SALT LAKE CITY, UT- The Cougars continued their roadtrip with a visit to take on Westminster University on Saturday afternoon. In a marathon five-set battle, the Cougars fell just short as they dropped the match 3-2 to the Griffins.
The Griffins raced out to a 9-4 lead in the first set, and they never trailed from there as they ran away with the set by a final score of 25-15.
Set two was more of a back and forth affair, but Westminster found themselves ahead 22-14 late. The Cougars pushed with five straight points, led by an
Emily Darwin block and kills from
Suzanna Conner and
Karen Salinger. Consecutive slams from Conner tightened the gap to 23-21, but WU got the last two points to claim a 25-21 set win and go ahead 2-0.
CCU was on fire in set three as they raced ahead to a 12-5 after a block from
Alissa Gregory-Obiedo. They continued to roll in the set, as a
Connelly Kilgore block was sandwiched by a kill and ace from
Sierra Crist for the 25-15 set win.
The fourth set was a battle of wills as it was the best of the night. Neither team could get much separation, and a
Renee Phillips kill gave CCU a late 22-21 lead. Facing a match point at 24-23, the Cougars were resilient as a Phillips kill and Griffin's attack error made it 25-24. The team traded points from there as neither team could manage to close for a long sequence. Crist, Kilgore and Phillips kept CCU in the set, and another Phillips kill gave the visitors another set point at 30-29. Crist finished the job, forcing a decisive fifth set with a thrilling 31-29 victory in set four as she notched yet another kill.
A Darwin block and Conner kill gave CCU the first two points of the final set, but a big four-point run from Westminster midway through the set sent them ahead 8-5. Despite battling hard, the Cougars would not take the lead again from that point, bringing it within one several times but eventually falling 15-12.
Phillips had 15 kills to lead her team, and Kilgore and Conner had 11 and 10 kills respectively.
Danielle Seabern paced CCU with 19 assists, while
Kristina House tallied a game high 32 digs as she was everywhere on the back line.
CCU will return to the Denver metro area for a matchup at MSU Denver on October 24 at 6 p.m. MDT.
