DURANGO, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs volleyball team boasted a season high 14 blocks Friday evening in a 3-1 win over Colorado School of Mines. The neutral-site match, hosted by Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., is the second match of the season in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Power Pod and does not count toward conference standings. The win marks the Mountain Lions' eighth straight win and their 20
th win of the season, marking the fourth time in program history UCCS has reached the 20-win mark.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP
- Final Score: W, 3-1 (26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 25-15)
- Records: UCCS (20-2, 9-1 RMAC) | CSM (16-5, 7-3 RMAC)
- Facility | Location: FLC Whalen Gymnasium | Durango, Colo.
- All-Time Series: UCCS is now 27-31 all-time against the Orediggers and 3-2 on a neutral court.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- For the second straight night, Kinley Gomez opened the match with an ace and added another dime for a 2-0 lead. Mines quickly tied up the action, 2-2, but two CSM attacking errors and six kills from five Mountain Lions boasted a 10-5 lead for UCCS. With a 14-9 advantage, CSM went on an 11-5 run to snag their first lead of the match, 20-19. The Mountain Lions were able to jump back in front, 22-20, after three Orediggers attacking errors that included a solo block from Payton Tompkins. With CSM scoring three of the next four points to tie the set at 23-23, UCCS called a timeout and put up a defensive wall at the net, as the duo of Tompkins and Nicole Martin and then Sydnee Walker and Martin blocked two straight attacks before Tompkins sealed the opening set win with a kill, 26-24.
- Colorado School of Mines evened the match at 1-1 after taking the second set, 25-17. Errors plagued the Mountain Lions as they found themselves in an early 14-6 deficit after committing four errors while Mines put down seven kills and three aces. UCCS was unable to capture the lead in the second set as they were held to a .143 attacking mark, five attacking errors, and three reception errors.
- The Mountain Lions put the second set behind them and jumped to a 4-0 lead behind two kills from Tompkins and another from Sydney Hyde. After two attacking errors from Mines, UCCS extended its lead to 6-2, but a 5-1 run by Mines that included three kills from Jenna McLaughlin knotted the set at 7-7. Another 6-1 run from the gray and blue put UCCS in their first shortfall of the set, 15-12. Trailing 17-12, UCCS started a comeback after Mines committed three errors. Following the Orediggers' third service error of the set, Hyde and Gomez blocked CSM at the net, forcing CSM to call a timeout as UCCS was just one point behind Mines, 19-18. In the back-and-forth battle of the third set, UCCS regained the lead after Mines posted two errors while Walker added an ace and Hyde and Maylen Mitrovich combined for a block to take a 22-20 lead. With the set tied at 22-22 and a timeout from UCCS, the Mountain Lions finished the set recording three straight points as Hyde put the down the final point on a kill from Mitrovich's assist, 25-22.
- Despite four ties in the first half of set four, UCCS held the advantage and never trailed Colorado School of Mines. With the score knotted at 8-8, UCCS put down four kills as part of a 5-1 run, forcing Mines to call a timeout with UCCS in the lead, 13-9. Coming out of the timeout, the Orediggers made a push at UCCS, scoring four of the next five points. Three rallies later, the Mountain Lions made a 6-0 run that featured back-to-back kills before Mitrovich capped off the run with a kill. The Mountain Lions ended the match with three straight kills from Gomez, Hyde, and Tompkins before Gomez sealed the match win with an ace, 25-15.
MATCH STATISTICS
- Tompkins matched CSM's Jenna McLaughlin for match-high honors with 14 kills. Tompkins committed only two errors on 39 attempts for a .308 hitting mark while adding 10 digs.
- Martin finished second on the team in kills with eight while notching two solo blocks and assisting on four more.
- Hyde accounted for seven of the Mountain Lions' 22 block assists and put down five kills.
- Gomez paced both teams with four service aces while chipping in six kills and 15 digs.
- The Mountain Lions hit .194 offensively with 45 kills and 64 digs.
- CSM was held to a .137 hitting mark and 56 kills. The Orediggers committed 10 service aces while serving up six aces.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- After the opening set 26-24 decision, UCCS improves to 8-3 in extra-point sets.
- UCCS remains undefeated when a match goes to four sets, moving to 5-0 on the season.
- Hyde penned a new career high with seven blocks. All seven blocks were assisted.
- One night after setting a new season high in assists, Mitrovich matched that output tonight with 32 assists.
- The Mountain Lions' win over Colorado School of Mines is their second win over the Orediggers this season. The last time UCCS defeated CSM multiple times in a season was 2009, when UCCS went 3-0 against Mines.
UP NEXT
- The Mountain Lions return to the Western Slope next weekend for conference action. UCCS will play at Western Colorado University on Friday at 6 p.m., before going back to Durango to take on Fort Lewis on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 14 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.
