Saturday, March 7, 2026
The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
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The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
SportsVolleyball

Eagles sweep S.D. rivals, stay in playoff hunt

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Looking to collect some late season wins the Eagles faced off against RMAC opponents South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and Black Hill State University at home last weekend.

A large part of this victory was because the defense capitalized on many errors made by the Hardrockers. The Eagle’s offense had many opportunities to score in the three-set match. Gaby Varela, sophomore of Dorado, Puerto Rico, led the offense with 12 kills, and Rudy Leasau, junior of LaMesa, California, marked 10 kills. The two combined for 22 of the team’s 37 kills.

Sierra Winkle (28), freshman of Tucson, Arizona, serves Saturday during a game against Black Hills State University at the Chicoine Events Center. CSC won the match-up in three sets.—Photo by Jordyn Hulinsky
Sierra Winkle (28), freshman of Tucson, Arizona, serves Saturday during a game against Black Hills State University at the Chicoine Events Center. CSC won the match-up in three sets.—Photo by Jordyn Hulinsky

The Eagles also took advantage of the Hardrockers poor defense by scoring four aces in the game, three from Alexis Farris, sophomore of Blair, and the fourth ace from Justine Ackie, senior of Phoenix.

Freshman Madison Webb, of Loveland, Colorado, was a key factor in the game against the Hardrockers, leading the team in assists with 34 of the team’s 37 kills.

Defensively, the Eagles were dominate throughout the whole match against the Hardrockers. The Eagles totaled 11 blocks to the Hardrockers three. Sina Mauga, senior of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, led the team in blocks with a total of seven. Freshman Sierra Winkle, of Tucson, Arizona, lead the team in digs with 13, while Leasau totaled seven, and senior Jamie McLain, of Chadron, marked five digs. The trio combined for 25 of the team’s 38 digs. The Eagles put together an impressive game, winning in almost every statistical category while keeping their errors at a minimum, and winning 3-0.

In the second game of the weekend against the Yellow Jackets, the Eagles hoped to keep the momentum going and post another win and go undefeated for the weekend. The Eagles offense was fluent. Leasau led the team in kills with 13; Varela, 11; and Mauga, nine. The trio combined for 33 of the team’s 51 kills. The Eagles managed to collect six aces­—three from Webb; two from Leasau and one from Winkle. Webb earned more aces alone than the whole Yellow Jackets team combined. She led in assists with 44, which was also more than the Yellow Jackets team collected all together.

“Even though we struggled in the first set for a little while I believe that it was one of the best games that we played as a team this whole season,” freshman Tatyana Tuialii-Umi, of South Gate, California, said.

The Eagles dug up 52 kills attempts, which is 16 more than the Yellow Jackets. Winkle totaled 15 digs. McLain marked 10 and Leasau recorded nine. The trio combined for over 50 percent of the teams digs.

The Eagles dominated the stat sheet in the blocks category as well.  Mauga led with three and Alia Brennan, junior of Chadron, and Webb were both credited with one. The Eagles were in sync the whole night and continued to dominate the game from start to finish and ended up winning the match 3-0.

The Eagles play their final regular season game at 7 p.m., Saturday at the Chicoine Center against the Regis University Rangers. CSC is in a four-way tie for eighth place with Colorado Christian, CSU-Pueblo, and Adams State. The top eight teams will make the RMAC Tournament.