Boxscore -- UNO 3, Missouri Southern 0
OMAHA, Neb. – The UNO volleyball team kicked off MIAA competition in style Wednesday night, completing a 3-0 sweep of Missouri Southern, 25-18, 25-18, 25-23, at Sapp Fieldhouse. With the win, the Mavericks improve to 8-1 (1-0 MIAA) and extend their win streak to seven matches, while MSSU drops to 6-3 (0-1 MIAA) on the year.
Three Mavs finished with double-figure kills, led by senior outside hitter
Kayla Uhing, who had 17 kills and 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the year. Freshman outside hitter
Abby Sorensen added 11 kills on .556 hitting, and sophomore outside hitter
Natalie Ebke tallied 13.
Defensively, sophomore libero
Angie Reicks had 14 digs, while junior setter
Emily Myers added 13, along with 43 assists. Sorensen and junior middle blocker
Lizzy Mach also tacked on a pair of blocks apiece.
UNO hit a season-high .300 as a team, including a game-three mark of .357. Missouri Southern had a .220 team performance, led by Rachel Olinyk's 11 kills on .550 hitting.
In the first set, Ebke accounted for six of the Mavs' kills. Though Nebraska-Omaha did not take a definitive lead until midway through the game, the squad went on an 11-4 run to make it 22-15. Back-to-back kills by MSSU's Olinyk sparked a four-point spurt for the Lions, but Myers and Uhing sealed the 25-18 win with two straight kills of their own.
Near-perfect serving and a balanced attack were key in the second game for the Mavericks, and four players tallied at least three kills each. UNO ran out to an 11-5 advantage and did not surrender the lead for the remainder of the set, helped by four attack Lion errors three kills apiece by Sorensen and Uhing. Missouri Southern responded with five kills from Olinyk but never narrowed the deficit to less than five points. A pair of points by Uhing put the score away at 25-18 to give the Mavs a 2-0 advantage for the night.
In the final set, Uhing was dominant with 10 kills on .444 hitting and Myers' 14 set assists guided UNO to a team hitting percentage of .357. The Lions hung tough with UNO, keeping the score within four until the Mavs' 21-16 lead. Nebraska-Omaha then went up 24-19, but MSSU chipped away with the assistance of a service ace and two Maverick errors to bring the tally to 24-23. A final Southern error, however, gave UNO a 25-23 final score and their fourth sweep of the season.
The Mavs return to action on Friday, Sept. 17, traveling to Pittsburg State for a 7 p.m. match in Pittsburg, Kan.
