@UNCBearsVB's Offensive Explosion Fuels Rally to Defeat Lumberjacks

Saturday, October 13

Greeley, Colo.

7 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Northern Arizona

Photo by: Woody Myers

10/13/2018 11:38:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat Northern Arizona in five sets

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

Bank of Colorado Arena was electric on Saturday night as Northern Colorado rallied to defeat Northern Arizona in five sets [25-18, 22-25, 27-29, 25-23, 15-6]. UNC continued to show its balance on offense, scoring a season-best 75 kills.

"We challenged the team in pregame to stay in the moment with one point at a time and we did a good job of that tonight," said head coach Lyndsey Oates. "We weren't scoreboard watching or worried about if we were down or up or who was scoring. We just made the best contact in the moment and the team played very mature with that concept tonight."

Kortney Lockey led the way for UNC with 17 kills and Maddy Bremer was close behind with 16. Bremer also had a match-high .429 attack percentage.

"Coming out in the first set to get the win was huge," Lockey explained. "They pushed back and started playing like themselves, but I think seeing what we could do in the first set really motivated us for the rest of the game."

Taylor Muff added 14 kills, while Lauren Hinrichs and Jadyn McCartney were in double figures with 12 and 11 kills respectively.

"I think it was our team connection, all of us were communicating with each other and that was important," Bremer said. "Some teams can be pin heavy an only go there. We were all able to score the ball from the all positions to confuse [NAU]."

The offense balance again was heavily influenced by Daisy Schultz, who notched a career-best 63 assists.

"I think Daisy made great decisions on who to set when and we were pretty balanced," Oates explained. "That is going to create kills that may not be there otherwise. We need balance and we definitely had that tonight. Daisy setting that well and having a sense of their defense allows us a good opportunity to score a lot of points."

"You don't find that kind of balance very often and when we do we're unstoppable," Lockey added. "That's all due to our passing and Daisy. We passed well and get our middles the balls that allowed them to get kills. We passed and set a really good match to open up our offense."

The first set started with a quick 4-1 lead for the Bears, but NAU stormed back to take an 8-11 lead. The set would turn in UNC's favor as they went on a 6-1 run with Kayla Uyemura serving. Uyemura scored a service ace and was aided by kills from Hinrichs, Bremer, and Brittany Lawrence. The Bears would win the set 25-18, with Lockey scoring the clinching ace to give UNC a 1-0 lead in the match.

In the second set, the score was close early, but UNC managed to build a 12-8 lead, with Bremer continuing to score and McCartney joining in with two kills. The score would tighten back up and the Bears had a 22-20 lead, looking to take a commanding lead in the match. The Lumberjacks would rally with a 5-0 run to steal the set 25-22. The run was powered by a pair of kills from Kaylie Jorgenson, who tied with Lockey for the match-high with 17 kills.

NAU would take control early in the third set, similar to UNC's lead in the second set. The Lumberjacks led 13-9, before a 4-0 run from the Bears, powered by two kills from Lockey, tied the set. The set was competitive and the two team would need to score past 25 to decide the winner. UNC was serving for match point at 24-23, but could not close out NAU. NAU would serve for match point at 26-25 but Bremer would score a kill to extend the set. After being tied at 27, Jorgenson delivered an ace and UNC would commit an attack error that allowed NAU to win the set 29-27 and they had a 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth set started with NAU taking a lead early against UNC like in the third. After the Lumberjacks lead 15-11, UNC went on a 6-1 run that put them in front trailing in the match. Despite the two teams tying twice more in the set, UNC kept its composure and held of NAU for the 25-23 set win, tying the match at two.

Now in the fifth set, UNC asserted itself early, opening up with a 12-1 run to put the team in complete control. The five Bears who scored in double figures all contributed kills in the opening run. NAU did not go quietly in the set, responding with a 4-0 run to force a UNC timeout. The Bears would again keep their composure and delivered a 15-6 set victory to win the match 3-2.

UNC finished the set with a .241 attack percentage on a season-high 199 total attempts.

Game Notes

After committing 12 service errors against Southern Utah, UNC cut the number down to three, while still scoring eight service aces. Taylor Muff, Taylor Els, and Laura Katarzynski all had two aces for the Bears.
UNC matched its season-high in blocks with seven, which they also recorded on Thursday night against Southern Utah. Maddy Bremer led the Bears with four block-assists, matching her career-high.
Kortney Lockey and Taylor Muff recorded double-doubles for the third consecutive match, while Daisy Schultz recorded her second consecutive. Lockey finished with 17 kills and 16 digs, while Muff had 14 kills and a career-best 21 digs. Schultz finished with 63 assists, a career-high, and 11 digs. Muff's previous career-best, 20 digs, also was against NAU and Schultz recorded 60 assists against Southern Utah in 2017.
Taylor Els recorded a career-best 36 digs against NAU, with her previous high of 31 coming against Eastern Washington last season. She extended her streak of double-digit dig matches to 41.
Maddy Bremer doubled her career-high in kills with 16, after scoring eight against Weber State last week.

Next Up
Northern Colorado will be on the road the next two weeks, with four matches against Idaho, Eastern Washington, Montana State, and Montana. UNC will return home on November 1^st against Weber State.