Streaks Aplenty as Mountain Lions Beat Chadron State, Clinch Playoff Spot

CHADRON, Neb. - There's a lot of streaking going on with the Mountain Lions volleyball team.

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs won its seventh straight match and locked up a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference playoffs with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-21) victory over the Chadron State Eagles Friday evening at Armstrong Gym.

UCCS (15-7, 10-4 RMAC) has now won four consecutive road matches after having dropped four straight. During those four matches, the Mountain Lions have gone a perfect 12-0 in sets and have gone 21-2 in sets over past seven matches.

Overall, the Mountain Lions have won nine of their past 10. After taking on Colorado Mines in Golden, Colo., on Saturday, the Mountain Lions will play their final four matches of the regular season at home where, incidentally, they have won eight in a row.

That's more streaking than a fraternity kegger.

Friday, the Mountain Lions hit a season-best 40 percent paced by Nicole Pederson's 87.5 percent (seven kills on eight attempts). Sonja Johnson led the team in kills with nine, followed by Andrea Brodie with eight. Jenica Shippy and Laura Brodie joined Pederson with seven.

For the season, those five players are all averaging over two kills per set as setter Cindy Bathelt (29 assists on Friday) has kept defenses guessing. Only one other RMAC team, Nebraska-Kearney (ranked No. 5 nationally), has five players averaging two or more kills per set.

Mallory Irvine led Chadron State (4-17, 4-10 RMAC) with 10 kills.

The first set was close at 17-15 when two kills each by Johnson and Andrea Brodie sent UCCS on a 6-0 run to take control. The teams traded points as the Mountain Lions took a 25-18 decision.

UCCS had runs of two, three, four and then five points to take a 16-7 lead in the second set. Fittingly, at least according to math majors, a six-point run put the Mountain Lions at set point before a Shippy kill closed the door.

Trailing 5-3 in the third set, Kelsey Pobar served a five-point run to give UCCS an 8-5 advantage. From that point, the lead grew to as many as six and shrunk to as few as one but never disappeared. Single kills by Johnson, Andrea Brodie, Laura Brodie, Shippy and Kim Pollard, along with a Pollard/Andrea Brodie block, provided the final six points as UCCS completed the sweep.

The Mountain Lions' hitting percentage was the best the best hitting mark posted by a UCCS volleyball team since Aug. 24, 2001, when the team hit 40.7 percent against Southwest Baptist.