Northern Colorado continues struggles, falls to Montana State in four

The College of Northern Colorado teaching workers spent roughly 10 minutes assembly on the conclusion of the match, discussing what wants to vary because the season progresses. Quick reply: so much.

UNC (6-7, 0-2 Massive Sky) fell to Montana State (6-8, 2-0 Massive Sky), 3-1, in its house match Saturday evening (20-25, 20-25, 25-17, 20-25). This gave the Bears their third loss in 4 matches.

It’s not straightforward to pinpoint one purpose for the challenges. As an alternative, Northern Colorado coach Lyndsey Oates mentioned they stem from a number of issues.

The largest factor will not be being at full well being and making an attempt to determine a lineup that works. Graduate pupil Kailey Jo Ince is nursing an damage, and senior Makenzie Harris was out once more. Earlier this season, the 2 usually accounted for a big portion of scoring performs.

With out these two at 100%, the Bears are counting on a number of younger gamers.

Senior Cece Huhn recorded 10 kills, however she struggled at instances entering into rhythm. Junior setter Syd Cole completed with no kill, as effectively.

“Our elements are good. We simply nonetheless haven’t put it collectively,” Oates mentioned. “The sum of our elements will not be higher than us individually, so we’ve simply received to maintain working.”

Oates noticed “glimpses” of items which have been lacking and mentioned there was particular person growth. Sadly, it couldn’t get the entire group working successfully on a constant foundation.

Ince completed with 10 kills however added 12 assault errors, giving her a -.040 hitting proportion.

She added two aces, 14 digs and moved into the No. 2 spot for kills in UNC’s Division I period. Nonetheless, Ince was visibly upset by the loss and took duty.

“We’re enjoying out of quite a lot of frustration and simply want to come back collectively as a crew,” Ince mentioned. “And I simply want to attain in conditions that I wasn’t tonight. Put that one on my again. I’ve received to guide higher.”

The crew as a complete solely hit .141, which is under its purpose of not less than .250.

Moreover, the efficiency on the service line was lackluster once more. The Bears recorded 9 service errors to simply three aces. MSU logged seven aces and 4 service errors.

Oates mentioned a part of it’s personnel and the opposite half is technical. She expects the serving to be “streaky” whereas the workers works by means of technical adjustments. Plus, there wasn’t sufficient aggression to get the ball over the web.

“I assumed our errors tonight have been passive errors from the service aspect,” Oates mentioned. “They have been, ‘I don’t wish to miss errors,’ so we’re erring.”

The longtime coach could possibly be heard on the bench at one level telling the crew, “We can’t take performs off.”

Different areas that want work are the left aspect hitters who’re struggling in opposition to the double block and adjusting to the off-speed tip.

Oates mentioned she doesn’t assume communication is an enormous challenge proper now, however Ince mentioned communication is contributing to among the struggles.

“There’s quite a lot of miscues and never trusting one another,” Ince mentioned. “We’ve simply received to determine it out. We are going to. It can come, and we will probably be higher subsequent time.”

Northern Colorado will look to earn its first Massive Sky win at 6 p.m. Thursday when it hosts Portland State.