynes' 12 assists helped give the offense more rhythm and UNC improved its attack percentage to .333 in the third set. UNC held an 11-7 lead over the Blue Devils midway through the set and gave life to the Bears' chances at a comeback.

Despite the improved offense, Duke had already built too much momentum in the first and second sets. After UNC had built its 11-7 lead, Duke went on a 7-0 run to take a 14-11 advantage. The Bears responded with two kills from Weissmann to pull within one of Duke. Senior Cadie Bates came up big for Duke with a pair of kills that put the Blue Devils ahead for good and the team won Set 3, 25-19, completing the sweep. Northern Colorado was last swept by North Dakota in November of 2016.

Key Factor
Offense told the story of the match as Northern Colorado finished with a .152 attack percentage and 18 errors, with no Bears recording double-digit kills. Kloehn did, however, finish with nine kills. Duke recorded a .361 attack percentage and eight errors, headlined by Bates' 13 kills and .417 attack percentage.

Final Thoughts
"I think Duke had a great defense. Basically, all around we were struggling to get ourselves together as a team. They were a great serving team and so we played a serve-and-pass game and that's what we needed to improve on. We needed to be tougher at the serving line and more in our system and getting ourselves going. We were lucky to get really high-intensity, high-level volleyball to start off our season. I think it's a great advantage. Even though they present us with a challenge it's a great challenge to help us improve ourselves." Middle Blocker, Alex Kloehn

From the Coach
"It's a match that we were definitely not our best. We were a little bit all over the place. We tried to switch to 6-2 in the first set and that caused a little chaos on our part. Duke presents a lot problems. It's probably the toughest serving team we have faced maybe in a couple of years. They were serving aggressively. It wasn't just our lack of passing; they were pushing the ball on us. And just their speed at the net, fast arms, fast offense and it out-quicked us at times. I thought we handled it pretty well and could adjust and then it would out-quick us and those points we gave up just based on their speed is what we haven't seen and gave them separation. "We need matches like this. It's going to help us come October, November as we are in conference season. This match will still be a pivotal moment in our season even though we are two matches into our season." -Head Coach, Lyndsey Oates

Moving Forward
Northern Colorado will have a rest day on Sunday and get back to work on Monday to prepare for a showdown with Colorado State on Tuesday in Fort Collins. The regional rivals met last season in Greeley with Colorado State winning, 3-1.