DURANGO, Colo. – The Colorado State University women's volleyball team closed out play here Saturday evening the in the Skyhawks Invitational with a hard-fought four-set loss (25-14, 23-25, 18-25, 21-25) to East Central University at Whalen Gymnasium on the Fort Lewis College campus.
With the setback, the ThunderWolves fall to 1-7 overall on the season, while East Central improved to 3-6 overall. The Pack went 1-3 at the event as they fell 3-1 to Angelo State and East Central, lost 3-0 to Texas A&M-International and picked up a 3-0 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State.
"We scheduled a tough preseason to find out about ourselves. I don't believe the record to this point reflects the progress we've made and the product we have on the floor," CSU Pueblo head volleyball coach
Austin Albers said. "But results speak volumes and our job now is to close the book on the preseason and shift our focus to RMAC play. We're 0-0 with a chance to get to 1-0 next week...our eyes are ahead on that opportunity."
Against East Central, the Pack offense outhit the Tigers, .205 to .197, but Tigers held an 8.5-4.0 edge in blocks and the Pack had nine service errors to ECU's three service errors. The Pack recorded 60 kills in the match.
Leading the way for the Pack was redshirt sophomore outside hitter
Payton Van Veen (Springfield, Mo./Washburn) with 18 kills and hit .300, while sophomore outside hitter
Sadie Scoville (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleasant Grove) added 13 kills and 14 digs for her third double-double of the season. A third Pack player finished with double-digit kills as freshman
Ceanna O'Loughlin (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) had 12 kills and hit .286.
The Pack defense was paced by 16 digs from senior libero
Kealey Marshall (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail), while also recording two of the Pack's four aces.
Junior setter
Sabrina King (Parker, Colo./Lutheran) had 27 assists and nine digs, while redshirt junior setter
Grace Jansen (Sandy, Utah/Jordan) had 24 assists in the loss.
Two Pack players – Van Veen and sophomore outside hitter
Kendall Harrington (San Antonio, Texas/Tom C. Clark) – were each named to the Skyhawks Invitational All-Tournament Team. At the event, Van Veen averaged 3.93 kills and 0.71 blocks per set and hit .326, while Harrington averaged 2.64 kills per set and had 10 digs, five blocks and three aces.
Emma Strickland and Odalys Gonzalez each had 13 kills to pace ECU, while Sydney Roshek had 18 digs. Julia Kabala and Stickland each had 14 digs in the win. Angel Nahinu had five blocks for the Tigers.
Set 1: The opening set belonged to the Pack as they only trailed once in the set and after the set was tied at 1-all, the Pack jumped in front 5-1 and eventually led 21-10. The Tigers, though, would score two of the next three points to pull within 22-12, before the Pack scored three of the final five points to seal a 25-14 set win. The win was capped by an ace from Marshall. In the set, the Pack hit .433 with 16 kills, including five from Van Veen and four each from O'Loughlin and Scoville. ECU hit just .061 and had nine kills.
Set 2: In the second set, the Tigers jumped in front 9-5 and led 12-9 when the Pack used a 4-0 run keyed by back-to-back attack errors by the Tigers to take a 13-12 lead. The Tigers, though, responded with a 9-4 run to take a 21-17 lead. CSU Pueblo responded with a 6-3 run to pull within 24-23, before ECU capped the 25-23 set win with a kill from Strickland. In the set, the Pack hit .205 with 16 kills, including five by Scoville, while ECU hit .226 with 12 kills and had three aces and two blocks.
Set 3: The third set featured six ties and one lead change. The Pack jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 4-1 when ECU used an 8-4 run to take a 9-8 lead. The Tigers led eventually grew to 19-14. Following a kill by Harrington moved the Pack within 19-15, ECU would close the set on a 6-3 run to seal its 25-18 win and take a 2-1 lead in the match. In the set, ECU hit .360 with 11 kills and three blocks, while CSU Pueblo hit .088 with 13 kills, including a combined nine kills from Van Veen and O'Loughlin.
Set 4: Much like the third set, the fourth set had eight ties and three lead changes. In the set, ECU jumped out to a 6-3 lead early in the set, but the Pack responded with a 6-2 run capped by a Van Veen kill to take a 9-8 lead. The Tigers, though, responded with an 11-5 run to push out to a 19-14 lead. The Pack would respond as they used a 6-4 run to pull within 23-20 following a kill by Harrington. The Tigers would score two of the final three points to post a 25-21 lead. The Pack hit .151 in the set with five kills from Van Veen, while ECU hit .188 with 14 kills.
Up Next: The Pack will now turn its focus to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play as they travel to Las Vegas, N.M., for a 6 p.m. match at New Mexico Highlands. The first home match of the 2023 season is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 19 against Adams State beginning at 7 p.m. in Massari Arena.
