#7 Lopers Battle Gorillas, Continue Sweep Streak

Kearney, Neb. – The seventh-ranked Nebraska Kearney volleyball team got double digit kill totals from right side Brynn Stowell and outside Carly Purdy to sweep a game Pittsburg State squad (-21, -22, -23) Saturday night at the Health & Sports Center.
The Lopers (15-1, 4-0) push their consecutive set win streak to 45 while an improving Pitt drops to 11-4 (0-3). This is the only meeting between the two this season.
Pitt dropped five setters to both 17th-ranked Emporia State and Fort Hays State recently and pushed the Lopers in each set tonight. However, Stowell (Olathe, Kan.) and Purdy (North Platte) were there to answer the bell when needed as UNK overcame a .183 hitting night.
“I had a lot of concerns about this one because it was a difficult matchup. Emporia tries to beat you with offense, and they don’t really care if you score. So, we were able to hit .400 last night. I just knew we weren’t going to be able to do that against these guys,” said Loper head coach Rick Squiers. “They are too good at the net, they block everything. They have a go-to hitter that everybody in the gym knows who is getting the ball and you still can’t stop her half the time.”
UNK hit that .183 mark, but PSU was 22 points lower, was aced eight times and committed two more service errors. Stowell (Olathe, Kan.) had a team-best 12 kills, Purdy (North Platte) supplied 10 with fellow outside Grace Schmedding (Olathe, Kan.) at nine as well as a .316 efficiency and 12 digs.
“The best version of how I hoped it would go was like hang in there and beat them in the end kind of a match,” said Squiers. “We did some things that we haven’t been doing. We made a few mistakes at the end that gave away a few points but got lucky there.”
In the middle, redshirt junior Sydney Davis (Danneborg) hit .538, had eight kills and two blocks with redshirt freshman Sophia Thompson (Beloit, Kan.) at three stuffs and three kills. Finally, in the backrow, libero Ellie Spang (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) got 15 balls and had one of the eight aces.
“Grace was great at the end of the sets. When it seemed like no one else could get a kill, she seemed to have another tool she could go to. Throwing one to the corner, throwing one off the blocker’s hands. And she rips a ball on match point,” said Squiers.
Pitt also had a balanced attack as four different players were at eight kills, including Maliyah Johnson. The Gorillas recorded 14 team blocks, with Kennedy Behnke at nine.
UNK hosts Arkansas-Ft. Smith on Wednesday as part of “Homecoming” Week.