The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (3-18, 1-11 RMAC) volleyball team lost a pair of games on the road this weekend. The Mountain Lions lost in three games to Chadron State (15-5, 7-5) on Friday and to Colorado Mines (7-12, 3-8) on Saturday.
Unlike last weekend when the Mountain Lions were dismantled by Fort Hays State and Nebraska Kearney, reaching 20 points in a game just once, CU-Colorado Springs showed marked improvement as all six games were decided by five points or less. Chadron beat the Mountain Lions 30-25, 31-29, 30-27. While Mines won 30-27, 30-28. 30-26.
Also unlike last weekend coach Tara Miller was much more pleased with her team's effort.
"After struggling the last couple of weeks, we got back on track mentally," said Miller. "We made a lot of improvements this weekend."
On Friday Chadron State had three players hit over .400 in their win.
The Chadron State trio of Alysia Wardyn, Dixie Daily and Amanda Green combined for 33 kills and had just six hitting errors in 63 attempts. Green led with 14 kills, Wardyn had 11 and Daily eight.
Kristen Denman and
Caroline Ottino led the Mountain Lions with 11 kills apiece.
On Saturday, CU-Colorado Springs dug itself a big hole in the Game 1 against Colorado Mines, and then nearly climbed out of it.
The Mountain Lions found themselves down 10-2 early before Mines built what seemed to be a comfortable 27-15 lead. Then, with
Amanda Szentmartoni serving, CU-Colorado Springs rolled off 10 straight points to climb back into the game 27-25.
Lauren Ramsey ended the Mountain Lions' run with one of her match-high 13 kills to put Mines back up by three, which would be the Orediggers margin of victory in Game 1.
The Orediggers held off the Mountain Lions in games two and three to win their third straight match.
Linnlee Hansen had 11 kills and hit .318 for CU-Colorado Springs while
Lindsey Hillegass added seven kills and 24 assists.
The Mountain Lions have now lost 12 matches in a row, the last six of which have been three-game losses. Despite that, Miller knows that her team is headed in the right direction.
"We may have lost both matches in three games, but that isn't any indication have how much better we played," said Miller. "I think we took steps this weekend to help ensure that we will get some more wins."
