Recap: @UNCBearsVB Sweeps Northeastern, Falls to Golden Bears

Friday, August 31

Vermillion, S.D.

9 am

University of Northern Colorado

1-3

Cal

4-0

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Northern Colorado	20	27	20	22	1
California	25	25	25	25	3

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Northeastern	18	14	12	0
Northern Colorado	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

8/31/2018 8:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Kortney Lockey powers the Bears was a force in both matches for Northern Colorado

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

VERMILLION, SD – Northern Colorado volleyball split matches on Friday in the first day of the South Dakota Class. The Bears had a commanding sweep over Northeastern in the afternoon, but dropped its morning match against Cal in four sets.

Battle of the Bears
UNC started the first set against Cal with a versatile offensive attack, with kills from Jadyn McCartney, Kortney Lockey, and Lauren Hinrichs. The Bears had a 4-2 lead over the Golden Bears to open the match.

The score tightened up and the two teams would tie six times following UNC's early lead. With score tied at nine, the Golden Bears would jump ahead by two at 11-9 for their first lead of the match. Cal would get kills from Carmen Annevelink to extend the lead over UNC to as much as four points at 20-16.

The Bears would close the gap two 20-18 on a service ace from Laura Katarzynski and an error by the Golden Bears. Cal would hold onto its lead and close out a 25-20 win in set one for a 1-0 in the match.

In the second set started with both teams trading kills. Lockey continued to score for the Bears and Mima Mirkovic was the main source of offense for the Golden Bears. UNC built a 9-6 lead on a pair of Cal errors and a service ace from Daisy Schultz. The Bears would maintain the lead to 11-8, but the Golden Bears would organize a 5-1 run that flipped the lead in their favor.

The score would stay close for the rest of the set, with 11 ties and was knotted up at 25 to keep second going. UNC would clinch the set on kills from a pair of freshman. Katarzynski tallied her first career kill to get the lead, followed by Kailey Jo Ince scoring her first kill for the set winner. UNC had now evened up the match at one set.

UNC started well in the third set, jumping out to a 6-3 lead, as they continued to get scoring from Lockey, McCartney and Hinrichs. Despite the offense, Cal managed to keep UNC close and tied the game at 14. The Golden Bears then jumped back ahead of the Bears with kills from Mirkovic and Annevelink. Taylor Muff tallied three kills to keep the Bears in the set, but Cal was able to keep its lead and win the set 25-20.

The match was now 2-1 in favor of the Golden Bears, going to the fourth set. Cal took the lead early on kills from Mirkovic for a 5-3 advantage. The lead was up to three at 9-6 before UNC called timeout to regroup. The Golden Bears kept its lead over the Bears through the middle of the set, extending it to as much as five points. A 4-1 run from UNC gave the team live and Cal clung to a 16-14 advantage.

The Bears kept within striking distance of the Golden Bears, but Cal was still able maintain it lead. Cal won set four, 25-22 and secured the match victory 3-1. UNC hit .152 for the match and Cal had a .197 percentage.

In Their Words

Lyndsey Oates, Head Coach
"The team service error is hard to overcome so we have to be better from the service line. But we are serving aggressive and we need to keep attacking from back there. I didn't think we were as aggressive as we needed to be offensively. We had a hard time scoring in good opportunities because we went soft sometimes. We have to stay aggressive and change that mentality for us to turn it around this afternoon."

Game Changer
Errors were Northern Colorado's undoing against Cal, with 30 attack errors and 15 service errors.

Bears vs. Huskies
Both UNC and Northeastern had quick turnarounds on Friday for the afternoon session of the South Dakota Classic.

The Bears jumped out in front of the Huskies in the first set with a 6-3 lead, helped by two Jadyn McCartney kills.

Taylor Muff and Kortney Lockey. Northeastern reeled the team back with a 6-2 run. Not fazed, UNC responded with a 4-1 run that reestablished their lead at 18-14. After getting some breathing room, UNC began to pull away from the Huskies, powered by two Lockey kills and a service ace to clinch the set for the Bears. UNC won 25-18 and had 1-0 lead in the match.

Northeastern started out with a 2-0 lead over UNC, but it did not last long. The Bears went on a 12-2 run with three kills from Lockey and another service ace. Lauren Hinrichs continued to produce at the net, tallying two kills to complement Lockey.

The Huskies stopped the run and were able to trade points with the Bears, but could not overcome the deficit. Lockey tallied three more kills to help UNC to a 25-14 win and a 2-0 lead over Northeastern.

UNC was looking secure the match victory in the third set, but Northeastern came out determined to force a fourth set with a 4-1. The run gave the Huskies hope, but Lockey quickly brought the game under control with three straight kills to tie up the set. The Bears would race ahead of Northeastern, 10-7, after freshman Maddy Bremer recorded her first, second and third career block assists. Daisy Schultz and Muff both assisted on Bremer's blocks.

Lockey and Hinrichs would each add kills to extend the lead to 16-11, forcing another Northeastern timeout. The break did not help swing the momentum, as UNC pulled away with two kills from Hinrichs and more Husky errors. UNC closed out Northeastern with blocks from Muff, Hinrichs, and Schultz.

In Their Words

Lyndsey Oates, Head Coach
"This is a much better match then this morning for us. We were a lot lower error and that was the key. We only had only four attacking errors tonight, so each hitter only had one. It was much more efficient, which was the goal going into the match to not give it away with errors. We want to be aggressive, but it has to be within control so I thought we were able to manage that better in tonight's match. We were also able to get Maddy and Kailey Jo some time and they both did a great job. Maddy really came in and lit a spark for us, both blocking and attacking. It's good to see the young players developing a role.

Game Changer
Northern Colorado's offense was a well-oiled machine, hitting .379 with only four attack errors in the match, while Northeastern was held to .047 with 23 errors. The Bears also dominated at the net, out-blocking the Huskies 7.0 to 0.

Game Notes

In the Cal match, both Kortney Lockey and Daisy Schultz recorded double-doubles. Lockey notched her second of the season with 16 kills and 17 digs. Schultz recorded her first in 2018, with 44 assists and 12 digs.
Lockey was force for the Bears on Friday, recording 31 kills and adding two service aces, while hitting .221.
Daisy Schultz recorded 78 assists in the two matches, with a 11.14 per set average.
Lauren Hinrichs continued to be efficient and effective, scoring 18 kills with a .385 hitting percentage.
Taylor Els averaged 5.14 digs per set with 36 total in the two matches to run the defense.
Three of UNC's freshman recorded their first career kill on Friday, with Laura Katarzynski and Kailey Jo Ince scoring against Cal. Maddy Bremer would get her first kill and first career blocks against Northeastern.

Up Next
Northern Colorado will conclude its play in South Dakota Classic with a match against host South Dakota, tomarrow at 11 A.M.(MT) Live video and stats will be provided by GoYotes.com. Follow the game live on Twitter with @UNCBearsVB.