Photo Credit: UNK Athletics
The third-ranked Nebraska Kearney volleyball team served up a season-high 11 aces and hit .316 to sweep seventh-ranked Washburn (-14, -22, -15) Saturday night in the MIAA Tournament finals in St. Joseph, Mo.
The top-seeded Lopers (29-3) earn the MIAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will host the Central Reginal December 4-6 at the Health & Sports Center. That'll be made official on Monday at 6:30 p.m. (ncaa.com).
To secure the program's sixth MIAA tourney title and first since 2019, UNK rolled from the beginning. They scored the first six points and never looked back while trailing only three times all night.
"The losses to Emporia and Washburn on back-to-back nights were a turning point in the season. We just continued to get better, found another gear, and had a great tournament. Played clean and confident this weekend," said UNK head coach Rick Squiers on the KRVN Radio Post-Game show. "Peyton Neff did a great job of moving the ball around, we served received well and our blocking was good enough."
Dannebrog redshirt sophomore middle Sydney Davis led the way by having 10 kills in 15 swings (.600 pct.) with three others between six and nine kills. That included Kansas senior outside Emilee Lane with the Lopers 11 aces mainly coming from Kansas sophomore DS Anna Laincz (four) and North Platte graduate setter Peyton Neff (three). Next, Missouri senior DS Aleena Peterson had a match-high 13 digs as the 'Bods hit just .194 and no one had more than nine kills. Finally, Davis had four block assists with Neff at three.
"Sometimes in the third day of the tournament, if you're the first team to jump out, then everyone's fatigued a little bit and you get a little jolt of life," said Squiers. "We didn't let them off the hook (serve game) with a miss in the middle of a run. We were really disciplined and we just kind of floated the ball in there. They do have an Achilles heal sometimes and it's their serve receive."
UNK will make an unprecedented 26th NCAA Tourney appearance come Monday, trailing only the University of Tampa (29 consecutive years).
