COLORADO SPRINGS - Andrea Weedman had 12 kills and 17 digs but the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs couldn't keep pace with the Armstrong Atlantic Pirates in a 3-1 (22-30, 30-27, 30-26, 30-18) loss Friday night at the Lions' Den.

Armstrong Atlantic's strong service game kept the Mountain Lions (1-1) off balance, forcing low quality shots. UCCS was held to a meager .085 hitting percentage.

"Our passing was off and that made it a lot harder to run our offense," said Weedman.

The Pirates came into the 2006 Amerisuites/Mountain Lion Invitational having received the 32nd highest ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association national preseason poll.

Traci Knuth led the Pirates (2-1) with 13 kills, while Christina Flores and Leah Schmiedge keyed the defense with 20 digs and seven blocks respectively.

"They are a good team," said Weedman. "They had a big block and that slowed us down."

UCCS had a balanced attack with Diane Sheldon notching 13 kills, Brooke Akers adding 12 and Caroline Ottino having 11. Setter Jessica Stewart had 47 assists.

The Mountain Lions will compete in two of Saturday's seven matches, facing Montana State-Billings at 3:15 p.m. and Georgian Court at 7:45 p.m.

"We're going to try to forget about today -it's only our second game of the season," said Weedman. "We have some goals we're going to set for tomorrow."