COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs will close out the regular season in South Dakota with the chance to secure the first home playoff match in program history with a Friday match at Black Hills State and a Saturday match at South Dakota Mines. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m.
The Mountain Lions are in the tournament with the benefit of a tiebreaker against Colorado State-Pueblo if the teams tie for eighth in the standings. UCCS can secure a home game with a 2-0 record this weekend as the No. 4 seed, and could be the No. 3 seed if Regis defeats Colorado Mesa. The Mountain Lions would hold any potential tiebreakers with Colorado Mesa, Colorado Christian and Regis for tournament seeding.
UCCS won both matches earlier this season against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines. The Mountain Lions won 3-2 against the Yellow Jackets on Oct. 28 with 15 kills from
Taylor Hamilton. UCCS followed with a 3-0 win on Oct. 29 against Mines with 32 assists from
Morgan Evans.
Both Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines are eliminated from the conference tournament, but could play the spoiler role in their regular season finales. The Yellow Jackets have won their last two matches and have a home win against Mesa this season. The Hardrockers will look for their first conference win of the season to close out 2016.
Cassidy Bush will likely move into eighth in career kills this weekend. She has 914 and needs three more to tie Diane Sheldon's mark set from 2005 through 2007. Bush needs two more solo blocks to tie for No. 10 in career records with 39 in her tenure, and her 255 block assists is 10 away from a tie for fourth. She is seventh in total blocks with 295.
A pair of strong matches could move
Morgan Evans into a tie for third in career assists. She will start this weekend with 2,703 career assists and needs 63 to tie Jessica Stewart in the record books. Evans is seventh in season records with 1,037 assists this year.
Natasha Habert is fourth with 474 digs this season and is sixth away from a tie for third in UCCS history. She is 52 digs away from the record set by Andrea Weedman in 2005, and could potentially move closer to the record depending on the length of the matches this weekend. Habert has 1,254 career digs and needs 152 to move into fourth in program history.
Live video, audio and stats will be available for both matches this weekend. Charlie Botnick will carry the live audio play-by-play coverage through GoMountainLions.com.
