Eagle V-ball hits the road after home split

After splitting two home matches last weekend, the eagles hit the road for the next two weeks beginning with matches against New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, then on to CSU Pueblo in Pueblo, Colorado.

CSC will look to gain momentum back after the Dixie State University Trailblazers interrupted the Eagles’ three-game win streak on Saturday.

“We’ve got two weekends where we’re on the road, so we’ve really got to get a little more resilient. We’ve got to continue to minimize our errors and continue to get better swings out of system balls,” Head Coach Jennifer Stadler said after the Dixie State University match on Saturday.

Friday’s match with Westminster was Chadron’s fourth straight five-set contest and their third consecutive win. It marked the third time this season the Eagles have won three consecutive matches.

Something they had done only once in the previous seven seasons.

The Chadron State Eagles pulled off a thriller on Friday night defeating the Griffins in five sets, but fell in four sets to Dixie State, Saturday.

After the split of home matches the Eagles’ record sits at 12-6 overall and 6-4 in the conference. The Eagles defeated the Griffins 25-19, 25-22, 25-17, 25-19, and 16-14. 

On Saturday, the Eagles won the first set and the Trailblazers took the rest. The scores were 25-17, 25-17, 25-23, and 25-18.

“I thought we played really resilient (Friday). Westminster did a really good job, I thought, throughout the entire night, but I thought our girls just continued to stay in it. They kept their head and continued to stay aggressive,” Stadler said after the game against the Griffins.

After Westminster forced a fifth set, the Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead. The Griffins fought back to tie it 5-5, and from then on, no team trailed by more than two points. Tied 14-14, a pair of attack errors by Westminster junior outside hitter Audrey Green, of Salt Lake City, Utah, gave the Eagles a 16-14 set and match win.

Stadler said Chandler Hageman, junior of Chadron stood out on Friday. “She did a really good job at the net (Friday), both blocking and attacking. She was really aggressive throughout all five sets.”

Hageman finished the match with 16 kills and six blocks. She hit a .389. Saturday, she led the team with nine kills and seven blocks while hitting a .286. She is currently sitting first in the RMAC with 1.27 blocks per set and 14 th in the nation, according to CSC Athletics.

Three more Eagles had double-digit kills on Friday. Shelby Schouten, senior of Alton, Iowa, had 13 kills, Rylee Greiman, of Windsor, Colorado, had 12, and Timmi Kiesel, of Fleming, Colorado, had 11. Tori Strickbine, freshman of Stillwell, Kansas, had 37 assists along with 20 digs.

Defensively the Eagles had five players with double-digit digs, led by Ashton Burditt, senior of Spearfish, South Dakota, who had 35, Greiman had 25, Karli Noble, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, had 23, and Kincaid Strain, sophomore of Elk River, Minnesota, had 12. Burditt’s 6.25 digs per set currently leads the RMAC and is fifth in the nation in the category, according to CSC athletics. Trailing Hageman in blocks was Schouten with five and Keisel with two.

Saturday the Eagles battled to push a fifth set, rallying to tie the fourth set 10-10 after Dixie had started 7-0. The eagles took a 14-13 lead, but a four-point streak from Dixie made it 17-14 in the Trailblazers favor. Dixie never trailed from there and took the set and match 25-18.

“We talked about how they have a lot of really good hitters and that we’ve got to put up a solid block to try to slow their offense down,” Stadler said after the match on Saturday.

Kill leaders for the match were Hageman with nine, Amelia Berg, sophomore of Fort Collins, Colorado, with eight, and Greiman with seven. Strickbine had 23 assists and 11 digs.

Defensively the Eagles had five players with double-digit digs led by Burditt with 22, Greiman had 14,

Noble had 12, and Strain had 10. Blocking was led by Hageman with seven, Kassidy Nelson, of Mountain View, Wyoming, had four, and Berg had three.