Eagles volleyball team loses 3 last week
Last weekend, the Eagles traveled to South Dakota to play the Black Hill State University Yellow Jackets and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Hardrockers to compete in two RMAC conference volleyball games. The first game they played was against the Yellow Jackets in Spearfish, South Dakota.
Rudy Leasau, junior of LaMesa, California, led the Eagles in kills with 19 kills in the five-set match against the Yellow Jackets. Also giving the Eagles a surprise boost on offense was Justine Ackie, senior of Phoenix. She came in the game and contributed by scoring three of the Eagles four aces.
In terms of offense, even though the Eagles had more total attempts and kills than the Yellow Jackets—the Eagles 200 total attempts compared with the Yellow Jackets 174 attempts—the Eagles also tallied a total of 60 kills while the Yellow Jackets marked 52 kills.
Gaby Varela, sophomore of Dorado, Puerto Rico, showed her defensive abilities leading the Eagles in blocks for the night. Varela had three of the Eagles seven total blocks. Another key defensive player was Sierra Winkle, freshman of Tucson, Arizona, who posted 26 digs for the Eagles. The game came down to errors, and that was a category that CSC led in, 44, to the Yellow Jackets, 26. At the end of the night, the Eagles fought hard but came up short losing to the Yellow Jackets, 3-2.
After a tough loss to the Yellow Jackets the night before, the Eagles traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota, to play the Hardrockers.
Lelalelei Nomura, senior of Pago Pago, American Samoa, led the offensive attack with 19 kills on 41 attempts. Varela helped out on offense adding another 15 kills on 40 attempts. The two combined for 34 kills out of the Eagles 53 kills as a team.
On defense, Chloe Guillen, sophomore of San Antonio, came through for the Eagles with 19 digs and Varela added in three blocks in an effort to keep the Eagles sound on defense.
Offensively the Eagles just weren’t as aggressive as they normally are, falling behind in both the number of kills and total attempts, while leading in the errors column by one. CSC fought to the end in a tough five-set match but eventually lost to the Hardrockers, 3-2.
“I just feel that we didn’t compete well,” Alia Brennan; junior of Chadron, said. “We lost close games, since both went to five sets, and we were frustrated that we couldn’t pull out a win. However, we did show a lot of heart and perseverance throughout both games because we didn’t just give in.”
Tuesday, the Eagles traveled to Denver to play against Regis University, missing some key players from the roster. Offensively Nomura, led the Eagles with a total of 16 kills and Kenzie Chrisman, freshman of Sterling, Colorado, had 12 kills. The two combined for 26 kills out of the Eagles 40 team kills. Sina Mauga, senior of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Ackie both gave the Eagles good output on offense by contributing two kills each to give the Eagles four total kills in the four-set match.
Defensively, the Eagles fought hard, getting good contributions from the players that they had along with them on the trip. Jamie McLain, senior of Chadron, led the Eagles with 14 digs. Madison Webb, freshman of Loveland, Colorado, had 13. The two contributed 27 of the team 66 digs. Nikki Schmidt, senior of Merino, Colorado, and Mauga combined to give the Eagles their only two blocks of the night against the Rangers. In the end, the Eagles would go on to lose 3-1.
The Eagles play this weekend at home against Colorado School of Mines Friday and against Colorado Christian University Saturday. Both games are at 7 p.m.