@UNCBearsVB Battles All Night, Comes Up Short Against Wildcats

Saturday, October 6

Ogden, Utah

7 pm

University of Northern Colorado

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Weber State

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Northern Colorado

Weber State

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

10/6/2018 11:17:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Weber State tops Northern Colorado in back-and-forth match

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

OGDEN, UT - There was no shortage of kills Saturday night at Swenson Gym, as Northern Colorado volleyball dropped the five-set match to Weber State [25-21, 18-25, 25-17, 14-25, 15-17]. UNC's fought in every set and showed poise in the decisive fifth set.

"We played much better than last night. We played at a good level, but where not where we want to be yet," said head coach Lyndsey Oates. "Yet is the key word. We're growing and this was a good step forward for us."

Three Bears recorded double-digit kills, with Taylor Muff setting a new career-high with 19, also tying for the match high with the Wildcats' Andrea Hale. Muff was all over the court on Saturday, adding 10 digs, two blocks, and two service aces.

Along with Muff, Kortney Lockey and Lauren Hinrichs scored 13 and 11 kills respectively.

"It was not any one thing tonight and we played hard," Oates said. "Our blocking was much improved from last night and more aggressive in every aspect of the match. I'm proud of our effort and it was a really good step forward."

Northern Colorado started the match strong in the first set, hitting .436 and scoring 20 kills on the way to a 25-21 set victory. Jadyn McCartney recorded five kills in the set and finished the match with eight. The Wildcats hit .237 in the set and could not keep up with the fast-swinging Bears as they opened with a 1-0 lead in the match.

The second set was different for UNC, as the team's offensive pace from the first tapered off. Weber St. jumped out to a 9-3 lead over the Bears and extended it to as much as 12 during the set. Leading 20-8, the Wildcats seemed to be cruising to an easy win, but the Bears fought back with a 6-1 run. The rally fell short, as Weber St. went on to win 25-18 to tie the match at one.

It was UNC that asserted itself early in the third set, taking a 8-4 lead over the Wildcats, fueled by a pair of kills from Lockey. The Bears extended the lead out to 19-11, powered by four kills from Muff. UNC got two more kills from Muff to clinch the set 25-17 and take a 2-1 lead in the match. Muff had six kills in the set, with Lockey and Maddy Bremer following with four each.

In the third set, the score was close early on, with seven ties to knot the match up at eight. Weber St. pulled away from UNC with a 17-6 run that gave them the third set, 25-14, and the match was once again tied.

The match would now come down to the fifth set and UNC seized the momentum early, leading 5-1. Bremer would start the Bears off with a kill and Taylor Els followed up with an ace. The Bears had an 8-5 lead, but the Wildcats would continue to score and tied the set at nine. The score was tight until the finish with five lead changes. Lockey led the Bears offense scoring four kills in the fifth set. Weber St. was able to pull ahead for good with kill and a UNC attack error to give the Wildcats the 17-15 win in the set and the 3-2 match win.

UNC finished the match with a .196 attack percentage, recording 65 kills. Weber St. had a .237 average with 57 kills.

Game Notes

Taylor Muff set a career-high in the match with 19 kills and also recorded her third double-double of the season, finishing with 10 digs. Muff had a .304 attack percentage.
Kortney Lockey recorded her seventh double-double of the season, with 13 kills and a season high 19-digs.
Maddy Bremer matched her career-high in kills with eight and finished with a .500 attack percentage. Bremer also had eight kills against South Dakota (9/1).
Daisy Schultz had a season-best, 56 assists, against the Wildcats, falling four assists shy of her career-high mark(60). Schultz narrowly missed her third double-double of the season after recording nine digs.
UNC dropped to 0-2 in the Big Sky and 0-3 overall on the road this season.

Up Next
Northern Colorado will head home for two matches next week. The Bears host Southern Utah on Thursday, October 11^th at 7 p.m.(MT) and Northern Arizona on Saturday, October 13^th at 7 p.m. for the annual pink game.