What happened at Bank of Colorado Arena on Friday night?
Oh, well, just an incredibly exciting and competitive evening of college volleyball in University of Northern Colorado’s season-opening match against the University of Washington.
The answer to the question is pretty simple beyond this for UNC coach Lyndsey Oates, whose team pulled out a reverse sweep to defeat Huskies in five sets.
Washington, a member of the Big Ten Conference — a major, Power 4 conference in the current college sports landscape — also played its first match of the year. The Huskies won the first two sets 25-22 and 25-23. UNC, the defending Big Sky Conference regular season champion, rallied for wins in the next three sets, 25-16, 25-23 and 16-14 in the fifth.
Washington finished ninth in the 18-team Big Ten last year with a 9-11 conference record and 19-12 overall.
“I think we saw the start of a great season,” Oates said after the match played in front of 2,054 fans according to UNC. “Going into it, we had really talked about what is our identity going to be as a team, and some of those things we wanted to see. We wanted to be great in-game, we wanted to be tough and gritty, we wanted to be calm. We wanted to be really team oriented. And, I thought we saw all of those things.”
The crowd included a hearty student section with the start of the fall semester earlier this week. Before the match, the volleyball program honored the late John Haefeli, a Greeley native, active community member, teacher, coach and ardent supporter of UNC sports — including volleyball. Haefeli died in May at age 67 after a battle with cancer.
Delia Haefeli, John’s wife, took the ceremonial first serve. Haefeli’s serve clipped the net and fell to the other side, leading her to raise her arms in celebration.
UNC sophomore outside hitter Alayna Tessena had a career-best 21 kills (with a .455 hitting percentage), and senior Brynn Reines added 14 kills to the Bears attack. Defensive specialists Bella LePore and GA McCarter both played well with 11 digs each — keeping balls off the floor to sustain compelling rallies through the match.
Reines, a senior outside hitter, said UNC adjusted throughout the evening to manage Washington’s big hitters. Three Huskies’ hitters had at least 10 kills led by Kierstyn Barton with 19. Alexa Markley added 17.
Reines said LePore and McCarter and the Bears’ defense were effective in switching the momentum of the match after the first two sets — keeping the Washington kill attempts off the court and frustrating the Huskies hitters.
Washington took control to win the first two sets after falling behind by six points a couple of times in the first set. Both of the first two sets were close and tight late.
The Huskies, though, changed the way they served and served more aggressively in the first set and challenged UNC’s service receive game, Oates said.
“We battled that a little better in the second set, but I thought we were much better in serve and pass in sets three, four and five,” the coach said.
In the fifth set, played to 15 points instead of 25 during the first four sets, McCarter helped UNC get back into the set with an ace to cut Washington’s lead to 7-6. The Huskies jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the set.
After the ace, McCarter came up with a couple of digs tied at 7-7 to keep the point alive for UNC. Fellow defensive specialist Finley Schelhaas also came up with a dig, allowing Reines to put away a kill for an 8-7 lead.
The play brought many in the crowd to their feet and there was high energy in the arena as the teams changed sides at the midway point of the set.
“I think we could rely on them to make those amazing digs and go after that,” Tessena said of McCarter and LePore. “We trust them and we know that they’re capable of that every single game. They just go after it.”
Washington went ahead 11-9 and 13-11 in the fifth. UNC middle blocker Maddie Rink pulled the Bears to 13-12 with a kill.
University of Northern Colorado volleyball setter Mia Liddiard, center, on the court with her teammates during the Bears' season-opening match against the University of Washington at Bank of Colorado Arena on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 in Greeley. UNC defeated the Huskies of the Big Ten Conference in five sets after losing the first two sets of the match. (Courtesy/UNC Athletics)Mia Liddiard’s kill attempt went into the net on the next point, giving Washington another two-point lead at 14-12. Tessena came up with another kill to bring the match to 14-13. She and Reines tied for team best with three kills in the fifth set.
“We trusted the whole time,” Reines said of getting Tessena the ball late in the match.
Rink and Bella Van Lannen combined for a block point on an attack attempt from Washington’s Julia Hunt, tying the match at 14-14. Rink led UNC with five blocks.
UNC went ahead 15-14 on another Washington attack error. The Bears closed out the comeback victory on Van Lannen kill with an assist from Liddiard.
Van Lannen and Isabel Bennett both added nine kills. Liddiard had a career-best 52 assists in taking over the setter role on opening night.
Reines, echoing Oates’ words on the team identity and seeing its grit, used its inner toughness to pull out the win.
Two key players left UNC after last season. Setter Syd Cole, a two-time All-American honorable mention selection used her eligibility and planned to play in Europe starting this fall. Cole played with the Vegas Thrill of the second-year Pro Volleyball Federation last year, after finishing her career with UNC.
Outside hitter Gabi Placide transferred to the University of Mississippi. Cole and Placide were both Big Sky Conference first-team selections after the 2024 regular season and both were named to the all-tournament team.
“I think we just dug deep at the end there,” Reines said. “We told ourselves that we’re finding our team identity right now, first match of the season, and I think we did. We’re gritty. We’ll take them to end game. Yeah, we just worked until the end.”
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