Bears Keep Rolling With Sweep of Vikings

Saturday, October 19

Portland, Ore.

1 PM

University of Northern Colorado

14-6,5-3Big Sky

Portland State

7-12,3-5Big Sky

Northern Colo.

Portland St.

Photo by: Woody Myers

10/19/2019 5:37:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Northern Colorado used aggressive serving and efficient offense to stay undefeated in the Big Sky

By: Matthew Kushar, UNCBears.com

PORTLAND, Ore. – Northern Colorado stayed unfederated in the Big Sky with a sweep of Portland State [25-16, 25-17, 25-16]. UNC (14-6, 8-0) put together a complete game performance from the first set to the last.

"I thought we were efficient offensively," head coach Lyndsey Oates said. "It was good to see two of our hitters had zero errors. That's a good step in the right direction and make them make defensive plays instead of being overly aggressive I thought we served aggressive again, although we were a little too high error. We were able to keep them out of system for the most part."

The Bears notched seven service aces against the Vikings Laura Katarzynski had a match-high three aces. Taylor Els and Daisy Schultz each recorded two aces as well. Schultz posted 28 assists for the match, adding two kills as well.

Kailey Jo Ince shined again, scoring a game-high, 16 kills and finishing with a .452 attack percentage. Taylor Muff finished with seven kills and an impressive .636 hitting percentage. UNC hit .326 as a team with 41 kills and 10 errors.

UNC out-blocked its opponent for the second straight game, edging the Vikings seven-and-half to four. Maddy Bremer finished with four block assists and Muff had three.

The defense for the Bears was able to stifle the Portland State offense, holding them to a .108 attack percentage and forcing 16 errors.

The first set was showcase of UNC's dominance, recording a .500 attack percentage and 16 kills. Ince accounted for six kills and the Bears never trailed in the set to jump out to the 1-0 lead.

In the second set, Portland St. put up a fight and held an early lead over UNC at 5-4. The lead did not last long, using a 5-1 lead to race in front of the Vikings. The Bears continued to grow the lead and separate from Portland St. With the score at 21-13, the Vikings mounted one last run, scoring four straight points to cut the UNC lead in half. Unfazed, the Bears responded with a 4-0 run of their own, finished off by an ace from Els to win the set, 25-17.

Now up 2-0 in the game, UNC looked to close out the Vikings with the clean sweep. After an early 2-1 lead from Portland St., the Bears went on a 7-0 run Katarzynski serving. The run included all three of Katarzynski's aces and two more kills from Ince. The early punch from UNC was too much for Portland St. to overcome and the Bears went on to win the set 25-16.

UNC swept the Vikings on the road and continue extended their historic conference start. The Bears previous best start in conference was 6-0 during the 2010 season.

Other Notes

In their eight conference wins, Northern Colorado has swept its opponent five times. UNC has also only dropped three sets in conference, with no game going five sets. The Bears have seven sweeps in 2019.
Kailey Jo Ince has recorded double-digit kills in 16 of the team's 20 games, including 10 straight games after today's win.
Freshman Makenzie Harris had a career high in blocks, with three block assists today.

What's Next
Northern Colorado will be on the road for one more game against Northern Arizona on Thursday, October 24^that 7 pm(MT). UNC will return home to host Southern Utah on Saturday, October 26^th at 2 pm.

To stay up to date on all things UNC volleyball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @UNC_BearsVB.