LAKEWOOD, CO - With Halloween quickly approaching, Friday nights RMAC women's volleyball match would have made the person of Jekyll and Hyde proud.

UCCS nearly gave-up a big lead but held off a feisty Colorado Christian squad for a 3-2 (25-11, 25-14, 18-25, 12-25, 15-12) win at the CCU Event Center.

HOW IT HAPPENED: In splitting the opening four sets, the winning team hit quite offensively well while the losing squad was on the negative side of the hitting ledger.

In the opening stanza UCCS built a 13-7 causing the Cougars to burn one of their timeouts. The visitors continued to build on their lead and eventually took the opening frame using a strong hitting percentage (.375) mixed with timely blocking.

The first points of the second frame set the tone. Once again the visitors jumped out to an early lead (8-3) and forced a Colorado Christian timeout. The home team cut that deficit to 10-7 but UCCS pushed their advantage into the double digits as they took a two set lead in the match. Playing a huge role in the Mountain Lions win was their strong hitting percentage (.414).

Colorado Christian turned the tide during the opening moments of the third set. They raced out to a 10-6 edge, forcing UCCS into a timeout. The brief rest bit did little good as the Cougars scored three straight points to build a seven-point edge. Despite trailing, UCCS rallied and pulled within 19-15 as Colorado Christian called their first timeout of the frame. The Cougars concluded the set on a 6-3 scoring spurt to get back into the contest. In that set, the Cougars posted a .333 hitting mark while holding the visitors to a negative (-.037) percentage.

Similar to the third set, the Cougars took the early lead (10-5) in the fourth frame as they maintained the match's momentum. Colorado Christian continued to increase their advantage as the Mountains Lions never pulled closer than four points the rest of the frame. The home team registered a .375 hitting mark as UCCS hit -.156.

The opening edge of the final set went to UCCS as they held one- or two-point edge as they teams switched sides with the Mountain Lions in front 8-6. Colorado Christian tied the frame at 8-8 but UCCS responded with two unanswered points as the home team called a timeout. They pushed that lead to 12-9 as Colorado Christian asked for another stoppage. The Cougars pulled within 13-12 but a UCCS kill gave them match point then a Cougar hitting error secured the match win.

COUGAR LEADERS: Cali Bahnsen had a team high 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage. Jincey Nystedt ran the Cougars offense a majority of the night as she had 35 assists. Defensively Mairela Gonzalez had 17 digs while Kristy Dick had two block solos and six block assists.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

• Colorado Christian held a 15-8 blocking edge
• There were only five lead changes the whole match
• Both teams had nine kills in the final set

UP NEXT: The Cougars have less than 24 hours to turnaround as they host Colo. School of Mines at 5 p.m. tomorrow.