PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo volleyball kept its hopes alive for a first round Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament home match here Friday evening with a four-set victory over UCCS (25-18m 18-25m 27-25, 25-20) on Senior Night at Massari Arena.
With the victory, the ThunderWolves improve to 13-12 overall and 10-3 in the RMSAC, while UCCS falls to 7-18 overall and 5-8 in the RMAC. The Pack will conclude the 2023 regular season Saturday night with a 6 p.m. home match against 12th-ranked Regis University.
Prior to Friday's contest, the Pack honored its four seniors in a pre-match ceremony. This year's seniors are opposite side hitter
Bailey Combs (Fresno, Calif./Central Oklahoma), setter
Grace Jansen (Sandy, Utah/Jordan), libero
Taylor Maguire (Lyons, Colo./Lyons), and libero
Kealey Marshall (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail).
In Friday's match, the Pack hit .281 with 53 kills and hit over .275 in three of its four sets against the Mountain Lions. Leading the way for the Pack was redshirt sophomore outside hitter
Payton Van Veen (Springfield, Mo./Washburn University) recorded 15 kills, nine digs and hit .412, while sophomore outside hitter
Sadie Scoville (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleasant Grove) added 14 kills and 12 digs for her team-leading 11th double-double. Sophomore opposite side hitter
Kendall Harrington (San Antonio, Texas/Tom C. Clark) had 10 kills in the win.
Scoville and freshman libero
Maddox Richtmyre (Surprise, Ariz./Willow Canyon) each had 12 digs, while redshirt sophomore middle blocker
Golden Finch (Albuquerque, N.M./Cal State Bakersfield) had six blocks.
Junior setter
Sabrina King (Parker, Colo./Lutheran) had 24 assists and eight digs, while Jansen added 15 assists and six digs.
The Pack were outblocked in the match, 8-7 and UCCS held a 7-5 edge in aces.
UCCS was paced by Lauryn Shockley, who had 12 kills and 11 digs, while Syndee Walker added 10 kills, seven digs and hit .409 and Mackenzie Ransom added 17 digs and two aces. The Mountain Lions hit .211 in the match as a team.
Set 1: The Pack hit .486 in the opening set and recorded 18 kills, including a combined 10 kills by Scoville (6) and Van Veen (4). In the set, the Pack led 9-7 early on, but the Mountain Lions scored back-to-back points to tie the set at 9-all. The Pack, though, would respond with an 11-5 run capped by Van Veen kill to take a 20-14 lead. UCCS responded by scoring by scoring three of the next five points to pull within 22-17, before the Pack scored three of the final four points to seal its 25-18 win. The final three offensive points by the Pack in the set came off of kills by Scoville.
Set 2: The second set belonged to the Mountain Lions after the Pack jumped out to a 5-2 lead as UCCS responded by scoring 14 of the next 20 points to take a 16-11 lead. Following a kill by King to bring the Pack within 16-12, UCCS closed the set by scoring nine of the final 15 points to seal its 25-18 set win and tie the match up. Six of UCCS' points came off Pack errors. In the set, the Pack hit .000 with eight kills and eight attack errors, while UCCS hit .241 with nine kills.
Set 3: With the match tied at 1-all, the third set was a back-and-forth affair as it featured six ties and two lead changes. UCCS jumped out to an early 7-3 lead and 18-12 when the Pack mounted a comeback. The comeback began with an 11-5 run capped by an attack error by the Mountain Lions to tie the set at 23-all. The two team would then trade points until the Pack used a kill by Scoville and an ace by King to seal its 27-25 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match. In the set, the Pack hit .279 with 13 kills, while UCCS hit .146 with 12 kills.
Set 4: The fourth set belonged to the Pack as they jumped out to a 12-6 lead, before UCCS pulled within 15-12. That would be as close the Mountain Lions would get as the Pack responded with 6-2 run to take a 21-14 lead. After back-to-back points by the Mountain Lions brought UCCS within 21-16, the Pack closed the set and the match by scoring four of the final eight points to post a 25-20 win. Van Veen ended the match with back-to-back kills for the Pack. In the set, the Pack hit .345 with 14 kills, including six by Van Veen, while UCCS hit .179 with 11 kills.
Up Next: The Pack will close the regular season with a 6 p.m. match on Saturday, Nov. 11 against 12th-ranked Regis, who is tied for second in the league with an 11-2 record. The Pack will be seeded anywhere between third through fifth in next week's RMAC Tournament depending on Saturday night's results. The Pack are tied for fourth in the league with South Dakota Mines, but the Hardrockers, who conclude the regular season with a match on Saturday at 11th-ranked Colorado Mesa, own the tiebreaker with the Pack due to their five-set win in Rapid City earlier this season. So a win over Regis by the Pack and a loss by South Dakota Mines at Colorado Mesa would push the Pack up to the third seed due that head-to-head advantage with Regis.
