Kearney, Neb. – Senior outside Peyton Bergschneider had 24 kills and Fort Hays State hit .240 to upset sixth-ranked Nebraska Kearney in five sets (22-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 15-10) Thursday night in the first round of the MIAA Tournament in St. Joseph, Mo.
The top-seeded Lopers (27-3) will still qualify for the NCAA Tournament while the eighth-seeded Tigers (19-10) move onto the semifinals Friday night against the winner of Emporia State and Central Oklahoma.
Hays had to beat Central Missouri last Friday to even have hopes of qualifying for this event. They did in four sets and then got the necessary help on Saturday to reach St. Joe. Tonight, they snapped a 23-year, 43-match losing streak to UNK by having four players between 10-24 kills and being pesky in each set.
"We told our team there's a version of them that can do what they did tonight. We didn't think it was true until it was in the middle of a knockdown, drag out," said Loper head coach Rick Squiers on the KRVN Radio post-game show. "It was hard to get any momentum and give a lot of credit to them. They made a ton of plays, had a good game plan and competed harder than we did."
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Bergschneider reached her match-high kill total in 51 swings (.333) and supplied 15 digs. The Tigers had many other heroes including junior right side Ella Goodwin (17 kills), senior middle Ashlyn Reeves (17 kills, six blocks) and junior outside Mylie Brown (10 kills, 13 digs). As a team, Hays outhit UNK by 20 points, had six more digs, 10 team blocks and four aces.
Each set was a battle with an 8-0 run by Hays in the first set giving them hope and erasing a 16-9 deficit. While UNK took that set, the Lopers were in a tussle the rest of the way. Hays hit .452 (18-4-31) to erase an early 3-1 deficit in the fourth and then roared out to a 9-2 advantage in the fifth. UNK tried to respond, getting a block from juniors Celia Spilker (Cortland) and Brynn Stowell (Olathe, Kan.) to make it 12-10. However, after a timeout, the Tigers scored three straight via two kills and a Loper error. That was one of the 11 unforced miscues UNK made tonight.
"We couldn't find anything that seem to work for any extended period. It's not a good feeling. We got stuck in a rotation in the first set and that enabled them to get into rhythm and give them confidence. We were just lackluster; we didn't seem to compete until the third set and, by then, it's a match," said Squiers.
The Lopers got 18 kills, five digs and three blocks from Stowell, 17 kills and three stuffs from graduate outside Carly Purdy (North Platte), and 11 kills apiece from middle Sydney Davis (Dannebrog) and outside Addison Budke (Beloit, Kan.). In the back row, outside Grace Schmedding (Olathe, Kan.) had a team-best 20 digs with libero Ellie Spang (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) at 18 digs and two aces. Including her time at Indianapolis, she reached the rare 1,900 career dig mark tonight (1,917).
The NCAA Tournament selection shows airs Sunday night (Nov. 15) at 9 p.m. Central at www.ncaa.com.
