The night after No. 3 UNK swept No. 8 Central Oklahoma in the MIAA semifinals, the Lopers were back in full force on Saturday. UNK swept No. 7 Washburn (25-14, 25-22, 25-15) for the 2025 MIAA Volleyball Tournament Championship with a season-high 11 aces and an all-around gritty performance.
“We’ve been through a lot and I’m really proud of everybody and all of the progress that we’ve made,” said Peyton Neff, graduate setter. “We’re not done yet. I think everybody is still not satisfied, so we’ve got a long ways to go.”
It was all business for the Lopers to start set one as UNK scored the first five points to lead Washburn to use its first timeout. Two kills each from Brynn Stowell and Sydney Davis, plus an Abby Rose ace, were just the beginning of a set that was dominated by the Lopers.
“We got a couple of kills early,” said Rick Squires, UNK volleyball coach. “For us, a lot of it comes down to, ‘Can you stop our outside hitters (Carly) Purdy and (Emilee) Lane?’ If you can’t, then the whole team kind of looks around and goes, ‘Okay, we’re going to be in this thing.'”
It was a balanced attack with a couple of key blocks that UNK used to roll past Washburn in set one, 25-14. Davis led the way with four kills, while Stowell and Lane each had three.
The second set began with a reinvigorated Washburn squad as they bounced out to a 6-3 lead, when Squires challenged a play. Even though Squiers lost the challenge, the Lopers bounced back with seven straight points to regain the lead. From that moment, it was back and forth in an action-packed second set. With six aces from the service line, UNK managed to pull away just enough to go up two sets.
UNK didn’t slow down in the third set, which was even until the Lopers pulled away with multiple runs of four straight points. That was all UNK needed to put away Washburn for the second time this season.
“It feels great,” Rose said. “We definitely came here on a business trip. We came here to bring the regional tournament back to Kearney.”
Davis led UNK with ten kills, Lane added nine and Rose had seven. From the service line, Anna Laincz had four aces, with three for Neff and two for Rose.
The Lopers now get ready for the NCAA Division II Central Regional Dec. 4-6 as the prospective No. 1 seed and host.
