Bearcats swept by No. 4 UNK

Overmatched against one of the nation's top teams, the Northwest Missouri State volleyball team lost to No. 4 Nebraska-Kearney 3-0 in front of a crowd of 754 Saturday afternoon.

Nebraska-Kearney (28-1, 14-1) took all three sets by at least eight points with scores of 25-17, 25-15, 25-16.

Still in search of a win over a top six MIAA team, Northwest Missouri State (14-15, 8-8) dropped into a fifth place tie with Emporia State (17-10, 7-7).

The Bearcats lead seventh-place Fort Hays State by a half-game and are one up on eighth place Central Oklahoma.

UNK hit .274 for the match and exceeded that percentage in sets one and three. Northwest finished with a hitting percentage of .026 and swung in the negative's during the second set.

MIAA hitting percentage leader Katie Sokolowski led the Lopers with 10 kills and hit .400. MIAA kills leader Ariel Krolikowski and Ashley Leitner each had eight kills. Northwest was led by Brooke Bartosh with nine kills. No one else had more than five.

Bailey Vance's 11 digs were a team-high.

The Bearcats play their final two regular season matches this week against SBU and Truman State.