UNK Volleyball Survives First Round In Five
Kearney, Neb. – The second-ranked Nebraska Kearney volleyball team kept its 2025 season alive by using a reverse sweep to get past Oklahoma Baptist (22-25, -21-25, -12, -18, -12) Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Division II Tournament in Kearney.
The Lopers (30-3) are the top seed in the eight-team Central Regional and advance to Friday’s second semifinal match vs. fourth-seed St. Cloud State (27-6). First serve will be no earlier than 7:30 p.m. On the other side of the bracket is sixth-seed Washburn (27-4) and second-seed Concordia-St. Paul (27-5). That match starts at 4 p.m.
“You get out of one like that and it’s kind of ‘whew.’ It was not looking good for a while and I was certainly proud of our group for hanging in there,” said UNK head coach Rick Squiers. “I wasn’t surprised the matchup was difficult for us because we had plenty of time to watch them on film and that’s kind of what they are. They were coming together at the right time of the year, they are really physical on the pins, they were able to take away our outside attack in different rotations and put pressure on us from the service line."
The OBU Bison (22-10) came in as the eighth seed after winning the Great American Conference (GAC) Tournament. Using a balanced attack, multiple setters and big block, OBU more than held its own as they pretty much led the first two sets from start to finish. UNK got withing 23-22 in set one and 23-21 in set two but found itself in a rare 2-0 hole.
The Lopers began to warm up as they hit .379 (13-2-29) in the third set and .350 (18-4-40) in the fourth to tie things at two. On the other side of the net, OBU had just 18 combined kills in these sets and hit -.029 in the third. Not surprisingly, the Lopers never trailed in either.
“It turned into a slugfest and kind of a defensive matchup. I thought we played pretty good defense for most of the match, but it was frustrating to look down and see we’re holding them to .160, .150 and losing the first two sets,” said Squiers. “Fortunately, we had some girls that didn’t want their season to end today. They reached down and found a little extra.”
But the momentum swung back to the Green & White as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth. UNK called timeout and it worked as they went on a 7-2 run that featured kills by four different players, two OBU unforced errors and solo block from sophomore middle Sidney Davis (Danneborg).
The teams were tied at eight, nine and 10 all before the Lopers closed on a 5-2 spurt. Sophomore right side Brynn Stowell (Olathe, Kan.) had four kills down the stretch with a Bison service error being the other point.
“(In the fifth set timeout) we talked about how a lot of 5-0, 5-1 leads evaporate in fifth sets for some reason. You tend to play a little bit differently with that kind of lead, you can’t wait for the end, you start pressing a little, and you’ve got something to lose now,” said Squiers. “So, we try to sell them that concept a little bit but it’s true. We had a mini-run to get right back into int which was huge.”
Five Lopers were between 11-13 kills including Davis, Kansas senior middle Abby Rose (.526 pct.), and Stowell (.323 pct.). Davis then added a team-best eight blocks. Next, Indiana junior libero Ellie Spang had 24 digs and was 20 for 20 in serve receive with Kansas sophomore DS Anna Laincz 27 for 27 in the serve game and digging 11 balls. Finally, North Platte graduate setter Peyton Neff provided 53 assists, 16 digs, six kills and two blocks.
OBU was led by Washburn transfer Rylee Unruh (16 kills, 52 of 53 in serve receive), outside Lauren Safrit (17 kills, 16 digs) and libero Karsyn Hunter (27 digs, nine assists).
Other Tournament Scores
Washburn 3, Wayne State 0 (-16, -14, -22)
Concordia-St. Paul 3, Central Oklahoma 0 (-11, -22, -23)
St. Cloud State 3, Missouri Western State 1 (-21, -11, 25-27, -21)