Kearney, Neb. – The 13th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team swept Northern Kentucky (-17,-20, -18) and beat 2005 national champion Grand Valley State (-20, 26-28, -17, -18) on Saturday at the Tampa Classic in Florida.

UNK ended its first weekend with a 3-1 record. The tournament will end Sunday when Tampa plays Grand Valley. An all-tourney team should then be named sometime Sunday night.

In a rematch of the 2005 Division II National Championship match, UNK  reverse the outcome with a 3-1 victory.

The Lopers tallied 64 kills to hit .287 as a team while the Lakers had 52 kills and had a hitting percent of .233.

For the match UNK was led by sophomore outside hitter Ariel Krolikowski (Grand Island) with a match high 16 kills, hitting .333, and recording 11 digs with fellow outside senior Kelsey Werner (Grand Island) tallying 13 kills.

UNK once again got double digits kill totals from middle hitters senior Jeri Walkowiak (Grand Island) and freshman Ellie Pesavento (Omaha Marian) as the pair ended up with 13 and 10 kills respectively. Finally, senior setter Cola Svec (Elkhorn) had 47 set assist to go along with seven digs and two kills.

In set one the Lopers raced out to an 8-2 lead, thanks to four errors by the Lakers but Grand Valley came back to tie the set at 12 all, then the teams would trade points before tied at 16 points. UNK would then get three straight kills from Krolikowski to lead 19-16, after that point the Lopers would win the set one with a kill by Walkowiak.

Set two had seven ties and four lead changes. After being tied at 7-7, GVSU would go on a 7-2 run, to led 14-9. Nebraska-Kearney would come back to tie the match at 24-24, and then would get a short lived lead at 26-25, with a kill from Krolikowski. GVSU would close out the set with two hitting errors by UNK and get a kill from Eno Umoh, win the set 26-28.

The Lopers jumped out to a 10-3 lead in set three from three kills by Werner and kills by Pesavento and Walkowiak. Grand Valley got within five points of the Lopers down the stretch. UNK would get back to back kills from freshman Katie Sokowlowski (Kearney Catholic) to win 25-20 and go up 2-1 in the match.

Just like set three, UNK would get a 10-4 lead that they would never let go of. The Lakers would get no closer than four points to the Lopers in the final set. Nebraska-Kearney would close the match with kills from junior Shelby Workman (Loveland, Colo.), Krolikowski, and Pesavento.

Earlier in the day UNK took on the Northern Kentucky Norse.The Lopers would have advantages in kills (37-35), service aces (7-2), digs (33-29) and blocks (4-0).

Walkowiak led in kills (ten) while having a .421 hitting percentage. Werner chipped in with eight kills and a hitting percentage of .400, while Krolikowski tallied six kills and hit .308.

For the tournament, UNK was lead by Walkowiak with 55 kills in four matches, followed by Werner (51) and Pesavento (43).

UNK returns to action on September 8th for the home opener against Augustana (SD).