By: Paxton Ritchie
CSC Sports Information Director
GUNNISON, Colo. – Chadron State came all the way back from two sets down to earn their first RMAC win of the season, engineering a reverse sweep over Western Colorado in five nailbiting sets – 22-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-12 – on the road in Gunnison on Friday night.
The monumental comeback gives Chadron State (6-6, 1-3 RMAC) more wins already through 12 matches than 2025's 5-21 campaign. Western Colorado dropped to 6-6 overall and 2-2 in RMAC play.
Saturday's match was the third out of CSC's first four RMAC matches to go the full five sets after setbacks to Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo last week. The Eagles had only four five-set matches in 2025. In winning a five-setter, the Eagles snapped what had been a seven-match losing streak in five-set matches dating back to November 8, 2024.
Mataya Ward had a monster match, recording a career-high 21 kills on a .413 hitting percentage. The Belle Fourche, South Dakota junior also recorded a career-high three aces during the contest and tied for second on the team with nine digs.
Just one day after setting a new season low with one block and one ace against Fort Lewis, the Eagles tied season highs with nine aces, 12 blocks and four solo blocks as a team.
Kally Kirkwood also played a large role on both ends. Kirkwood tallied 11 kills, one of three Eagles in double digits alongside Ward and Gibson Beckler (13), then set a new career-high with seven total blocks defensively.
While Kirkwood was involved in seven of CSC's 12 rejections, sophomore Sydney Strode had six total blocks including three solo blocks (both career highs) while Sarah Meservey had five total blocks (one solo) and was also efficient offensively, hitting six kills with no errors on 13 attempts for a .462 percentage.
Jillian Donovan recorded the lion's share of assists with 38, but eight different Eagles tallied at least one assist during the match. Libero Avery Lacy led the way with 16 digs.
Western Colorado won the first two sets by the narrow margin of three points. The Mountaineers used a key 5-0 run late to take a 22-18 lead in the first set, then used a 6-2 run to take a commanding 22-15 advantage in set number two.
Chadron State saved four set points in the second set before conceding to WCU, a sign in retrospect that despite a two-sets-to-none lead for the hosts, the momentum was starting to shift.
The Eagles jumped out to a 5-1 third-set lead, but the Mountaineers led 22-20 and were three points away from sewing up the match. Ward single-handedly carried CSC across the line, racking up four kills across a 5-1 scoring run as CSC swiped the third set, 25-23.
Western Colorado hit a scalding-hot .432 in the second set, outdoing a .400 hitting performance in the second set for Chadron State. The Eagles remained consistent, hitting .324 in the third and .273 in the fourth on their way to hitting .276 for the match across five sets, while WCU's attack slumped to .225 in the third and only .079 in the fourth set.
With the Mountaineers committing 23 attack errors in sets 3-5, the Eagles took set four despite never leading by more than the final margin of five points (25-20). Kills from Gibson Beckler, Kally Kirkwood and Sydney Strode sealed the set and sent things to a winner-take-all fifth.
Western took small leads on several occasions, leading 2-0, 4-2, 7-5 and 10-8, only for the Eagles to come clawing back. Three key attacking errors by the Mountaineers gave CSC an 11-10 lead, and with the score tied at 12-12, Chadron State got a Kirkwood kill, Meservey/Kirkwood block and a Meservey free ball spike to end the match and complete the comeback.
The Eagles won despite fewer kills (73-59) and digs (73-59) than Western Colorado. The home team had fewer aces (9-5) and blocks (12-4).
Chadron State has a quick turnaround, heading to Spearfish to face Black Hills State (6-6, 2-2 RMAC) on Tuesday and hosting South Dakota Mines (9-3, 3-1 RMAC) on Thursday. Those matches will be nonconference battles as part of the RMAC's Regional Pod week.