UNC volleyball finishes off Eastern Washington in 4 sets to even Big Sky record ...Saudi Arabia

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that counts.

The University of Northern Colorado volleyball team lived the expression Saturday night in its Big Sky Conference home-opening match win over Eastern Washington.

The Bears’ attack in the fourth set was the best of the night, allowing them to finish off the Eagles 3-1 in front of more than 1,000 fans at Bank of Colorado Arena.

After pulling out a tight win in the third set, UNC grabbed a lead early in the fourth and controlled the rest of the way — winning 25-22, 16-25, 28-26, 25-17.

“I thought we got better throughout the match,” Bears head coach Lyndsey Oates said. “The fourth set was as clean as we played all season.”

The team recorded 19 kills in the fourth set against one error and a hitting percentage over .500 to move to 1-1 in the Big Sky and 4-10 overall. In college volleyball, a hitting percentage above .250 is considered good.

UNC opened its Big Sky schedule Wednesday with a 3-0 road loss at Weber State. Eastern Washington dropped to 0-2 in the Big Sky and 2-12 overall. The Eagles are coached by Jon Haruguchi, who took over the program in 2022. He spent the previous six seasons as an assistant at UNC under Oates.

The Bears converted on 52.9% of its kill attempts in the fourth, which was a match high for both teams. UNC led 6-3 early in the fourth. The teams traded three-point runs, and UNC then won four of five for a 13-6 lead into an Eastern Washington time out.

Oates said the Bears’ offense in the fourth was more of an indication of what the team can do. UNC moved hitters around on its side of the net effectively and had different hitters involved.

Middle blocker Zoe Gibbs led UNC with 13 kills. Middle blocker Isabel Bennett and outside hitter Alayna Tessena both recorded 10 kills. Middle blocker Maddie Rink added nine, including an empathic kill on match point.

“I really liked how we finished,” Oates said.

The coach also said the team was trying to set for the middle hitters throughout the match. UNC felt Gibbs and Bennett had a size advantage on Eastern Washington, they’re quick and both have good arms.

The downside of the evening was the Bears’ serving. It’s been a focus at least lately for the team. UNC had 15 service errors against four aces. Eastern Washington had seven service errors and five aces.

“We can’t give away that many points from the service line,” Oates added. “Other than that, we battled through some things and I really liked how our offense finished.”

The match was only UNC’s fourth home match of the year. The Bears opened the year in late August with a couple of matches at Bank of Colorado Arena. The team then went on the road for 10 matches over about three weeks.

UNC returns to the road this week, playing matches Thursday and Saturday at Montana and Montana State, respectively.

Montana is 2-0 in the Big Sky, 10-3 overall and on a 10-match winning streak after a 3-0 over Idaho on Saturday.

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