Bobcats stall the Bears at the Bank

Saturday, September 24

Greeley, Colo.

7 p.m. MT

University of Northern Colorado

6-7,0-2Big Sky

Montana State

6-8,2-0Big Sky

Montana St.

Northern Colo.

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

9/24/2022 10:04:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

By: By Jason Dormeyer

UNC Athletics · VB Postgame vs. Montana State: Lyndsey Oates

GREELEY, Colo.—Despite outhitting Montana State, .141 to .128, the Northern Colorado volleyball team fell to the Bobcats, 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 17-25, 25-20), to conclude the opening week of Big Sky Conference action on Saturday night.

With the win, Montana State improved to 6-8 on the year and 2-0 in conference play while UNC fell to 6-7 overall and 0-2 in league contests.

Falling behind after 25-20 setbacks in the first two sets, the Bears came alive in the third. Hitting a match-high .343 in the set with multiple kills by Isabel Bennett, Cece Huhn, and Kailey Jo Ince, the Bears more than doubled up the Bobcats after generating a 19-9 lead.

After sailing in the third, UNC looked to extend the match even further with a 16-12 lead in the fourth thanks to an ace from Syd Cole. But the Bobcats regained their form to outscore the home side 13-4 the rest of the way to claim their match-clinching third win, all of which came via 25-20 scores.

Rachel Hickman joined Huhn and Ince with 10 kills each to share the team lead. Cole notched a match-high 40 assists while UNC libero Michaela Boon reached for a team-best 20 digs.

With Ince's 10 additional kills, the graduate player surpassed UNC alum Andrea Spaustat (2011-14) for No. 2 on the school's all-time NCAA DI leaderboard. Ince now has 1,281 career kills and trails only Kelley Arnold's 1,566 tally accumulated from the 2009-12 seasons.

UP NEXT:
The Bears will return to the Bank of Colorado Arena to host Portland State University on Thursday, Sept. 29. Opening serve against the Vikings is set for 6 p.m.

TICKETS:
Tickets for all regular-season volleyball matches are available via the UNC Athletics app, online at UNCBears.com/tickets or by calling (970) 351-4849. Tickets can also be purchased in person by visiting the Ticket Office in Campus Commons from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.