Kearney, Neb. – The 5th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team needed just under an hour to sweep a future RMAC member and a future MIAA rival Friday night at the Health & Sports Center.

This was the first day of the UNK Fall Classic presented by Comfort Inn & Runza.

The Lopers (7-0) dispatched of Black Hills State (-15, -10, -8) in 55 minutes early this afternoon and then took 58 minutes to sweep Missouri Western State (-10, -17, -14) tonight.  The BHSU Yellowjackets (1-5) will replace UNK in the RMAC next year when the Lopers join the MIAA.

Against the Griffons (3-3), UNK roared out of the gates by recording three blocks en route to grabbing a 6-0 lead. The Lopers eventually led 17-7, forcing Western to take a timeout.

The Griffons put up a tougher fight in the second set, leading 7-2 and trailing by just a 16-14 score after a kill from Shelby Corkill. However, UNK used another block and back-to-back kills to lead 20-15 and force Western to call timeout.

The third set saw UNK have leads of 9-4, 16-8 and 20-9. For the match, UNK hit .319 while holding the Griffons to a .010 effort (25-24-104). The Lopers finished with 7.0 team blocks and also served up four aces.

Junior outside Ariel Krolikowski (Grand Island) and sophomore middle Ellie Pesavento (Omaha Marian) each had 10 kills and hit well over .300 with sophomore middle Haley Lake (Lincoln SE) having seven kills in 11 swings for a sparkling .636 hitting efficiency.

Defensively, senior libero Markeya Dubbs (Wood River) had a team-high 13 digs with Lake having three blocks (two solo).

Things were even easier against Black Hills as the Yellowjackets had more errors (24) than kills (23). That led to a -.011 attack percentage.

UNK, mean while, hit .420 (41-4-88) as Krolikowski smashed home 16 kills in 28 swing for a .571 percentage. She also had 11 digs, as did sophomore outside Ashley Leitner (Lincoln SW).  Finally, Pesavento had seven kills in 13 swings (.538 attack pct.).

In other matches, 10th-ranked Wayne State improved to 4-2 by sweeping both Black Hills (-15, 018, -17) and Sioux Falls (-10, -11, -14) with Chadron State falling to Sioux Falls in four sets (-29, 25-21, -21, -22) and to Western in three (-17, -23, -23). The Eagles are now 3-3 on the year.

The tournament has six more matches tomorrow, starting at 10:00 a.m., with UNK facing Chadron at 4:00 p.m. (non-RMAC match) and Sioux Falls at 8:00 p.m.