KEARNEY, Neb. (Oct. 1, 2016) - No. 6 Central Missouri Volleyball lost a battle of AVCA top-10 opponents Saturday night, falling on the road to No. 3 Nebraska-Kearney 3-0 (15-25, 19-25, 15-25). The loss is UCM's second straight and evens their conference record at 2-2 and puts them at 12-4 overall.
The Lopers .355 attack percentage was the highest UCM had allowed all season. They landed 49 kills while committing only 10 errors.
Kylie Hohlen finished with the team lead in both kills and digs with nine and 11 respectively.
Maddie Jones and
Molly Lawrence each had eight kills and
Tyler Downs set a career-high with 32 assists.Â
After the Jennies opened the match scoring the first two points, UNK scored the next six for force a Central Missouri timeout. The Jennies were unable to climb out of the early hole and the Lopers took the lead with a 25-15 win.
Set two played out much the same with UCM holding an 8-6 lead, following a kill from
Mackenzie Harding. The Lopers though rattled off five straight points to take the lead and never gave it up on their way to a 25-19 win. The Jens closed the gap to two at one point, 20-18, but two Loper kills and a block ended the rally for UCM and put Nebraska-Kearney up 2-0.
Nebraska-Kearney took the early lead in set three and led end-to-end. Trailing by eight, 12-5, the Jens were able to pull within three with four straight points on kills from
Kasey Hohlen and Harding and a pair of Loper attack errors. That's as close as they got though and UNK put the set and the match away, 25-15.
The Loper offense was led by Kaitlynn Thomas' 17 kills. Lindsey Smith passed out a game-best 35 assists and Ellie McDonnell helped the UNK defense with 20 digs.
Central Missouri returns home for a mid-week match at the Multi against Lindenwood, Tuesday, Oct. 4. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.Â
