Box Score Kearney, Neb. – The 15th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team finished a long home stand by sweeping the College of St. Mary (-15, -17, -12) Tuesday night at the Health & Sports Center.

With the win, the Lopers improve to 8-2 while the NAIA Flames fall to 7-3. CSM is led by former Loper All-American Samantha (Harvey) Hammond with her assistant being former UNK All-American setter Cola Svec.

The upstart Flames, from Omaha, were ready to play from the opening tip, grabbing a 9-3 lead. UNK committed five unforced errors during this stretching, forcing coach Rick Squiers to call timeout.

"We did some freshmen things tonight. We have five of them playing on a regular basis and you sometimes forget they are freshmen," said Squiers. "St. Mary is a scrappy team and if you help them, they are more than happy to win those rallies."

The Lopers responded after the break by tallying seven of the next eight points to tie things up and then went on a 9-4 spurt to open up some breathing room. Sophomore middle Tara Ziegelbein (Lincoln Lutheran H.S.) helped close out the set with back-to-back kills. She finished the night with team-highs in kills (12) and attack percentage (.611).

The Flames didn't go away, however, as the second set featured nine ties and four lead changes. With the score tied at 10 again, UNK went on a 9-5 run that included two more kills by Ziegelbein and a block from senior outside hitter/setter Erin Seele (Johnstown, Colo.) and Ziegelbein.

"It became evident as the match wore on we were just physically better and bigger. If we just played clean on our side of the net we could get control of the match," said Squiers. "We did dig the ball well tonight and made some defensive plays."

UNK finished the match with twice as many kills, 46-23, as the Flames while also digging up 68 balls and recording eight aces. Five of the aces came in the third set with Seele having three straight.

Besides Ziegelbein, Yutan sophomore outside Kaitlynn Thomas had 10 kills and hit .364, Omaha junior right side Annie Wolfe supplied nine digs, eight kills, six assists and an ace. Finally, freshmen setter Lindsey Smith (Dakota Dunes, S.D.) had 33 assists, a team-best 18 digs, two aces and three kills in five swings.

UNK's next seven matches are on the road, starting Saturday in St. Joseph, Mo., where they'll face Oklahoma Baptist and Henderson State (Ark.).