Photo by Kosuke Yoshii UNK bench celebrates a point in the march on Oct. 8 against Fort Hays State. UNK won the match 3-0. Photo by Kosuke Yoshii
JILL-SILLINA MEWS mewsj2@lopers.unk.edu
The second-ranked UNK volleyball
team secured the 2019 MIAA regular-season title. With a win over Missouri
Southern and Pittsburg State, the Lopers also completed their second-ever
undefeated regular season.
“It has
been an incredible season,” said junior Monique Schafer. “This team is just
insane.”
On Friday
night the Lopers started strong with a two-sets lead (25-15, 25-17) against
Missouri Southern at the Health and Sports Center. Afterward, the Lions became
more aggressive and did not make things easy for UNK. The Lopers had a little
trouble with closing out the match and were in a back-and-forth tussle with
Missouri Southern in the third go-around. In the end, UNK played cleaner and
found a way to turn the momentum into points. The Lopers stretched a one-point
lead to six to win the set 25-17.
The UNK
women finished the match with 44 kills and a .238 hitting percentage compared
to 30 kills and a .071 hitting percentage for Missouri Southern.
“We
started to finish pretty well,” said Rich Squiers, UNK women’s volleyball
coach. “I think we were clean most of the game. Missouri Southern played very
well too. At this point in the season everyone is coming out to battle but we
did close the deal.”
In the
regular-season finale, UNK faced Pittsburg State on Saturday night at the
Health and Sports Center. The Lopers started strong and pulled out a dominant
25-14 first-set. They kept serving aggressively in the second go-around,
winning 25-21 for a 2-0 match lead.
In set three, UNK struggled
offensively. The Gorillas took control with a 15-6 lead to finish the set
25-20. The next set ended in a similar fashion. The Lopers could not find a way
to outmatch their opponent who won the set 25-23 to tie the match at 2-2.
After
hitting below .200 in the third and fourth sets, the Lopers bounced back to
tally a .269 mark in the fifth and closed out the match 15-8 to earn a 3-2 win
over Pittsburg.
“We
started having trouble in service with one server and then all of the sudden it
really just shifted our confidence a little bit,” Squiers said. “We never
really came out until the halfway through the fourth set. That was a little bit
too late. Pittsburg was on a roll and we tried not to lose and then it was
really hard from that point forward. But I am very proud of the team, no
question.”
The
Lopers are the top seed in the 2019 MIAA Tournament. They will face Missouri
Southern at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov.21. at the Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City,
Missouri. UNK (30-0) has won this event each of the past three seasons with all
nine wins coming at the Health and Sports Center. The winner of the MIAA
Tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.