DURANGO, Colo. – The Colorado State University women's volleyball team used a season-high .323 attack percentage here Friday afternoon en route to earning its first victory of the 2023 season with a three-set sweep over Southwestern Oklahoma State (25-19, 25-17, 25-18) in its second match of the Skyhawks Invitational held at Whalen Gymnasium on the Fort Lewis College campus.

With the win, the ThunderWolves snapped an eight-match losing skid dating to last season and improved to 1-5 on the season, while SWOSU fell to 3-2 on the year.

"It was nice to finish the day with a win against a talented SWOSU squad. We're going to stay focused on the product instead of the record," CSU Pueblo head volleyball coach Austin Albers said following the win. "We're here to get bettery every day, every week, every time we step on the floor. We settled into a line-up today that gave us some consistency and if we can keep that going we'll keep growing as a group."

Against SWOSU, the Pack had four players record seven or more kills, including redshirt sophomore outside hitter Payton Van Veen (Springfield, Mo./Washburn) leading the way with 10 kills and a .455 attack percentage. In addition to Van Veen, sophomore opposite side hitter Kendall Harrington (San Antonio, Texas/Tom C. Clark) and freshman outside hitter Ceanna O'Loughlin (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) each having eight kills and freshman middle blocker Macy Wood (Sandy, Utah/Alta) tallying a career-high seven kills and hitting .600. Harrington hit .500 in the win.

Junior setter Sabrina King (Parker, Colo./Lutheran) had 22 assists and five digs, while senior libero Kealey Marshall (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail) tallied a career-high 12 digs. Senior setter Grace Jansen (Sandy, Utah/Jordan) added 10 assists and seven digs.

The Pack had seven aces in the match with sophomore outside hitter Sadie Scoville (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleasant Grove) recording three of the seven aces.

Taryn Galt paced the Lady Bulldogs with seven kills, while Lacy Mott and Hailey Smith each had six kills in the loss. Samantha Kuzma had two of SWOSU's six aces in the match.

For the match, the Pack outhit the Lady Bulldogs, .323 to .074, as they had 38 kills, 40 digs and held a 5-2 edge in blocks.

Set 1: After the two teams traded the first four points, the Pack used a 7-2 run capped by a Van Veen kill to push out to a 9-4 lead. The Pack's lead would eventually reach 19-11, before SWOSU used 7-3 run to pull within 22-18. The Pack would seal the 25-19 set win thanks to kills from Wood, Scoville and Van Veen. In the set, the Pack hit .423 and had 12 kills, including five from Van Veen and held SWOSU to a .138 attack percentage with 11 kills.

Set 2: The second set featured seven ties and five lead changes as SWOSU led 9-6 early on in the set, before the Pack used an 8-3 run keyed by two kills each from Harrington and Van Veen to take a 14-12 lead. After a kill by Smith stopped the Pack run, CSU Pueblo responded with another 8-3 run to push its lead to 22-16. Following a kill by Galt to drop the Pack's lead to 22-17, CSU Pueblo would score the final three points of the set, including capping the 25-17 win on an attack error by Galt. In the set, the Pack hit .265 with 14 kills, including four each from Harrington and Van Veen, while SWOSU hit .111.

Set 3: Much like the second set, the third was close throughout as it featured five ties and two lead changes. The Lady Bulldogs took an early 8-6 lead in the set, before the Pack responded with an 8-2 run to take a 14-10 lead. SWOSU, though, would answer back by scoring three straight points to pull within 14-13. Back-to-back kills by O'Loughlin jump started a 5-1 run for the Pack to push its lead to 19-14. Once again, the Lady Bulldogs responded with a 4-2 run to cut the Pack's lead to 21-18. That would be as close as SWOSU would get as the Pack scored the final four points of the set to seal the 25-18 win. Two of the final four points came on errors by the Lady Bulldogs, while the other two points came on a kill by Scoville and an ace by King. In the set, the Pack hit .303 with 12 kills and two blocks, while SWOSU hit .000 with nine kills and nine errors on 38 attack attempts.

Up Next: The Pack will conclude the four match weekend at the Skyhawks Invitational on Saturday with a 9 a.m. match against Texas A&M-International and a 3 p.m. match against East Central (Okla.) University.