LAKEWOOD, CO- The Cougars celebrated Senior Day inside the CCU Event Center on Saturday as they hosted league leaders UCCS. Led by an inspired attack and a relentlessness on defense, Colorado Christian rolled to a sweep of the Mountain Lions to send their seniors out in style.
CCU celebrated their four seniors before the match began as
Dani Cranford,
Connelly Kilgore,
Suzanna Conner and
Krista Traynor all were honored in their final home regular season match with the Cougars.
CCU came out with fire early in the match with a 3-0 run to start things off on a pair of kills from Conner. UCCs rallied to knot the score at 8-8, but the Cougars began to gain some separation as Conner and
Ana Aguilar picked up a block and
Jenna Bell and
Sienna Thatcher hammered home kills for the 15-10 lead. CCU carried that momentum all the way to a comfortable set win as Kilgore and Conner had kills in the final few points before Bell finished the set 25-15 with a kill out of the middle. It was one of the best sets of the season from an attacking standpoint as CCU hit .500 for the 10 point victory.
Intent on getting the match level at a set apiece, the Mountain Lions came out strong in set two to gain an early 6-2 advantage. Not to be deterred, CCU began to chip away at the deficit as a Traynor ace and Conner kill made it 11-10. A Kilgore ace later tied things at 13-13, but the visitors battled back to take a 20-18 lead. A gritty finish to the set saw the Cougars score seven of the final nine points of the set as a solo block from Aguilar made it 21-20 and consecutive Conner kills and a UCCS attack error ended the set in favor of CCU 25-22.
With a sweep in sight, the Cougars stayed close as the teams traded points to begin the third set with CCU taking a 10-9 advantage after another Conner and Aguilar block. The teams would trade points from there, staying either tied or ahead by just one until the 14-14 mark. CCU would go on a three-point run from there as Thatcher had an ace and kill in the sequence and Kilgore and Bell notched a block. UCCS responded with three straight of their own as neither team looked like they would manage to pull away coming down the final stretch of the set. The Cougars found a way, scoring four in a row as Aguilar and Kilgore picked up kills and a huge ace from Traynor made it 22-18. After Thatcher made it match point with a kill at 24-21, a kill and ace from the Mountain Lions put the pressure on CCU. Fittingly it was the senior Conner who closed out the sweep, hammering a ball into the cross court from her opposite hitter position to close out the 25-23 win for the statement victory.
A balanced offensive attack saw both Conner and Thatcher notch 11 kills followed by Kilgore with eight. Traynor posted an impressive 38 assists across just three sets, while
Brooklin Frazier hit double digit digs with 10. Aguilar was dominant at the net with an eye popping six blocks. As a team, the Cougars had an attack percentage of .341 as they were efficient all night with their swings.
Now sitting at 6-4 in RMAC play after toppling the previous league leaders, CCU will head to Durango for a non-conference pod play matchup with Adams State inside Whalen Gymnasium on October 23 at 6 p.m. MST.
