Vandals Top @UNCBearsVB on Friday Night

Friday, October 19

Moscow, Idaho

8 pm

University of Northern Colorado

9-9,5-4

Idaho

14-8,8-2

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

10/19/2018 11:02:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado could not overcome errors against the Big Sky leaders

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

MOSCOW, ID- It was clear on Friday night that Northern Colorado was a different team since they last played Idaho, but the Vandals were still able to win 3-1 [16-25, 25-23, 17-25, 22-25]. UNC fell to the top team in the Big Sky after struggling with errors throughout the match.

"We just backed down too many times," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "When both of our left sides are hitting below .100, were going to have a hard time winning. We just have to be more efficient and cut down on errors."

UNC committed 33 attack errors and finished the match with a 0.87 attack percentage.

Brittany Lawrence led the Bears with 11 kills and recorded a .450 attack percentage. Lauren Hinrichs had 10 in the match.

"One of the bright spots was our serving. I thought we served tough and I think we won the serving and passing game tonight," Oates added.

The Bears had good night at the service line, scoring eight aces to seven errors. Taylor Els matched her career high with four aces against the Vandals.

Idaho started the match quickly, with a 3-0 lead in the first set that they would extend out to 9-4. The attack error issues for UNC were prevalent in the first set, with the Bears ending up with nine. The Vandals won set one, 25-16 to open a 1-0 lead in the match.

The second set was a different story for UNC, as they kept the score close with the Vandals, getting kills from Hinrichs and Taylor Muff. During the set, the Bears and Vandals would tie 14 times. Lawrence came up with key kills that tied the match at 19 and then gave UNC its first lead of the set at 20-19. With the score tied at 22, Lawrence would again score a timely kill to give UNC the lead. Els would secure the set for UNC with an ace and UNC tied the match with a 25-23 win in the set.

With the match tied at one, the third set would mirror the first with Idaho establishing itself early. The Vandals would jump out to a 7-3 lead and kept scoring to maintain their advantage throughout the set. Idaho pulled ahead in the match 2-1 with a 25-17 win in set three.

UNC would need a quick turnaround in the fourth set to force a fifth set in the match. After trailing early, Jadyn McCartney scored a kill and an attack error from Idaho handed UNC the lead over the Vandals at 8-7. Idaho got back in front with a small 14-11 lead, but the Bears fought right back with kills from Kortney Lockey and Kailey Jo Ince. UNC would take the lead, 15-14, on another kill from Ince, who finished with a career-best seven on the night. The Vandals hit back with a 6-3 run to hold a 20-18 advantage. The Bears were not done yet and tied the match on a kill from Lawrence, along with another ace from Els. Despite the fight from UNC, Idaho would hold on to win the set 25-22 and win the match 3-1.

Game Notes

The Bears had four players in double figures for digs, with Taylor Els recording a match-high 25. Taylor Muff had 13 digs, while Kortney Lockey and Laura Katarzynski each had 10. Els has now had double-digit digs in 42 consecutive matches.
While Els matched her career mark in aces, Katarzynski also matched her career-best with two Friday night.
Brittany Lawrence matched her career-best with 11 kills against the Vandals. She also scored 11 kills against Montana in September.
Kailey Jo Ince improved her career-best win kills with seven against Idaho. Her previous high was against Idaho State (10/5).