UNK Volleyball Advances To MIAA Finals

Third-ranked Nebraska Kearney started fast and used another balanced attack to sweep Northwest Missouri (-9, -21, -17) Friday night in the MIAA Tournament semifinals in St. Joseph, Mo.

The top-seeded Lopers (30-1) will face second seed and ninth-ranked Central Oklahoma in the finals Saturday at 6 p.m. The Bronchos (29-2) out lasted third seed and 27th-ranked Missouri Western in a five-set marathon in Friday's first match.

UNK has now ended the fifth-seeded Bearcats (16-12) season in four of the last five falls. The Lopers, shaking off some recent slow starts, jetted out to leads of 12-1, 17-3 and 21-7 in set one and never looked back. On the night, they outhit Northwest by 202 points, registered 11 blocks and served up nine aces.

"Really proud of our girls for being on point from the very first serve. You never know how you're going to handle day two; the first match went long so you're in the gym a little bit longer than you thought you would be," said UNK head coach Rick Squiers. "I kind of expected both teams to come out sloppy because we were standing around so long. Maybe they did but we did not."

After a kill by senior outside Asha Regier (Newton, Kan.) made it 3-1 in the early going, redshirt sophomore DS Lexi Stephens (Ankeny, Ia.) went back to serve. When she was done, the score was 12-2 as the 'Cats committed two unforced errors and were aced twice.

"Other than that little stretch in the second set, we were in control of things. The match went beyond what you would hope for this time of year, playing against another good team," said Squiers.

The Lopers led 10-5 in the second set, but Northwest's one run of the night tied things up at 16 after a block by Ella Caffery and Avery Kemp. The 'Cats momentum was short lived, however, as UNK responded with a 5-1 spurt. The points included two kills from junior outside Emilee Lane (Hays, Kan.) and a solo stuff from graduate setter Peyton Neff (North Platte).

UNK quickly erased a 2-0 hole in the third set and ended the match with 10 more kills, 10 more digs and were plus 10 in the serve game. In addition to getting aced nine times the 'Cats served four long.

"Our team is at least aware of the fact the further you get into this thing, if you start slow, there's going to come a time you can't dig out of the hole because people are too good," said Squiers.

Lane and Regier (.333 pct.) had 13 kills apiece with middles Abby Rose (Lindsborg, Kan.) and Mia Berg (Eureka, Mo) both at five kills and five blocks. Next, Stephens had four aces with backcourt mates Addyson Mock (Stilwell, Kan.) and Alli Wiese (Mattawan, Mich.) at two apiece. Finally, Weise had a team-best 17 digs and Neff provided 31 assists, seven digs, three blocks and an ace.

"We were really clean, Peyton set a great match and then when we took a shot from them here and there, we responded," said Squiers. "Our outsides have a favorable matchup, and they can swing with confidence. We can't say that every night but, on several occasions the last part of the season, they've been able to do some damage from the left pin."

Northwest had five players between three and nine kills including Kemp and Payton Kirchhoefer.