Box Score

The 13-3 University of Evansville volleyball team may have lost to No. 15 Northern Iowa, but the Aces didn’t go down without a fight.

The Aces put up 54 kills and 81 digs as a team as they fell just short of beating the Panthers. UNI won the match with final set scores of 26-28, 25-22, 25-22, and 25-20.

“It was a great game all the way around,” said head coach Mike Swan. “I think we did a lot of things well and we had UNI concerned for most of the night. Any of the first three games could have gone either way.”

With the loss, the Aces move to 13-3 on the season and 2-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while UNI improves to 13-2 and remains undefeated in Valley play with a 5-0 record.

Junior Brooke Maher led the Aces offense with 17 kills while also tacking on 17 digs to make it a double-double performance. Sophomore Hannah Wilson tabbed her second double-double of the season tallying 10 kills and 10 digs on the night.

Freshman Katie Klages had her best night yet in the back row, racking up a season-high 27 digs. Senior Ellen Sawin put up 41 assists in the effort while also adding a three of the team’s 10 block assists.

Entering tonight’s match as the Aces strongest hitter, senior Emily Wandersee was limited to only eight kills on the night after suffering an ankle injury in the third set. Wandersee is likely to be out of the lineup for the rest of the weekend.

“Emily’s injury came at a really unfortunate time in the match, but we had a lot of leadership in the front row,” commented Swan. “Viera (Rajcan), Rachel (TenHoor) and Jessica (Knackmuhs) all stepped up and did a great job at the net.”

The Aces opened the match with a 3-1 lead over the Panthers in game one. Each team took turns controlling the score, but neither could keep more than a two-point lead. UNI finally managed to pull away by three points to take the score to 17-13. Refusing to give in, the Aces came back to tie the game at 22-all. UNI answered back and regained the lead, taking the Aces to game-point at 26-25. A kill by Nixon tied it up as the momentum swung towards the Aces. Tied at 26-all, Wilson came through with back-to-back kills to clench the win.

The two teams were neck-and-neck again to start the second set. The lead bounced back and forth between both sides, and the score was tied a total of 12 times throughout the game. Standing at 22-all, the Panthers were able to put together two straight kills to push the set to game point before an Aces error ended the game. UNI won with a final score of 25-22.

Mirroring the first two sets, game three saw yet another close race. With neither team able to hold onto an offensive advantage for very long, the score remained within three points for most of the game. As the game neared the end, UNI pulled away with a 23-19 lead. The advantage proved to be too much for the Aces to overcome, and the Panthers went on to win 25-22.

Game four stood at 5-5 all before UE was able to break away with their biggest lead of the night as they pushed the score to 11-6. UNI answered back with a 4-point run of their own to bring the score within one point. A Panther kill to break the tie at 13-13 sparked a UNI rally that was too much for the Aces to defuse. Down 20-15, the Aces managed to bring the score to a 21-20 UNI lead, but the rally wasn’t enough to shut down the Panthers. UNI put up four consecutive points to take the game and the match with a final score of 25-20.

“Even though this goes down as a loss, I hope that we continue to take the same approach as we have been into tomorrow’s match and play with the same confidence as we had tonight,” said Swan.

The Aces will return to action tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. as they take on Bradley in Peoria, Ill. The Braves lost 0-3 to Southern Illinois earlier tonight. Fans can follow all of the action by signing up for video streaming or watching the free live stats.

 

*Photo courtesy of Grant Wickes.