Kearney, Neb. - The 7th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team pulled off a rare three set rally to win at Colorado Christian Friday night in Lakewood, Colo.

For only the fourth time in the Rick Squiers era (1999-present), UNK won a match after trailing 2-0. Improving to 22-22 in five set matches since 1999, UNK bested the Cougars (24-26, 25-27, -15, -16, -10).

UNK improves to 18-1 (8-1 RMAC) while Christian drops to 9-10 (4-4 RMAC).

Kearney fell behind in the match due to slow starts in the first and second sets and that scenario returned in the fifth set as CCU had leads of 5-2 and 7-5. UNK tied things at seven on a kill by sophomore outside Ashley Leitner (Lincoln SW) and the moved ahead for good, 8-7, thanks to an unforced Cougar error.

Eventually up 9-8, the Lopers got back-to-back kills from sophomore middle Haley Lake (Lincoln SE) and sophomore right side Katie Sokolowski (Kearney Catholic) to push its lead to three. Another kill by Sokolowski, and an unforced CCU error, made it 13-9 and the home team called timeout.

UNK's final two points came via a Sokolowski kill and a block by junior setter Jenna Rouzee (GI Northwest) and sophomore middle Ellie Pesavento (Omaha Marian).

On the night, UNK had more kills (66-53) and digs (103-85) than CCU while hitting nearly 100 points higher (.214 to .124). The Lopers also had 8.0 team blocks but Christian was strong at the net as well, having 10.0 team stuffs.

In the serve game, each squad had five aces with Christian having five more errors, 9-4.

Six Lopers recorded a kill in the match with four reaching double digits. Pesavento and Lake each tied for the team lead at 14 with Rouzee (.357; six kills) and Pesavento (.343) the only UNK players to hit over .300.

On defense, six Lopers had double digit dig totals, led by freshman libero Liz McGowan (24) and junior outside Ariel Krolikowski (17). Leitner (12 kills, 14 digs) and Sokolowski (11 kills, 11 digs) each recorded double doubles with, finally, Rouzee having 51 assists, 11 digs and two blocks in addition to her offensive output.

Christian saw freshman middle Ali Weber have 18 kills, four blocks and four digs with junior middle Tija Rudzitis hitting .385 en route to an 11 kill night. Also, junior DS Cassidy Burke had a match-high 25 digs.

CCU started things off by scoring the night's first five points, forcing UNK to take a very early timeout. Christian never trailed in the first set as they hit .324 (14-3-34).

UNK started to gain some momentum at the end of the first set, tying things up at 24 before losing by two, but that ended quickly when they got down 9-3 in the second set. The Lopers eventually came back and took a 25-24 lead, only to see Weber record two kills, and a solo block, to give CCU a 2-0 match lead.

The Lopers pretty much rolled through the third and fourth sets, getting out to early leads and forcing CCU to call timeouts.