UNC volleyball takes nationally ranked Creighton to five sets in NCAA Tournament loss

Searching for its first NCAA Tournament win in eight tries the University of Northern Colorado volleyball crew took a dominant Creighton club to five sets before losing Thursday night in a first-round match in Omaha Nebraska UNC - bounced back from a bad first set to take a - set lead with back-to-back - wins at Creighton s D J Sokol Arena The nationally ranked No Bluejays a third seed in the -team tournament won the first set - the fourth - and - in the fifth Creighton - advances to the second round Friday evening against the University of Northern Iowa UNI beat Utah in five sets in the other first-round match Thursday at Creighton Give them credit Creighton coach Brian Rosen disclosed of UNC in a post-match interview on ESPN We played great in the first set a match-best hitting percentage and the serve was the difference Then they picked the function pressure and their defense was special tonight They kept getting balls up Northern Colorado volleyball participant Brynn Reines leaps to hit a ball against Creighton defenders during an NCAA Tournament first-round match Thursday Dec at Creighton s D J Sokol Arena in Omaha Nebraska Nationally ranked No Creighton defeated UNC in five sets to advance to the second round Courtesy UNC Athletic Department UNC had digs as a association led by setter Nerea Alvarez-Jorge with Brynn Reines with and defensive specialists Bella LePore and GA McCarter with and respectively The Bears unseeded for the tournament opened the match with a hitting percentage in the first set UNC turned things around getting up to and in the second and third sets while outhitting Creighton UNC reached the NCAA Tournament by winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament last week on its home court in Greeley UNC athletics assistant director of strategic communications Elian Soto commented the match marks the first time a Big Sky Conference school has taken an opponent to five sets in the NCAA Tournament dating to Creighton improved its play in the fourth and fifth sets The Bluejays had a hitting percentage in the fourth set and they raced out to a - lead in the fifth The group relied more in the fifth set on outside hitter Ava Martin who was the Big East Conference athlete of the year and the conference tournament MVP Martin had eight kills in the fifth and finished with a match-high kills on total attacks for a hitting percentage Martin s kill total was more than twice any other UNC performer Alayna Tessena led the Bears attack with kills Reines added kills with a team-high two facility aces Alvarez-Jorge had assists Annalea Maeder had digs for Creighton which dominated UNC in blocks - UNC outside hitter Bella Van Lannen and middle blocker Isabel Bennett both added nine kills in their final match for the Bears Van Lannen Bennett Reines McCarter middle blocker Zoe Gibbs and setter Mia Liddiard are all seniors and were honored by UNC in the final match of the regular season UNC returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since and fourth time since Three years ago the Bears lost in four sets to the University of San Diego In Washington State beat UNC in three sets UNC went to Hawaii in and lost in four sets