CCU Volleyball was in the running to host the first round of the RMAC conference tournament, but fell short even though they won their last two conference games to take the six seed. The Cougs traveled to UCCS on Tuesday night to compete against the Mountain Lions, the three seed, but lost in four sets, ending their RMAC conference season.
 
It was arguably the Cougars worst game they had all season long in set one losing 25-12. Two factors played into the set. 1. The Mountain Lions were ready to go and unstoppable on offense and 2. CCU was the complete opposite; slow, sluggish, and disconnected. Nothing was in harmony. On offense, it was a Cougar tip game that UCCS picked up quickly and used to their advantage. On defense, blue and gold was sloppy. Despite the awful start to the match, blue and gold worked their way out of the hole like they have done so many times this season.
 
Christian played better in the second set but still lost 25-22. The kills started to come and so did the blocks as the match went on. From set one to set two their hitting percentage went from a .032% to a .136% and then continued to climb. In set three everything was firing hot and the Cougars finally looked like the squad that has won the last six matches straight. In the third CCU had five blocks and hit .206% while the Lions hit .118%. CCU won 25-23 putting the game into the fourth.
 
And what a fourth set it was. Colorado Springs needed to push through only one more set to win the match and Colorado Christian had urgency in their play to go to fifth. It was back and forth all the way to the end as it went into extra points. CCU fell short 26-24.
 
Having the night of her life was CCU Senior and First Team All-RMAC outside hitter Taylor Sturms. Sturms had a team high of 16 kills, hitting .308% and another team high in the back row with 18 digs. The All-American stepped up for the Cougars in crucial times in the match, but it was not enough to beat the deep UCCS squad.
 
The Cougars will walk away from their 2016 conference season 12-6, but will not end their season overall. CCU will continue on towards the NCCAA regional tournament that is being hosted by CCU Nov. 16^th-19^th. Follow the tournament on ccucougars.com.