LAKEWOOD, CO – The Cougars closed out their home conference schedule in dramatic fashion on Friday evening.

The Colorado Christian volleyball team rallied from an 0-2 deficit to post a five-set win by scores of 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 15-13.

It is the second five-set match of the week for the squad after going the distance in a tough loss to UCCS just 48 hours earlier.

HOW IT HAPPENED: The opening two sets could have gone either way but late spurts by the Mountaineers in each stanza was enough to push them to the brink of victory. In the first frame, the Cougars held a 19-18 lead but the visitors rallied in a significant manner by winning seven of the next eight points. In the set second, the Cougars rallied back from an early hole to tie the stanza at 22-22. However, Western Colorado won the final three points of the set.

In the third set the Cougars took the lead early and never gave it up. A strong offensive effort help start the comeback as Colorado Christian hit .367 in the third stanza. That momentum continued into the fourth frame as the home team raced out to leads of 6-1 and 11-3 as they forced a decisive final frame.

During that fifth stanza, the Mountaineers held an 10-7 edge and looked to be in a prime position to leave the CCU Event Center with a victory. Fortunately, the Cougars tenacity saw them win five straight points to pull within three points (12-10) of the match win. Western tied the set at 13-13 but the Cougars got kills from Alli Douglass and Jacey Johnson to complete the comeback.

COUGAR LEADERS: Johnson had a match high 20 kills while hitting .341 to pace the offense. She fell just short of a double-double with eight digs. Douglass had 15 kills in four sets to round out the double figure kill producers for Colorado Christian.

Maddie Burns registered a double-double by handing out a season high 51 assists while tallying 11 digs. Christa Tucker also notched a season high of her own by digging up 26 balls.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

• The match saw 25 ties and 12 lead changes in the match
• The Cougars won the hitting percentage battle (.196-.126)
• Colorado Christian's defense had 74 digs while the Mountaineers had 62

UP NEXT: The Cougars hit the road for a quick trip into Denver for a Monday match against Regis.