BOX SCORE:
The No. 22 Augustana women’s volleyball team nearly pulled off the biggest upset in the first round of the NCAA Division II Central Region tournament as they dropped their opening match 3-2 to No. 6 Nebraska-Kearney Thursday in St. Paul, Minn. The set scores were 27-25, 17-25, 25-27, 23-25, 11-15.
The Vikings (23-11) were led by two outstanding performances by senior
Cayla Schroeder as she tied her career-high total with 24 kills and 25 digs, and junior
Ellen Andrews who had a season-high 23 kills.
Schroeder was happy with the way the team responded to her last game in a Vikings uniform.
“You always want to play your heart out and have no regrets and I think we did that tonight,” Schroeder said. “Its definitely fun to play under pressure and we played hard tonight.”
Seniors
Kati Newgard and
Lisa Hoegh also performed well in their last game as Newgard recorded 10 kills and Hoegh had a team-high 60 assists on the night.
“I just go to who is hot and tonight it was Ellen and Cayla,” Hoegh said.
In the first set, both teams traded points, but the Lopers could not keep up with Andrews who had 10 kills and hit .643 in the first set. She also was a part of the set-winning point as she and Newgard combined for a block assist on the Loper attack.
The Lopers (32-3) got out to a quick 4-0 lead in the second game and did not look back as they would hold the lead to tie the score at one set a piece.
In the third game, the Vikings would use precision hitting to beat the Lopers, as Augie would not make a single error in the set and Schroeder and Andrews would record 6 and 5 kills, respectively.
The teams fought for each point in the fourth set, but Nebraska-Kearney would make a block to put an end to the Vikings possible upset.
The teams would battle to 11-11 in the final set, but the Lopers would score the final four points of the game to end the Vikings season.
The Lopers will move on the play No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul at 8 p.m. Friday night in the Gengelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minn. after No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State and No. 3 Minnesota Duluth play at 5:30.