LAKEWOOD, CO- After a long road trip, the Cougars returned home for a conference matchup with Regis on Friday night. A tightly contested first set went to CCU, but the Rangers managed to claim the final three to claim the victory in four sets.  

The first set was a back and forth affair throughout, and Megan McNitt got the offense going with a kill followed by an ace from Suzanna Conner. Abby Newell and Lilly Woods put a pair of kills down to tie the set at 17, and a huge five point run was keyed by a pair of kills from Conner and ace from Izzy Jones for a 22-18 advantage. Regis fought back to make it 24-22, but McNitt finished the set with a kill for the 25-22 set victory. 

Renee Phillips came out strong in the second set with a kill to give her team the 7-6 lead, but the Rangers went on a five point run from there. Another six point run from the visitors would put them firmly in control at 19-11 and they closed out a tough set for the Cougars with a 25-15 victory. 

The third set looked a lot more like the first as the two teams battled for an advantage. After trailing 7-4 early, CCU went on a run to claim a 9-8 lead off a kill from Woods. A trio of attack errors from the Rangers made it 12-11 Cougars, but a few Regis runs made it 23-19. Things got interesting from there as Conner served up a pair of aces to tighten the gap. It appeared as if a hit went long from the Rangers that would have made it 23 apiece, but Regis smartly challenged the call for a touch and it was overturned to make it 24-22. The Rangers closed it out for the pivotal 25-22 set win. 

A slow start doomed the Cougars in the fourth set as they allowed six straight points to the visitors to start the set. The hosts hung around and tried to make their way back into the set as a trio of kills from Newell late in the set made it just 21-18. However, the Rangers were too good on this night as they closed out the final set 25-19 to claim the four-set victory in RMAC play. 

Newell paced the offense with 15 kills followed by McNitt with 12 and Conner with eight. Jones tallied 39 assists while Woods was stellar with seven blocks. Shelby Hernandez picked up 18 digs, and Jones and Kristina House followed with 13 and 11 digs respectively. 

The Cougars will return to action at home on October 12 with a 5 p.m. MST matchup with UCCS.