UNK volleyball talks high hopes after 2025 performance
Coming off a 30-4 season, the UNK volleyball team started practices this week.
Practices began on Monday, and the team is excited to start working with each other again after their 2025 season.
Head coach Rick Squiers said seeing the team come back together to start practicing is one of his favorite times of the year.
“I just always love this time of year because it seems like it takes so long from the end of the spring when you're kind of back up and running, feeling good about things until right now,” Squiers said. “It's just the hugest gap of time. We're always excited to get them all back in here and the optimism is high and spirits are good. We got a lot of work ahead of us, but this is still an exciting time of year.”
The Lopers have 11 returners from last year, including redshirt junior middle blocker Sydney Davis and junior outside hitter Brynn Stowell.
Davis said it’s an exciting time to have everyone back and ready to practice.
“Just to see everyone in town again and spend time with everybody, it’s been a while,” Davis said. “Obviously some people have been here over the summer, but just being together is fun.”
University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Brynn Stowell (10) is excited for the 2026 season to start.
Stowell said a lot of the girls have been working over the summer and it’s nice to come back on campus and be an athlete again.
“Oh my gosh, it feels so good,” Stowell said. “A lot of us have been working this summer, like jobs and stuff, so we've had to really balance the workouts and the trainings with our jobs. To just kind of be back full time like an athlete and get the season going has been so fun and so great. I’m just super happy to be back.”
Last year, Stowell recorded 265 kills, averaging 2.55 kills per set. Stowell also recorded 80 total digs, 21 solo blocks and 37 assisted blocks.
Stowell said the biggest goal for the Lopers is to win the national championship, but the team also has little goals that would help the team get to that spot.
“I think every year the same goal always is a national championship, but we have a bunch of things within that too,” Stowell said. “Obviously, we would want to win the conference again, want to win the tournament again, and stay undefeated at home this season because we couldn't accomplish that last season. So all that good stuff that we kind of just try and strive for each year, just keeping it up.”
The Lopers lost two games at home during the 2025 season. UNK lost to Emporia State 3-1 in their home court during the regular season. The Lopers recorded their second home loss of 2025 against St. Cloud State 3-1 during the NCAA Tournament in the Central Region.
University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Sydney Davis (16) said she wants the Lopers to secure the number one spot in the MIAA for the 2026 season.
Davis said she wants the team to work together and secure the number one spot in the MIAA this season.
“I think getting back to that number one spot at that MIAA, and just continuing to work as a team and just working together to get where we want to,” Davis said.
During the 2025 season, Davis recorded 126 kills, averaging 1.62 kills per set. Davis also recorded 29 total digs, 15 solo blocks and 93 assisted blocks.
Squiers wants the team to continue their dominance from last season and be a nationally competitive team.
“In our program, the goals are always similar,” Squiers said. “We want to be competing for the MIAA championship. We want to be nationally competitive. We wanna make the NCAA tournament, want to make some noise in the NCAA tournament and be one of those teams that can dream big and chase a national championship.”
The Lopers will play their first game of the season in the Dallas Classic. UNK will compete against Colorado Mesa on Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. in Dallas.
The first home game will be against Peru State on Sept. 1 at 6 p.m.
