SAN DIEGO, CA- The Cougars opened play at the San Diego Invite hosted by Point Loma on Thursday with a matchup against Winona State. CCU was in control for the majority of the match, rolling to a four-set victory over the Warriors.
Colorado Christian scored the first three points of the match on a
Connelly Kilgore kill and an empathic block from
Sienna Thatcher and
Giselle Haugen. They took complete control of the set midway through as they turned an 8-7 lead into a massive 19-7 advantage. Leading the 11 point run was
Krista Traynor with a kill and two aces, Kilgore with a pair of kills and
Suzanna Conner and Haugen with a block. Kilgore would put the finishing touches on a 25-15 opening set win with a kill.
CCU got ahead early with a seven point run, helped by an ace and kill from Kilgore and a slew of attack errors by the Warriors. They would not trail the rest of the way as Thatcher got hot with consecutive kills and Conner and
Ana Aguilar combined for a block for the 19-12 advantage. Despite a small rally from Winona State, CCU comfortably took the set 25-20.
Set three was all Warriors as they claimed an early lead and never looked back on their way to a 25-12 set victory to avoid the sweep.
Looking to avoid going to five sets for the third time in four games this season, CCU came out determined in set four and took an 11-5 lead early on a five-point run keyed by three Traynor kills. The Cougars would all but seal the match with a big eight point run to go on top 20-9 as Traynor once again excelled at the service line with a pair of aces while Thatcher, Conner and Kilgore put down kills. With the victory in sight, another run of four points from CCU gave them match point, and Thatcher ended things with a powerful slam down the line that the defense couldn't handle to give her team the 25-11 set win and hand her team the 3-1 victory.
Thatcher paced the attack with 12 kills, followed closely by Conner and Kilgore with 10. Traynor had a tremendous all around effort with 9 kills, 9 digs, 22 assists and 5 aces. Aguilar was strong with 4 blocks, and libero
Kate Kopas picked up 15 digs.
The Cougars improve to 3-1 on the season and will continue play in San Diego tomorrow at 4 p.m. MST when they take on Dallas Baptist inside Golden Gymnasium.
