Tournament on the line for Eagles
With two matches left, the Eagles’ volleyball team has already achieved their first winning season since 2003 (16 years) with their current record of 14-10 overall.
But while they beat Black Hills State University on Friday in four sets (26-24, 23-25, 25-16, and 25-22), they lost to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on Saturday in five, (24-26, 25-20, 21-25, 25-23, and 12-1). Meaning the team’s appearance in the conference tournament is still undecided.
The Eagles’ remaining matches are both against Metropolitan State University of Denver, and both at home, beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. CSC hasn’t won in 11 matches with the Roadrunners dating back to their first match up in 2012.
The matches have added importance as the Eagles currently sit in eighth place in the standings, the final qualifying spot for the RMAC conference tournament. The Eagles, 8-8 against conference opponents, are separated by just one win from Black Hills State who is ahead of them in the standings, and the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs who are behind them.
While the Eagles have two matches remaining, the Yellowjackets and Cougars have just one. BHSU will play its final match against 7-10 South Dakota Mines, Friday, and UCCS will play 19-6 Colorado Mines the same day.
Chadron can guarantee their place in the conference tournament by winning both games against MSU. Because the Eagles lost their head-to-head match up, Nov. 2, any tie with just the Cougars in the standings will put UCCS in the final spot of the tournament and leave the Eagles on the outside looking in.
Chadron and the Cougars will tie if the Eagles win just one game and UCCS defeats Colorado Mines. They’ll also tie if Chadron loses both games against MSU and UCCS also loses to Colorado Mines. The only alternative for the Eagles other than winning out is for CSC to win one game and UCCS to lose to Mines.
It’s possible, if the Yellowjackets were to lose their final game, the Eagles were to split their last two and the Cougars were to win against Mines, the three teams would all tie with a 9-9 record. If that happens the RMAC would have to resort to its second tie-breaker – the head-to-head conference set record to work out the standings. In that scenario, the Eagles would end up seventh and in the conference tournament. BHSU would be eighth and UCCS would be ninth.
The Eagles would have avoided a tense end to the season with two wins last weekend.
Friday, with the score tied at 20, Rylee Greiman, freshman of Windsor, Colorado, gave the Eagles a 22-20 lead with back-to-back kills. BHSU’s Katherine Welniak, sophomore of Laramie, Wyoming, stopped CSC’s momentum with a kill, and an attack error from Greiman tied the score again at 22. A kill by Timmi Keisel, senior of Fleming, Colorado, and two by Shelby Schouten, senior of Alton, Iowa, won the set and match for CSC.
“I thought it was an overall team win. We were being disciplined, really, on all sides of the game tonight,” Head Coach Jennifer Stadler said after Friday night’s win. “Number 25, Timmi Keisel, I thought, just played really well. We were able to get her the ball a lot, and she was terminating really well. I was really proud of the things that she did for us.”
Keisel had 15 kills in the match and hit an outstanding .433.
Stadler said Schouten and Ashton Burditt, senior of Spearfish, South Dakota, playing a big part in Friday’s win.
Schouten hit .359, and Greiman had 13 kills. Tori Strickbine, freshman of Stillwell, Kansas, ended the match with 42 assists and 18 digs.
The Eagles had three players with double-digit digs lead by Burditt with 25. Karli Noble, junior of Cheyenne, Wyoming, had 11 and Katie Thoeny, junior of Lakewood, Colorado, had 10. Block leaders for the Eagles were Chandler Hageman, sophomore of Chadron, who had eight; Keisel and Schouten tied with 3.
Mid-way through the fifth set with SDSMT, Saturday, with the score 8-5, the Eagles went on a three-point run to tie it up. Shortly after, the Hardrockers put up two points to lead 11-9. From then on, the match was back and forth until a Hardrocker kill and service ace by Dana Thomson, sophomore of Fruita, Colorado, gave Mines a 15-12 set and match win.
CSC’s kill leaders for the match were Schouten with 16, Greiman with 13, and Hageman at 12. Strickbine had 50 assists and 10 digs.
Dig leaders for the night were Burditt with 22, Abby Schaefer, freshman of Greeley, Colorado, with 15, and Noble at 11. Block leaders were Hageman with nine, Schouten with seven, and Keisel with four.
Saturday, Chadron battled back from a 2-1 deficit to force an extra set against UCCS, but couldn’t overtake the Cougars in the fifth. Twice, first at 10-9, then at 14-13, the Eagles pulled within one, but never led in the deciding set.
Four Eagles had double-digit kills in the match, led by senior Shelby Schouten, senior of Alton, Iowa, who had 15. Chandler Hageman, sophomore of Chadron, and freshman Rylee Greiman, freshman of Windsor, Colorado, each had 14 and Keisel had 10. Strickbine had 58 assists and Burditt had 25 digs. The Eagles hit .255 to the Cougars .237.