KEARNEY, Neb. – The Missouri Western volleyball season ended Tuesday night in the first round of the MIAA Championships with a three-set loss to No. 1 seed Nebraska-Kearney.

It was the No. 8-seeded Griffons third loss of the season to the Lopers who entered the weekend ranked No. 3 in the nation. Missouri Western and Nebraska-Kearney met five times in less than a year with three postseason match-ups. The Lopers won both MIAA Championships matches against the Griffons with Missouri Western ending the Lopers’ season last year in the NCAA Division II Central Region Championship quarterfinals.

NOTABLES

• Missouri Western limited Nebraska-Kearney to a .201 team hitting percentage, holding the Lopers under .150 in the second and third sets, but hit just .038 itself
• The Griffons were held to single-digit kills as a team in both the first and second sets before totaling 12 as a unit in the third set
• The Griffons came close to extending the match in a back-and-forth third set that featured four lead changes and six ties. Missouri Western never led by more than two and the Lopers never led the set by more than four
• Nebraska-Kearney ended the match with 57 points on 49 kills and ace and seven blocks. The Griffons had 36.5 points on 28 kills, two aces and 6.5 blocks
• The 15-17 overall record for the Griffons was the first sub-.500 season for the Griffons since going 14-17 in 2011, two years before Marian Carbin took over as head coach

LEADERS

• Rachel Losch tied for team-highs in kills (8) and blocks (3). In her final match as a Griffon, Losch hit .333
• Stephanie Doak also had eight kills
• Shellby Taylor and Ali Tauchen had three total blocks each. Tauchen added six kills and 14 digs
• Lauren Murphy had a team-high 17 assists
• Audrey Keim led the team with 15 digs in her final match as a Griffon

— MWSU Athletics —