By: John Murphy
CSC Sports Information Assistant
CHADRON, Neb. -- After dropping the first two sets, the Chadron State volleyball team rallied back to tie the match 2-2, but fell in five sets to Colorado Mesa Saturday night, 19-25, 18-25, 28-26, 25-21, 12-15.
"We came out extremely flat in the first two sets and we didn't make adjustments quick enough," Head Coach Jennifer Stadler said. "However, in the 3rd and 4th set I thought we did a good job being aggressive with our block and then we did a nice job terminating offensively"
The loss drops the Eagles to 9-5 overall and 3-3 in RMAC play. The Mavericks improve to 9-6 and 5-2 in the conference.
After dropping the first two sets, CSC and Mesa exchanged the lead 11 times during set three, with Chadron State scoring the last three points for the victory. Set four and five had five and eight lead changes, respectively. The Mavericks scored the last three points in set five.
"Some unforced errors in key moments in the 5th set hurt us tonight," Stadler said.
Senior Shelby Schouten led the Eagles with 13 kills, followed by Chandler Hageman and Rylee Greiman, who each had ten. Schouten hit a team high .414.
Setter Tori Strickbine had 39 assists.
Defensively, Ashton Burditt had a team high 29 digs. Greiman and Karli Noble each had 13 and 11, respectively. Hageman had a match high nine blocks.
Chadron State hit .176 compared to the Mavericks .171
Kasie Gilfert led Colorado Mesa with 16 kills. Four other players finished in double-digits. Ara Norwood had 30 assists and Samantha Ritter had 25 for CMU.
Kerstin Layman had a team high 27 digs, followed by Ritter with 24. Gilfert led the Mavericks with five blocks.
"I am proud of the way our team came back being down 0-2, we showed a lot of heart and I am excited to see us continue to build off this," Stadler said.
The Eagle's continue RMAC action as they travel to Rapid City, S.D., and Spearfish, S.D., to face South Dakota School of Mines and Black Hills State next weekend.