Boxscore -- UCM 3, UNO 0
OMAHA, Neb. – The UNO volleyball team kept within striking distance all night, but it was not enough to upset No. 7 Central Missouri in a 3-0 sweep at Sapp Fieldhouse on Friday. Behind .303 hitting, the nationally-ranked Jennies handed the Mavericks an 18-25, 23-25, 18-25 loss. Nebraska-Omaha is now 12-10 (2-8 MIAA), while UCM improved to 20-3 (10-1 MIAA).
Senior outside hitter
Kayla Uhing finished with 12 kills and 13 digs for her 12th double-double of the season and her third straight such performance. Junior setter
Emily Myers chipped in 31 assists and nine digs in guiding the Mavs to a .203 hitting percentage, and junior libero
Angie Reicks totaled 21 digs.
UNO was led at the net by a freshman duo in
Abby Sorensen and
Megan Hutson, who each had a pair of blocks for the night. Sorensen and junior middle blocker
Brittany Hanssen added seven kills apiece, while Hutson added five. Sophomore outside hitter
Natalie Ebke also had six kills to her credit.
Two UCM players finished in double-figure kills – Paula Harris (11) and Allie Huffman (10), while Rachel Fister and Kelsey Ortwerth tacked on 25 and 14 digs apiece. Bradye Peniston closed the evening with six blocks to her name.
Nebraska-Omaha opened the first game with a 5-2 advantage, but UCM tied it five times until taking a definitive lead at 12-11. They went up 22-16 on three straight Maverick errors, and UNO came back on a Hutson kill. UCM's Allie Huffman then notched a kill to bring it to match, but Hanssen would not let the Jennies go so easily, tallying a score of her own. Huffman, however, came back for another kill, finishing it off at 25-18.
UNO hit .342 in the second set to keep pace with the Jennies, who finished their highest percentage of the night at .378. The Mavericks kept the score even at 6-6 until an Ebke kill put them up by one. Three kills from Huffman and another from UCM's Abby Gruenbacher gave the opposition an 11-7 lead, but Uhing halted the run with her own score. Nebraska-Omaha tied the game at 15-15, then went on a 4-1 drive aided by a pair of kills from Ebke. But Huffman was the difference-maker again, as her back-to-back points helped Central Missouri tie it at 19-all.
The Mavs took a final lead at 22-21, but three consecutive kills from Taylor Goodness and Paula Harris put the Jennies back in control at 24-22. One more Sorensen kill narrowed the margin to one, but a final service error gave UCM the set at 25-23.
In the third and final game, UNO had six different players put down kills early on and enjoyed a consistent lead until 11-10. Three straight kills from Peniston and Ellis, followed by two UNO errors, brought UCM to a 14-11 advantage. Despite bringing the score with one at 17-16 on a kill by Reicks, four more Jenny points put the Mavs behind by five. The two squads traded kills until match point, and a final UCM block capped the set at 25-18 and the match at 3-0.
The win extended Central Missouri's win streak to 11 games, in place since Sept. 25.
The evening also marked Dig Pink Night in honor of breast cancer awareness and the Side-Out Foundation's national fundraising efforts to assist breast cancer patients and their families. Both teams donned pink jerseys for the event, and fans in attendance bid on UNO players' game uniforms in a silent auction, raising hundreds of dollars in donations.
The Mavericks return to action on Tuesday, Oct. 19, traveling to Missouri Southern at 5 p.m.
