No. 4 Nebraska-Kearney Advances in Central Region Tournament with Victory over Minnesota Duluth
MARSHALL, Minn. – No. 4 seed Nebraska-Kearney advanced in the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament on Thursday night with a 3-1 (25-22, 13-25, 25-17, 25-18) victory over No. 5 seed Minnesota Duluth in the quarterfinals in Marshall.
UNK, ranked No. 10 nationally, advances to the region semifinals on Friday night starting at 7:30 p.m. The Lopers will play either Southwest Minnesota State or Colorado School of Mines. UNK is now 30-4 overall and has won 20 of its last 21 matches.
UMD, ranked No. 7 nationally, ends the season 23-6 overall.
Ariel Krolikowski and Jeri Walkowiak led UNK with 13 kills each, while Kelsey Werner added 12 kills. Katlyn Heiserman racked up a match-high 24 digs to lead the Lopers’ defense.
Kate Lange led the Bulldogs with 15 kills and 10 digs, while Katie Kuffel chipped in with 14 kills.
NOTES & QUOTES
Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota Duluth head Coach Jim Boos on his team’s opening-round loss…
“(Nebraska-Kearney) certainly elevated their level of play after the second game. We came out and played some really good volleyball in game two and controlled what was going on in the match for a little bit. Kind of like a boxing match, they took our punches, stood back up and then punched back. We just couldn’t seem to keep our offense going.”
Boos on Nebraska-Kearney’s play…
"They served us pretty tough and attacked us in some very specific spots and at specific people. We weren’t in system, and that makes the offense predictable. They made some minor adjustment, and we didn’t do as good a job of adjusting back. And that can be the difference in a match."
Boos on his team having experience in the NCAA Tournament…
"Volleyball is different every time you step on the floor. Every point is different. That experience helps you in this environment, but every team that is in the tournament this year was in it last year."
Boos on UNK’s defense.
"That was one of the turning points of the night—their ability to take our outside attack, dig it, transition back and set the ball to the outside. And our deflections just weren’t as positive."
Senior outside hitter Katie Kuffel on having NCAA Tournament experience…
It’s always something different. This year at any given night any team can win. That’s what great about this region.
Kuffel on UNK’s defense…
Once they started getting couple blocks or even the touches that come back on your side, it’s hard to get those back—let alone in system. They just found away to keep the ball going. It was hard finding those open shots. You’d miss the block but then hit it to a defender. It was hard to find a clean hit.
Nebraska-Kearney
Head Coach Rick Squiers on his team’s opening-round win…
I’m very proud of out girls for a tremendous effort, especially after game two when things kind of got away from us. I think we got to see what kind of team we’ve been al year today. We were scrappy defensively and gritty, tough and competitive.
Squiers on his team’s back-row play.
It has been a strength ours all season. It’s a style of play that we’ve adopted with the group we have. We see that in practice everyday. One of the feelings we have in our practice gym is if we can hit. 150 against ourselves we’re doing pretty good.
Senior setter Cola Svec on the Central Region field…
No matter who you drew in this region, you were going to have a tough match. These are all great teams from both conferences.
Svec on her setting performance.
We talked about before the game was pushing pin to pin. That was my focus—get my feet to the ball and get a good ball for my hitters to swing at. (UMD) is a good blocking team, and we knew were going to have to stay aggressive.
