LAKEWOOD, CO- The Cougars hosted Colorado Mesa on Friday night inside the CCU Event Center in a highly anticipated RMAC matchup between two of the top teams in the conference. In a tightly contested match throughout, the visiting Mavericks came away with the narrow victory in four sets.
Connelly Kilgore and
Ana Aguilar notched early kills in the first set, and an
Aaliyah Simpson and
Suzanna Conner block made it 13-12 Cougars. The teams traded points for the majority of the set, with the Mavs eventually taking a 20-19 advantage. CCU caught fire from there, scoring the next five points with a pair of
Sienna Thatcher kills, an
Allie Allen ace and several CMU attack errors as they led 24-20. Thatcher would end the set with a kill against her former team as the hosts held on for the 25-22 victory.
CMU took an early lead in set two, and they would not relinquish it the rest of the way. The Mavericks roared out to a 14-7 lead, and they continued to roll as they raced ahead 21-10. The Cougars showed great fight facing set point, coming back to within 24-19 on a
Krista Traynor kill and consecutive blocks. The rally would not be enough as CMU came away with the 25-19 win to level things at a set apiece.
Aguilar and
Suzanna Conner notched kills, while Conner and
Jenna Bell comboed for a massive block to make it 4-1 early in set three. The Mavs began to chip away, eventually tying things at 11-11. After an Aguilar kill made it 17-16, the visitors went on a four-point run to take a 20-17 advantage. Not to be outdone, CCU clawed back with three straight on kills from Conner and Thatcher to tie things at 21 apiece. The Mavericks showed resolve from there, battling to take the next four points and the set 25-21.
Intent on pushing things to a fifth set, CCU came out with back-to-back blocks from Aguilar and Conner for the early advantage. From there CMU took over as they forged ahead 11-4.
Sierra Crist and Kilgore notched kills to cut the gap to 12-8, and Aguilar began to impose her will at the net as the 6'3" freshman picked up two blocks in a row to make it 15-14 as the gap closed to just one. A Conner ace brought the Cougars level at 18-18, and eventually they took a 21-20 lead after a kill from Kilgore. The teams fought from there to a 23-23 tie, but the Mavericks got consecutive kills to end the match with a 25-23 final set win.
Kilgore paced the offense as she tallied 15 kills on .375 hitting, while Thatcher followed with 13 . Traynor dished out 39 assists, and Allen led the back row efforts with 18 digs. Aguilar was stellar with seven blocks followed by Conner with four.
CCU will look to get back on track with another home matchup tomorrow, October 10 at 3 p.m. MST against Westminster.
