DURANGO, Colo. – The Colorado State University women's volleyball team opened up play here Friday in the Skyhawks Invitational with a four-set loss at the hands of Angelo State (15-25, 17-25, 28-26, 18-25) at Whalen Gymnasium on the campus of Fort Lewis College.

With the setback, the ThunderWolves fall to 0-5 on the season, while Angelo State, who earned 31 votes in this week's latest AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll, improves to 6-0 on the season. The 0-5 start to the season is the first for the program since the 2019 season when the Pack also dropped its first five matches of the season.

The Pack, who became the first team this season to take a set from the Rambelles as they had opened the season with five straight 3-0 victories, will conclude the first day of action in the Skyhawks Invitational with a 1 p.m. MT match against Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

In Friday morning's match against the Rambelles, redshirt sophomore outside hitter Payton Van Veen (Springfield, Mo./Washburn) and sophomore opposite side hitter Kendall Harrington (San Antonio, Texas/Tom C. Clark) each recorded 14 kills in the match. The 14 kills for Harrington were a career-high. Harrington hit .345 in the match, while Van Veen hit .209.

Senior setter Grace Jansen (Sandy, Utah/Jordan) recorded a double-double of 24 assists and 12 digs, while junior setter Sabrina King (Parker, Colo./Lutheran) added 21 assists and seven digs.

The Pack outblocked the Rambelles, 9.5-6, in the match as Van Veen had five block assists, while redshirt sophomore outside hitter Savannah Coats (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) had two blocks, including the lone solo block in the match for either team.
CSU Pueblo, though, finished with one service ace and 11 service errors, while ASU had six aces and six service errors.

Hannah Kinnison led Angelo State with 15 kills and a .414 attack percentage, while Marina Sanchez added 13 kills, two aces, eight digs, four block assists and hit .545 in the win. Evelyn Torres had a double-double of 12 kills and 10 digs and Madi Parrish had 10 kills and seven digs.

For the match, the Pack was outhit, .328 to .212, as the Pack had 52 kills and 52 digs, while ASU had 61 kills and 60 digs.

Set 1: The first set belonged to the Rambelles as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 7-4 when the Pack responded with a 3-1 run to pull within 8-7. That would be as close as the score would get as ASU used a 9-3 run to push out to a 17-10 lead. After a kill by Van Veen and an assisted block by both Van Veen and Finch brought the Pack within 17-12, the Rambelles would close the set by scoring eight of the final 11 points to post a 25-15 win. In the set, ASU hit .467, while the Pack hit just .152.

Set 2: Much like the first set, ASU led throughout in the second set as they once again jumped out to 4-0 lead. The lead would eventually grow to 9-4 when the Pack used an 8-7 run to cut ASU's lead to 16-12 following a block assist from sophomore outside hitter Sadie Scoville (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleasant Grove) and junior middle blocker Josey Nunn (Kingwood, Texas/Porter). That would be as close as the Pack would get, though, as the Rambelles scored nine of the final 14 points to seal its 25-17 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match. In the set, the Pack hit .194, while ASU hit .500 with 15 kills, including five by Sanchez.

Set 3: Trailing 2-0 in the match, the Pack hit .350 and used 18 kills and three blocks to its advantage in rallying to earn a 28-26 win to force a fourth set. In the set, which featured 12 ties and two lead changes, the Pack scored the first three points and led 6-2 when ASU responded with an 11-6 run to take a 13-12 lead in the set. The teams would then trade points until ASU used a 4-1 run to turn an 18-all tie into a 22-19 lead. The Pack, though, would respond as two kills from Harrington and a kill by Scoville helped the Pack tie the set at 24-all thanks to a 5-2 run. The Pack would retake the lead at 25-24 thanks to a block assist by Van Veen and Jansen, but a kill on the next point by Sanchez retied things at 25. Back-to-back errors by both teams made the score 26-all, before a kill by Nunn gave the Pack a 27-26 lead and then Nunn and Van Veen sealed the win with a block assist on a ball hit by Torres. Harrington had six of the Pack's 18 kills in the set and she also hit .667, while ASU hit .200 with 16 kills.

Set 4: The fourth set was another back-and-forth affair as it featured five ties and three lead changes. In the set, the Pack led 2-0 early, but ASU used a 15-6 run to take a 15-8 lead midway through the set. CSU Pueblo would answer back by scoring three of the next six points to pull within 18-11, but the Rambelles used a 5-3 run to push its lead to 23-14. The Pack wouldn't go away, though a they scored three straight points to pull within 23-17, but ASU would score two of the final three points in the set, including capping the 25-18 set win with a service error by senior libero Kealey Marshall (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail). The Pack hit .143 in the set with 13 kills, including five by Van Veen, while ASU hit .244 with 14 kills and the two teams combined for 6.5 blocks.

Up Next: The Pack will look to snap its five-match losing skid to open the season as they face Southwestern Oklahoma State in a 1 p.m. match at the Skyhawks Invitational.