August 25, 2007

Volleyball Wins Own Tournament

Lopers Beat Northern State & Montevallo; Burson MVP

      Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team won it's own tournament by sweeping Northern State (-18, -16, -35) and Montevallo (-18, -13, -17) Saturday at the Health & Sports Center.

      The matches were part of the annual UNK Fall Classic, presented by Runza and Ramada Inn.

      Thanks to rallying from a 2-0 deficit vs. NW Missouri State, Northern finished second in the tournament with a 3-1 mark. The Bearcats went 2-2, Montevallo (AL) posted a 1-3 mark and St. Martin's (WA) went 0-4.

      In the early match vs. Northern, UNK hit .577 (17-2-26) in the first set to blitz the Wolves by 12 points. A trio of sophomores -- Erica Burson (Gretna), Shannon Clausen (Beatrice) and Nikki Scott (Broken Bow) -- each had four kills in the frame.        

      The onslaught continued in the second set as UNK hit .349 while holding NSU to below .100. This time around, senior Alison Glidden (Benkelman) and freshman Jeri Walkowiak (Grand Island) were the Lopers with four kills.

      Things got a lot tougher in the third set as Northern battled back from an 8-3 hole. In what would be the highest scoring game for a Loper squad in the rally scoring era, UNK had the first crack at game point, 29-28.

      Northern fought that off and would serve for game point three times (32-31, 33-32, 35-34) but the Lopers managed a tie each time. UNK scored the final three points on a kill by Scott and back-to-back kills by Clausen.

      For the match, Burson led the way with 12 kills with Scott and Glidden having 11. Clausen (.533 attack pct.) and Walkowiak each had nine kills. Defensively, sophomore libero Kelli Wemhoff (Humphrey) had 24 digs and Walkowaik three blocks.

      In the night cap, a block by Clausen and Walkowiak broke a 16 all tie in the first set. That started a 14-2 Loper run that featured Bartlett senior Lauren Nordhues serving up the final eight points.

      The Falcons didn't have much after that and hit negative .043 for the match (24-30-139). UNK, hitting only .209, did out dig UM by 15 and register 18 more kills.

      No Loper reached double digits in kills but five different players had at least five. That included reserves Nordhues and Anselmo sophomore Emily Christen. Wemhoff (25 digs) was again solid in the backrow with freshman setter Cola Svec (Elkhorn) having 32 assists, 12 digs, three blocks and three kills.

      UNK plays at Missouri Western State on Tuesday and then competes in the Rockhurst Invite in Kansas City next weekend.

Pictured below are Burson-Svec-Wemhoff

Other Tournament Scores

Northern State 3, NW Missouri State 2 (29-31, 24-30, -20, -23, -8)

NW Missouri State 3, St. Martin's 0 (-20, -19, -13)

Montevallo 3, St. Martin's 1 (24-30, -28, -19, -22)

All-Tournament Team

UNK (Erica Burson, MVP; Kelli Wemhoff, Cola Svec)

Northern State (Emily Knaeble & Melanie Perez)

NW Missouri State (Katie Swenson & Amy Bohnker)