Lakewood, CO- With a Saturdays win against Colorado Christian University, the Western New Mexico University volleyball team clinched a spot in the conference tournament. The Mustangs (16-7, 11-4 RMAC) swept the Cougars (12-13, 7-8 RMAC) in three sets (25-15, 25-19, 25-20).
WNMU outgained CCU by hitting an outstanding .304 (43-10-97) and holding them to just a .101 (34-23-109).
The Mustangs came out strong, thanks to a couple Heather Verrill kills, by scoring the first four points of the set. The momentum did not last long for WNMU as the Cougars answered back with their own streak, scoring the next five points making the score 5-4. The set went back and forth until the Mustangs broke open the game scoring six points in a row, after a few kills by Leeta Grap and Morgan Lyneis taking the lead 18-10. An attack error on CCU gave WNMU a 24-15 lead and a kill by Mustangs Kalie Lyle won the set 25-15
The second set started off close with the score being 5-3 in Cougars favor, but Western caught fire scoring seven of the next eight points making the score 11-6. These points were contributed by a few kills by four different Mustangs and a couple CCU errors. A serving ace by Western’s Melanie Hughes and an error by Colorado’s Connie Olson increased the Mustangs lead 17-10. The Cougars would cut the lead to 23-19 after a WNMU Shannon Rich error, but the Western did not let up taking the set 25-19 thanks to a block by Verrill.
Starting the third set, Mustangs jumped to a 7-3 lead when Chyler Imai served an ace, but Colorado kept pushing to make a 8-6 deficit after a WNMU error. Western did not give Cougars any room to breathe when a kill from Lyle and block from Rich and Sheila Menezes made a score of 15-10. The Mustangs kept pounding when they took a 18-11 lead with the help of Rich’s kill, but CCU would not give in so easily cutting the lead to 20-17 after a Western error. This momentum would not stop the Mustangs as Verrrill would earn the last point of the game from a kill making the score 25-20.
Western beat out Colorado in digs 44 to 40 and in assists 40 to 34.
Individually, Verrill led the team in percentage with .538 followed by Grap with .440. Leading the team in digs was Ashley Mataele with 12 and Hughes carrying the team in assists with 21.
The Mustangs volleyball team will be traveling again this weekend starting off with Fort Lewis College beginning at 7 p.m.
