Box Score
Match Highlights

Kearney, Neb. – The seventh-ranked Augustana Vikings scored the final three points in the fifth set to beat second-ranked Nebraska-Kearney (-20, 21-25, -23, 17-25, -12) in an NCAA Tournament first round match Friday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn.

Sixth-seeded Augie (27-5) advances to the Central Regional second round Friday night while third-seeded UNK ends the season at 35-2.

The fifth set featured seven of the 37 ties in the match and one of the 14 lead changes. UNK was up 6-4 but Augie countered with an 8-4 spurt.

A block from Omaha senior right side Annie Wolfe and a kill by Yutan junior outside Kaitlynn Thomas tied things up at 12. However, Elkhorn South graduate Brittany Cech recorded her 16th and final kill to give the Vikings the lead for good.

Augie reached set point after UNK was called for a ball handling error; there were seven such calls in the match (four on Kearney and three on Augie). Six-two outside hitter Lauren Waite then ended things with her team-leading 17th kill.

"Augustana has a very nice team. They fought hard and made a few plays down the stretch when they needed to. Other than coming up short, it was a fun match to a part of because the level of play was very good," said UNK head coach Rick Squiers. "I'm proud of the way our team played. We had some good individual performances and our team fought all the way through."

In a very even match, Augie had one more kill, 69-68, with UNK hitting one point higher, .250 to .249. The Lopers had a 90-76 advantage in digs but the Vikings had eight more team blocks, 15-7.

Finally, in the serve game, AU had four more aces, 6-2, but also eight more errors, 10-2. The six aces were the most by a Loper opponent this fall with two coming in the fifth set.

"Again, it's very unfortunate that top 10 teams play each other in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It's unfortunate we're the sole representative of the great MIAA conference," said Squiers. "Maybe one day we won't have to come up here and play the real national tournament at a regional site."

Waite reached her kill total in 45 attempts (.245) and also provided three digs and three blocks. A 5-9 outside, Cech hit .325, dug up 13 balls and had two blocks.

Also for Augie, six-two junior Ashley Wilson had 11 kills, seven blocks and hit a team-best .435 with six-foot junior Bailey Koch having a team-best eight blocks and eight kills.

In her final match as a Loper, Wolfe had her typical all-around effort; 17 digs, nine kills, seven assists and two blocks. She appeared in 472 sets, tallying 1,214 digs, 726 kills, 252 assists, 155 blocks and 96 aces.

"I'm a little tired," said Wolfe, referring to her status as a six-rotation player. "I love playing both front and back row. When I was a freshman, I was only in the backrow. I developed those skills my first two years and then I was put in the position to hit last year. I embraced that and went back to what I did best my freshman year and put it all together."

Lincoln junior Tara Ziegelbein was a force in the middle, recording 17 kills, one off her career high, and having team-highs in attack percentage (.355) and blocks (six).

"I have to give our backrow a lot of credit. Our defense was fantastic today and the reason I was put in that (offensive) position was because we got balls up," said Ziegelbein. "(Setter Lindsey Smith) was setting great balls too. I just needed to do my job."

From the outside, Ogallala sophomore Kendall Schroer was solid again, having a team-best 21 kills and five blocks. She had a double digit kill total in seven of the last eight matches, reaching 20 three times.

Finally, playing extensively for the first time in nearly two months, Thomas started the last four sets and amassed 13 kills and three digs. Five of her kills came in a fourth set where UNK hit .471 (16-0-34).