Panthers Advance with Sweep of Cougars

Lincoln, Neb. ? Shannon Aschoff and Michelle Burow each had a team-high 13 kills to lead Northern Iowa to a first-round win over Washington State Friday night at the Nebraska Coliseum. The Panthers downed the Cougars 3-0, winning, 26-24, 25-21, 25-20, in the first match of the night.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

 

The Panthers, who are making their fourth straight appearance at the NCAA Tournament, had 51 kills on 134 swings, hitting .269, while Bre Payton added a match-high 38 assists. The win was extra sweet for the Panthers, as they were knocked out of the 2002 NCAA Tournament by the Cougars, 3-0, in the East Regional semi-final match.

 

With the loss, the Cougars are now 9-10 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and were making their first appearance since 2002, when they made a run to the Elite Eight. WSU struggled to attack all night, hitting just .174, with 43 kills on 138 swings. Rachel Todorovich was one of two Cougars with double-digit kills, as she produced a match-high 15 kills on just 27 swings, hitting .556.

 

Early in the first set the teams exchanged points to even the score at 3-3, but then Brittany Tillman notched a kill and two straight blocks, while Meagan Ganzer added a kill to put the Cougars up 7-4. The Cougars looked to have command of the match at 13-7, following an ace from Cassie Robbins, but the Panthers clawed back, eventually evening the score at 17-17 after a kill by Aschoff. WSU once again looked like they were on their way to a first-set win with the score at 23-20, but UNI bounced back with three straight kills from Burow, Payton and Aschoff. A kill by Ganzer put the Cougars in position to win at 24-23, but Burow responded with her fifth kill of the set, and with Burow now serving, the Cougars followed with back-to-back errors to give the Panthers the first set, 26-24.

 

Set two saw the two teams’ roles reverse, with the Cougars playing from behind for most of the set, following an early 3-2 lead. UNI slowly built up its lead with two, three and four point bursts, eventually reaching a 20-14 lead. The Cougars did not go away quietly though, as they battled to make the score 19-22. The two teams exchanged points, with Tillman adding two more kills for the Cougars, but the Panthers got kills from three different players to take set two, 25-21.

 

In the final set, the Cougars once again got up 3-2, before UNI followed with back-to-back kills from Amy Braun and Beth Discher. After exchanges and the score at 7-7, Tillman and Ganzer added kills and were followed by two straight errors from the Panthers to give the Cougars the lead, 11-7. The Panthers once again came back, taking the lead 13-12, capped with an ace by Payton. After battling back and forth to 17-17, the Panthers notched three straight points to take the lead 20-17, and never look back, eventually winning the set 25-20.

 

The Panthers are now 12-14 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and will now move onto the second round, where tomorrow night at 5 p.m. they will face the winner of tonight’s match between the 10th seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers and Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.