GUNNISON, Colo. - Valdosta State came all the way from Georgia to compete in the Comfort Inn Invitational, and the trip home will likely be a little longer after the Lady Blazers were beaten by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Mountain Lions 3-0 (30-23, 32-30, 30-27) Friday afternoon.

It was the second win of the tournament for CU-Colorado Springs. The first, a 3-0 victory over Eastern Utah, does not count towards CU-Colorado Springs NCAA season standings or statistics.

From the very first serve, CU-Colorado Springs seemed cursed. First, a few close calls went against the Mountain Lions. After slipping to a 3-1 deficit, CU-Colorado Springs seemed to develop a strange attraction to the net and were unable to stay out of it.

CU-Colorado Springs coach Jessica Wood took a time out to clear her team's head and give them a talk over. The speech must have sunk in with junior setter Lindsey Hillegass, because after the timeout she took over the game.

Hillegass dumped the ball, which is tipping the ball over the net unexpectedly by the setter on the team's second touch, and then followed up with two aces within the next three points.

Later, up 28-23, Hillegass again dumped he ball over, leading to CU-Colorado Springs' 30-23 win in Game 1.

Valdosta came out in the second game poised to try and even the score to one game apiece. The Lady Blazers' defense was amazing, denying easy kills to CU-Colorado Springs. The Mountain Lions responded with a little defense of their own, which made for a very long, and very well fought, Game 2.

With the score at 17-14 in Valdosta's favor, mistakes started biting CU-Colorado Springs. Valdosta extended its lead to 25-18 before CU-Colorado Springs got its act together and mounted an impressive comeback.

The Mountain Lions used solid net play to frustrate the Valdosta attack and claw back into the game. CU-Colorado Springs found itself trailing 28-29 when Hillegass, once again, made her move.

After receiving the pass from freshman Laura Meeter, she simply dumped the ball square in the middle of Valdosta's half of the court to tie the game at 29. With the Mountain Lions leading 31-30, freshman Andrea Weedman closed the door with a sizzling kill to give CU-Colorado Springs a commanding 2-0 lead.

The third game, turned out to be a dogfight. Incredible ball movement kept CU-Colorado Springs in the game and with the score at 28-27, sophomore Caroline Ottino set a serve sailing over the net, landing untouched on Valdosta's side for an ace and a 29-27 lead.

On match point, Weedman "tooled" a Valdosta blocker, which is intentionally hitting the ball off the side of the blocker's arm so that the ball lands out of bounds, to end the game and match.

CU-Colorado Springs was led by Weedman with 11 kills, while Kelly Angel had nine and senior Kelly Olson added eight. Weedman also had a team-high 12 digs and Meeter added 11.