CHADRON, Neb. - The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs rebounded from Friday night's loss to Nebraska-Kearney with a win in straight sets (25-17, 25-14, 25-14) over the Chadron State Eagles. UCCS dominated from the get go as their only deficit of the match came via a 1-0 score to start the second set.
The Mountain Lions out hit the Eagles .268 to .028 and only had 10 errors compared to the Eagles' 23.
UCCS (9-5, 3-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) kept Chadron State (2-11, 1-4 RMAC) guessing as they were firing from all over the court.
Nikki Kinzer and
Sonja Johnson led the Mountain Lions with nine and seven kills respectively followed by Alex Nuttall (6) and
Nicole Pederson (5).
Kinzer also led the team in hitting percentage at a .500 clip on the night and at one point in the second set accounted for six straight Mountain Lion points. Kinzer and Lindsey Stich had a block to put UCCS up 14-11. Five straight kills by Kinzer and one timeout by the Eagles later, the Mountain Lions found themselves up 19-11 and never looked back.
"I didn't realize we got on that big of roll but I think the team recognized that we had a chance to earn a bunch of points and we took advantage of that," said Kinzer "It was an altogether team effort."
Stich not only assisted Kinzer with the block but she also set all five of her attacks during the run which contributed to her match high 27 assists. On the run, Stich contributed "The energy really got going after we picked up our kill percentage. The passes were spot on and that allowed us to do what we want to; kill the ball and win."
Alex Nuttall and
Kendall Utz combined for 21 of the teams 43 digs as Nuttall had 11 and Utz added 10.
Lauren Yoder had a match high 11 kills for the Eagles and Kyla Duncan had a team high 23 assists while Jessica Jester had two aces to go with her team high four blocks.
The Mountain Lions will try to ride this momentum into Tuesday as they continue conference play when they host the Colorado Mines Orediggers at 7 p.m.