Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Senior right side Annie Wolfe and junior outside Kaitlynn Thomas had 10 kills apiece to help the third-ranked Nebraska-Kearney volleyball team sweep 18th-ranked Washburn (-21, -15, -20) Friday at the Health & Sports Center.
 
A crowd of 1,510 watched a match that was pushed back 30 minutes due to travel issues for the Ichabods.
 
The first set was the most competitive as they were nine ties and two leads changes. Washburn (10-4, 1-1) got back-to-back kills from Elkhorn native Leanna Willer to grab a 14-11 and force UNK to call timeout.
 
The short break worked as the Lopers (16-0, 2-0) scored five of the next seven points to tie things up and force WU to call timeout. Then, Kearney closed on 9-5 run that featured two kills from Thomas (Yutan) and two kills from sophomore outside Kendall Schroer (Ogallala).
 
UNK controlled the second set as WU hit .000 (10-10-46). The 'Bods made a late push in the final set, getting as close as 21-17 thanks to a service ace. But three straight unforced hitting errors by Willer pretty much sewed things up for the Lopers.
 
"It's a good win highlighted by how well we defended. For us to hold Washburn under 100 means we were doing a lot of things well," said Loper head coach Rick Squiers. "It started out being all backrow defense. We finally started to get some blocks as the match wore on."
 
The nation's top hitting team, UNK hit a season-low .171 (41-17-140) but that was 118 points higher than Washburn. Both squads dug up 65 balls with the Lopers having four more blocks and being plus one at the service line.
 
Individually, Wolfe recorded a double double (16 digs and 10 kills), junior middle Tara Ziegelbein had six kills, four blocks and hit a match-high .308 with sophomore setter Lindsey Smith supplying 35 assists, six digs and three late kills.
 
"They defend like crazy. We had a nice stretch offensively in the second set and then racked up some more in the third," said Squiers. "Lindsey was fantastic. She did a nice job of putting hitters in a good place and then got a few kills of her own."
 
The Lopers host Emporia State Saturday at 6:00 p.m.