Top-Seeded Lopers Advance to MIAA Semis

Third-ranked and top-seed Nebraska Kearney got double digit kill totals from three different players and hit .312 to sweep Fort Hays State (-21, -17, -24) Thursday night in a MIAA Tournament quarterfinal match in St. Joseph.

The Lopers (29-1) advance to the semifinals Friday at 7:30 p.m. where they'll face either No. 25 and fourth-seed Washburn or fifth-seed Northwest Missouri. Those teams played the fourth and final match on Thursday.

Improving to 24-5 all-time in this event, UNK had to outscore a young and improving Tigers (12-14) outfit. The Lopers had at least 14 kills in each set while recording eight blocks and one ace.

"Offensively we got into rhythm and built up a bunch of confidence. So, I think we felt like we were going to be able to side out most of the night," said UNK head coach Rick Squiers. "However, we didn't stop them very well at times either. They were probably feeling the same way (about their offense) especially in the third."

Once again, UNK got off to a bit of a slow start as they trailed 8-4, 14-9 and 16-12 in the first set. However, the Lopers started to warm up and finished on a 7-3 run to move ahead by one on the scoreboard. The closing stretch featured kills by four different players and one of the Tigers' 10 unforced attack errors.

The momentum continued in set two as UNK hit .393 (14-3-28) and got out to leads of 4-0, 10-5 and 17-9. Kansas senior outside Asha Regier led the way as she had five kills in 10 attempts with North Platte graduate setter Peyton Neff recording a solo block.

The Tigers didn't go away, however, as they recorded 16 kills in the third set to make things more than interesting. UNK trailed 16-13 and then 19-18 before the teams' traded points until the end. The fifth straight tie, at 24 all, was broke after kills by Kansas junior outside Emilee Lane and Regier. Overall, there were four lead changes and 12 ties in the set.

"I'm in no rush to play Fort Hays again this year or anytime. We did a lot of good things in some of those rallies, and it seemed like in the third, every time we get them in trouble, they would somehow bail themselves out," said Squiers. "They are frustrating to play against. Credit to them…they kept playing, they kept competing. They've really cleaned up a lot of things."

Lane haunted the hometown team once again to the tune of a team-best 15 kills, a .357 pct., three blocks and three digs.

"She does seem to play well against the Tigers for obvious reasons," said Squiers. "We needed her to. We had to score by kill as they were not going to error, we weren't blocking them very well and we couldn't ace them."

Next, Regier was at 12 kills, seven digs and two stuffs with Missouri sophomore middle Mia Berg providing 11 kills, a solo block and a team-high .529 efficiency. Finally, Neff came in with 40 assists, a team-best 15 digs, and a kill with true freshman Rhyan Mock (Stilwell, Kan.) and Julia Davenport (Papillion-LaVista) getting chances to serve.

"We were running out of subs (late the third) and were trying to decide if we wanted to risk having Rhyan play middle front if we don't get the (last) point," said Squiers. "My assistants talked me out of something that wouldn't have made a lot of sense, so Emilee came through and got a big serve in (on match point)."

Hays had a balanced attack with the leaders including Ashlyn Reeves (nine kills, three blocks) and Ella Goodwin (eight kills, two blocks).