The UNC volleyball team had a long, tough practice late Thursday afternoon.
Arriving home earlier in the day from a short road trip, the team went back to work at Bank of Colorado Arena with a focus on serving and receiving serves.
They practiced pressure situations. At one point, Bears servers had to hit their serves just right or the whole team ran sideline to sideline. That’s pressure.
“Today was a tough practice, but it did make us grow,” defensive specialist Bella LePore said. “That was a really productive practice, and that’s what we’re learning to do every day.”
A lot of learning and travel has been happening for the Bears since they last prepared for a home match more than three weeks ago.
UNC hosts Eastern Washington in its Big Sky Conference home-opening match at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bank of Colorado Arena. UNC is 0-1 in the conference following a three-set sweep by Weber State on Wednesday night in Ogden, Utah.
University of Northern Colorado volleyball outside hitter Alayna Tessena sends the ball over the net against Colorado State during a nonconference match Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025 at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley. Tessena led UNC with 15 kills in the 3-2 win, its second five-set victory in the first three matches to open the season. (Courtesy/UNC Athletics, Kassi Schwartz).The loss was the team’s ninth in the last 10 matches, all on the road and dropping UNC to 3-10 overall.
Bears head coach Lyndsey Oates said the Bears need to commit fewer errors on the serve and the serve receive, which is why those skills were heavily practiced Thursday. These were a problem in the last 10 matches, and they were an issue again at Weber State.
The Wildcats were picked as the top team in the conference in a preseason poll among coaches. UNC was named second.
“When we’re just repping it, we’re good,” Oates said. “It’s not a technical thing. We’ve got to be able to translate it to more live play.”
The Bears last played at home the day after Labor Day when they beat Colorado State in a five-set thriller for their second win in three matches to start the season. The other win was also a five-set nail biter over Washington in the opener.
The last few weeks, though, have been challenging for the Bears, the defending conference regular-season champions. UNC’s tough schedule is a factor in the overall record, according to Oates.
Oates said after practice Thursday the Bears have a Ratings Percentage Index ranking of 130 out of 340 teams, which is very good for a team with a 3-10 season record.
There were five 5-set matches inside the 10-match road stretch, including three straight losses at the BYU Classic. One of the five-set losses at Brigham Young University was to the host Cougars, who are ranked 14th this week in a Division I coaches’ association poll.
University of Northern Colorado volleyball players Isabel Bennett, left, and Bella Van Lannen celebrate a play during a match at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley. UNC plays its first Big Sky Conference home match of the 2025 season Saturday (Sept. 27) against Eastern Washington. The match begins at 6 p.m. (Courtesy/UNC Athletics, Kassidy Schwartz).UNC won only one of those five sets against Air Force on Sept. 19 in Colorado Springs.
“We’re at a very different place if we can pull out those close matches,” Oates said. “We’re learning. We’re growing. We’re taking steps forward. It just hasn’t shown up in the outcomes yet.”
UNC is a different team from a year ago when it won 28 of 36 matches including 14 in the Big Sky Conference during a record-breaking season. The only returning starter is middle blocker Isabel Bennett. Other players are in new roles or a full-time position where they were part-time players last season.
UNC also played Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara on a trip to California two weeks ago. The Bears lost to Cal Poly 3-0 and to Santa Barbara 3-1. Both schools received votes in the top 25 poll Sept. 21.
Oates always wants to schedule tough opponents during the nonconference season. In the past few years, UNC has played ranked teams Stanford, Kentucky and Florida.
“I’m not sure we missed on the scheduling,” Oates said. “We just weren’t getting over the hump on some key matches there. And I would say we have two losses there we wish we had back. We shouldn’t have lost to Incarnate Word, and I’m not sure K-State (Kansas State) is a match we should’ve dropped.”
UNC lost to Incarnate Word in five sets at BYU. Kansas State beat UNC 3-0 Sept. 12 at UC Santa Barbara.
LePore and outside hitter Alayna Tessena said the team is not discouraged by their record. They know they’ve played a difficult schedule. They are trying to improve and they look at past matches to guide them while thinking about upcoming matches.
University of Northern Colorado's Bella LePore, No. 16, and Brynn Reines work to return the ball while playing Idaho in November 2024 at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley. (Greeley Tribune).Tessena said the team needs to work on the in-match pressure situations they practiced Thursday. The players will have to manage those situations when gyms or arenas are loud and when the next play could decide the outcome.
“I think we’ve talked about it a lot as a team, our brain, our mental state,” Tessena said. “We’re growing in that aspect too as we do those pressure things. I think it’s going to continue to grow.”
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