UNI Topples Loyola; Moves to MVC Semifinals

Thursday, November 24

Cedar Falls, Iowa

7:30 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa

24-8

Loyola

14-18

Loyola Chicago

UNI

UNI Topples Loyola; Moves to MVC Semifinals

11/24/2016 9:21:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The University of Northern Iowa volleyball team advanced to the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals with a 3-0 victory over the Loyola Ramblers Thursday in the McLeod Center. UNI won by set scores of 25-15, 25-18, 25-14.

UNI (24-8 overall) advanced to the program's 32nd straight MVC Tournament semifinal with the win. Loyola (14-18 overall) was making its first appearance in the MVC Tournament.

UNI's Kayla Haneline collected a match-high 11 kills and hit .304 for the match. Piper Thomas unloaded eight kills and hit .400 as she did not commit an attack error against the Ramblers. Amie Held posted a match-high 17 digs.

The Panthers used a 10-2 run in the opening set to take a 13-5 advantage. The Panthers would score a 25-15 first-set win behind an 81-percent sideout effort.

Loyola was held to a .000 attack percentage in the second set with nine kills to go against nine attack errors. UNI posted a 77-percent sideout performance. UNI held a slim 15-14 lead before using a 4-0 run to take a five-point lead at 19-14. UNI closed the second set on a 10-4 run and scored a 25-18 triumph.

UNI finished the sweep with a 25-14 victory in the third set. UNI posted a 73-percent sideout effort and forced Loyola into a -.030 hitting percentage. Loyola posted five kills to go against six attack errors in the third stanza.

UNI advances to take on No. 2-seeded Wichita State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the McLeod Center. No. 1-seeded Missouri State will be take on No. 5-seeded Illinois State at 5 p.m.

NOTES: UNI has won the most MVC Tournament matches in league history (43) ... UNI has won six matches in a row and 14 of its last 15 overall ... UNI improved to 15-0 all-time vs. Loyola.

QUOTES:

Thoughts on what you are able to do offensively against Loyola

KAYLA HANELINE "I think our defense is actually what allowed us to do that. Our defense had some great passes and system. Had a lot of great touches and I think that allowed me and Piper to be up on time to be able to run some stuff that maybe we haven't so much in the past but I think we did a really good job of that tonight."

Defensively, what made the team so strong here tonight?

KAYLA HANELINE "I think it was really just our attitude. I think we were executing well with our blocking assignments and being up on time, being up and strong and I think that our back row defense did really good at filling in those holes, filling in around the block, chasing down the balls that came high off the block stuff like that. So, i think it was really really good."

You think their outsides were trying to tool the block a lot because they didn't really want to mess with that back row?

KAYLA HANELINE "I think that they were. I think that they were trying to go high hands, trying to tool it off the block, out of bounds. They were successful sometimes but I think we did well at trying to adjust to that. I think our pen blockers did well at trying to turn that outside hand in a little bit to make sure they couldn't do that, it was pretty good."

Thoughts on type of performance team had to kick off this tournament run

AMIE HELD "We're really excited for the post-season. This is what we've been working for all year, so to get a 3-0 sweep was really nice. I know after games 2 and 3 we kind of talked about just making it a little more crisp and executing a little stronger. I think we came out in the third and did a good job of that so we're looking forward to tomorrow."

Thoughts on mentally Amie and Bri have as outside hitters but also playing defense in the back row and what you've been able to do

AMIE HELD "I think our whole team prides our self on our defense and our attitude, just getting after it, super gritty. We have fun back there just because, as a hitter you're usually not supposed to be able to dig, so its fun. But Bri and I, we love it. Its a big part of our job too so we try to do what we can."

Having a match under your belt, do you feel its an advantage going into semifinal tomorrow

AMIE HELD "We think so. We're also a little biased because we had to play, so we think it was an advantage. Getting our legs moving and just being out on the court helps in that atmosphere. Getting a post-season game under our belts, I think it can only help going into tomorrow."

Keys to playing Wichita State tomorrow

AMIE HELD "We've executed our game plan a lot. We've executed our game plan against them blocking wise but also adjusting to what they've thrown at us because i know after maybe a set or two they'll change stuff up and then we just adjust to what they've done. So i think its been our ability to adjust to whatever they throw at us has really helped us be successful."

KAYLA HANELINE "I agree with that. I also think that our patience with the things that they're doing has helped us immensely just because there's a lot of things we could get easily frustrated with but I think we've stayed pretty calm and pretty collective and played our game."

Thoughts on what you saw out of the team today

COACH BOBBI PETERSEN "I thought there were some good things. I really was proud of our side-out percentages and how we executed on the side-out. I think one of the things that we could've been better at tonight was, we were given a lot of good touches on defense, both block and our back court, but I didn't think we did a very good job at transitioning out of that and scoring a lot in our transition offense. I just thought we weren't doing a good job of putting up hittable balls, whether it was our setter taking it or somebody in the back court trying to set for her when we were out of system. I think that's an area that we definitely have to be better at tomorrow if we want to be successful. But the positive side is we have been getting better and better at that. It just kind of was an off night for us in that area. We had two kids that we were really focusing on tonight and they both hit negative, so I thought we did a good job of executing that part of our game plan defensively. Again they had, i talked about this in the pregame a little bit, a new setter. She set for them last year so its not like it was somebody that hasn't set before, so just trying to adapt to what kind of offense this setter was going to run. Usually this time of year you know teams upside down and inside out and then we have somebody completely running a different offense, so it was very different than that. I thought our kids did a nice job defensively of adjusting to that."

Two kids hit negative with combined 64 attempts and 13 kills

COACH BOBBI PETERSEN "Those two kids, last time we played them here 5 didn't play, Reardon, and Gabby hit .221, but when we were at their place both of them hit almost .500. So, you know that was one of the things I challenged our kids with tonight. It wasn't to hold them negative, for sure, but I think our goal was to hold them both under .200. Obviously we did a good job of that."

Teams struggling to find ways to score against your defense, with how strong that back row is, its become a pretty big challenge for your opponents

COACH BOBBI PETERSEN "I think that's one of the biggest things we strive to do defensively, is force other teams into hitting things they don't have and that's something we have to fight really hard not to do as well when we play some of those good defensive teams. That's a goal of ours and I think tonight we saw some of that. Even in the back court, we decided to just let our back court dig. Lots of times we'll put up a block, which is really forcing them into 'you gotta hit a good shot' to get past our back court. And they did a few times as well, but I think if we can put up a nice solid block, I really like what our back court can do but its definitely a combination of that, and that's part of the reason why we pulled our block on the back court because I didn't think we were doing a good job of taking away good area, we kind of made it more confusing for the back court so, even with number 9 we decided we're staying down and if we don't get all the way over there to close, we're just going to leave it clean for our back court. Once we started executing that I thought we did a lot better job of picking up balls in the back court."

Keys to matchup with Wichita State. Been successful this year against them

COACH BOBBI PETERSEN "Yes, we've beat them twice but if you look at just the points, lots of close games, close sets in there. So, even though we beat them twice, its been very competitive matches. Defensively, I think that has been our best execution against Wichita, talking about forcing them maybe into hitting things that they don't have and being very aggressive with our offense in terms of, they have a really big block, but I think we've done a really good job of being able to hit off the block and that's what I was talking about tonight. We didn't do as good a job with that tonight, so that's part of our game that definitely has to be there tomorrow."

Loyola Head Coach Chris Muscat

"I mean obviously it was a blow to lose but I mean there was some good things about it. You know, I think that we're a team that has had a great deal of adversity the last couple weeks but I liked their poise and they faced adversity but we have to get tougher and we have to know how hard we can push ourselves and we got to execute a game plan. Those were things we struggle with tonight but I thought our team responded to some tough situations better or better than we've seen. I think the seniors have a lot to be proud of in what they are leaving and I think our young players are pretty excited and motivated to continue getting better and moving forward."