Senior Night Sweep; MIAA Pairings Announced Saturday Night
Kearney, Neb. – The 12th-ranked Nebraska Kearney volleyball team out hit Missouri Southern by 353 points to roll on "Senior Night" (-13, -15, -17) Friday at the Health & Sports Center. This was the regular season finale for the Lopers (26-4, 16-4) with the Lions (13-15, 8-11) traveling to Fort Hays State tomorrow. The pairings for the eight-team MIAA Tournament will be announced Saturday night; UNK will be the second-seed and play the noon match next Thursday (Nov. 10) in St. Joseph, Mo. The opponent will either be these same Lions or Missouri Western State. MSSU may have a losing record but they were coming off upset wins over nationally-ranked Central Oklahoma and Central Missouri. They also swept the season series from nationally-ranked Washburn, a team that has beaten UNK twice this fall. "The fact we were really sharp and motivated tells you everything you need to know about what we thought of Missouri Southern. We've taken full notice about what they've been doing in the league the last few weeks and I did not have to inform our players about how good they were. They knew," said UNK head coach Rick Squiers. "That's as well as we've played in the last two or three weeks." It was domination from the start as the Lopers jumped out to a 10-5 lead and never looked back. There were only five ties and three lead changes all night with UNK holding an opponent to a negative hitting efficiency (-.017; 22-24-120) for just the fourth time this year. MSSU had 15 unforced errors and was blocked nine times. For added measure, the Lopers dug up 19 more balls and had at least 15 kills in each set "Happy we got all of our seniors into the match and the ones that were already in played well. That probably was some extra motivation for them .. you want to try and get a win on what might be your last day in the Health & Sports Center," said Squiers. One of six seniors to be honored in pregame, outside Emersen Cyza (Alliance) had a match-high 12 kills and hit .379 with fellow outside Asha Regier (Newton, Kan.) at 10 kills and a .364 percentage. Next, senior middles Bailee Sterling (Kearney) and Fallon Stutheit (Johnson) both hit over .400 and combined for 17 kills, eight blocks and four digs. "If you want to be a good team and playing well at the end, I think you have to evolve. I think part of that is some individual players emerging. So, we've seen Emilee Lane emerge, Lexi Stephens start to play with a lot more confidence and Asha become a bigger part of the offense," said Squiers. In the backrow, junior libero Jensen Rowse (Minden) had a team-best 16 digs with junior right side Lauren Taubenheim (Lincoln Pius) providing 10 more and perfect in eight serve receive chances. Finally, redshirt freshman setter Peyton Neff (North Platte) had four kills in six attempts as well as 13 digs and 33 assists. Missouri Southern had six players between two and five kills including Fernanda Canedo. She also had eight digs and two blocks. "We're happy that we're in (the postseason) and relatively healthy. We have the whole roster at our disposal but everyone we play is going to be taking a shot at you," said Squiers. "It won't be easy but we should go in with some confidence."
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