The University of Northern Colorado was busy this weekend in two sports other than football. Its cross country and volleyball teams were on the road for their competitions as the fall season winds down, breaking personal records in the process.

Here is how they did in their respective contests.

Cross Country

Senior Melodie Leroudier had a record-setting performance at the Big Sky Championship on Friday. She finished the 5K in 17:08.8, eight seconds faster than her previous record, to finish 16th individually.

Graduate student Claudine Blancaflor was the second-fastest for UNC, clocking in at 18:19.1. Freshmen Shantell Hafner and Chloe Rylance followed.

The four runners' finishes put UNC in ninth place as a team.

Freshman Logan Cole led the men in the 8K, finishing the race in 26:11.4. Sophomores from Greeley Timothy Chambers and Jesse Hayward finished neck-and-neck at 26:32.3 and 26:32.4, respectively.

The Bears men's cross country runners finished in 11th.

Northern Colorado will head to the NCAA Mountain Regionals in Provo, Utah, on Nov. 13.

Volleyball

UNC volleyball (17-6, 9-3 Big Sky) also had a big weekend as it picked up two wins to earn the season sweep against Montana State and Montana.

The Bears started the weekend with a 3-0 win at Montana State on Friday night (25-17, 25-22, 25-16) behind a lineup change, featuring sophomore setter Syd Cole and senior libero Laura Katarzynski.

UNC got out to a hot start in set one, taking a 10-3 lead behind strong hitting. Seven of the team's early points came from kills. The Bobcats tried to cut into the lead, but the deficit was too large for a comeback.

In the second set, Northern Colorado grabbed a small lead but bailed out its opponent with nine errors. This allowed Montana State to overtake the Bears, 15-10.

UNC, however, remained composed to record timely kills and aces. At one point, the Bears went on a five-point run to close the gap and take the lead.

Finally, Montana State tried to keep things close in the final frame with a four-point run, but key setting from Cole put the Bears in position to get into a hitting rhythm.

Northern Colorado hit a game-high .500 in the third, contributing to the .327 overall hitting percentage. Montana State hit just .149 in the match.

Junior Makenzie Harris led the team with 13 kills, while junior Rachel Hickman contributed 10 of her own.

Katarzynski and Kailey Jo Ince contributed two aces apiece in the win, one of which ended the match for UNC.

In the Bears' second game of the weekend, Northern Colorado earned a 3-1 win at Montana (25-22, 25-16, 17-25, 25-16).

UNC and Montana traded points in the first set with neither team truly able to break away. A handful of small runs, however, gave the team enough cushion to close things out.

The big guns came to play in set two when Northern Colorado recorded a whopping .353 hitting percentage.

UNC led by as many as 10 points in the set, led by sophomore Lauren Strain. The Thornton native picked up eight kills in the second to give the squad a commanding victory.

Unfortunately for UNC, the Griz came storming back midway through third to end the hopes of a sweep. Montana hit .429 in set three and logged 15 kills and just three errors. Meanwhile, Northern Colorado had just nine kills and six errors.

In typical Bears volleyball fashion, though, they came back to win it in the fourth. This time, they increased their hitting percentage even more to .463, logging 13 kills and one error.

The Griz kept things close early in set four, but a kill from Hickman got UNC on a roll.

Strain finished with a team-high 17 kills, including the match point. It was her second-best kill performance, one shy of her career high of 18.

Additionally, Katarzynski was back in the starting libero spot and set a new personal dig record with 35, more than half of UNC's total digs.

Northern Colorado and Montana both finished with eight aces and eight blocks each.

The Bears will return to Greeley at 7 p.m. Friday to take on Idaho State. They will also play at 6 p.m. Saturday against Weber State.