A father leaving Bank of Colorado Arena on Tuesday asked his children, “That was fun wasn’t it?”
“Yeah!” they responded.
The University of Northern Colorado (14-4, 6-1 Big Sky) defeated Idaho (3-13, 0-7 Big Sky) in four sets at home (25-11, 25-18, 22-25, 25-18).
“They’re on the verge of a breakthrough, and we had talked about that going into the match,” UNC coach Lyndsey Oates said. “I said that this is not an 0-6 team talent-wise. They just don’t have a great rhythm right now, but at any moment they could find that. We didn’t want it to be tonight.”
UNC earned the win, but the team had to fight for it. In fact, the Vandals found a little rhythm late and put pressure on the home team.
Northern Colorado started fast with a .435 hitting percentage in set one. The team picked up some big kills, while Idaho logged a number of errors.
The teams traded points and errors in the second set, but the Bears ultimately took a two-set lead into the break.
Idaho wasn’t done, though, and came back in the third. The Vandals found some of the rhythm Oates had warned her team of, while the Bears played a little soft. Both squads went back and forth, but Idaho willed itself to a win and forced a fourth set.
The Bears struggled with hitting again early in the fourth set, logging a negative hitting percentage for a bit. UNC relied on its experience and maturity to keep things close, before pulling away after three short runs.
“You’ve got to give credit to Idaho. They weren’t as high error and scrapped for a lot more points that just fell in sets one and two and were up in the last two sets,” Oates said. “But we also gave way too many points. I think we had eight or nine hitting errors in the third set. We’ve got to be sharper on our side of the net. Service errors and hitting errors really put us in a bad position.”
UNC recorded eight attack errors and three service errors in set three. It added five attack errors and three serving mistakes in the final set.
Thankfully, the Bears had already scored eight points from the service line in the first two periods. They finished with a season-high 11 aces, including four from junior Michaela Boon. She tied her career high.
Oates said after the team’s loss against Weber State over the weekend, when it only had two aces, it determined that strong serving is the key to removing in-game pressure.
“When we’re able to really get some easy points without the other five players doing anything, it relieves pressure,” Oates said. “Then, you build a little cushion in the score to maybe take some more risks or try some different things.”
Junior Rachel Hickman led the team with 12 kills, while junior Makenzie Harris and sophomore Lauren Strain followed with 11 each.
Senior Kyndall Feather added a game-high 17 digs and contributed two aces of her own.
UNC has struggled with finding rhythm due to COVID-19 protocols — it missed about half the roster earlier this month — but Oates said that’s not an excuse. The team will get back to work before powering through the remainder of the season.
The Bears will host Eastern Washington at 2 p.m. Saturday, before heading on a four-game road swing.