Box Score Gunnison, Colo. – The NMHU Cowgirl Volleyball team picked up their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win of 2013 season, on Sept. 27, with a three set sweep of the Western State Colorado University Mountaineers. The Cowgirls jumped out to an early 25-14 first set win. The Mountaineers then took the Cowgirls into extra points before NMHU won the second set 29-27. The Cowgirls finished off the three-set match sweep with a comfortable 25-17 victory in the third set. The Cowgirls, led by Head Coach
Bryan Crawford, improve to 1-2 in the RMAC and 7-5 in overall play.
NMHU 3 – WSCU 0
First Set (25-14)
Western State took the initial lead in the first set, but the Cowgirls turned the tide with a three-point run early on, taking a 7-5 lead. The Cowgirls never relinquished the lead and a four-point run would extend their lead to seven points (15-8) midway through the set. With the Cowgirls firmly in control of the set, a five-point run extended their lead to nine points (21-12). The Mountaineers would pick up two more points, but Cowgirl
Bailey Weidner finished off the set with back-to-back service aces (25-14).
Second Set (29-27)
The Mountaineers took advantage of a six-point run in the early part of the second set to jump out to a 7-2 lead. Although the Cowgirls would close the gap (7-5), the Mountaineers looked to be in command of the second set, rolling off a couple of three-point runs to take a 15-8 lead midway through the set. The Cowgirls hung around and were able to change the momentum of the second set. A couple of three-point runs of their own saw the Cowgirls close the scoring gap to just one point (21-20). NMHU managed to tie the game up at 24 points apiece and the set looked destined for extra time. With both teams battling back and forth, the Cowgirls finally finished the set by scoring two consecutive points to win the second set 29-27.
Third Set (25-17)
The Cowgirls jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third set. The teams exchanged points for a bit before the Cowgirls took control of the deciding set. With NMHU holding on to a two-point lead (11-9), the Cowgirls went on a seven-point scoring run to take an 18-9 commanding lead. Another four-point run later on saw the Cowgirls' advantage extended to eleven points (22-11). The Cowgirls needed just one point to close out the match in Gunnison (24-12), when the Mountaineers went on a five-point run to close the gap to just seven points (24-17). Finally a kill by Cowgirl
Sina Mauga finished the Mountaineers off and the Cowgirls completed the three-set sweep with a 25-17 third set victory.
The Cowgirls first win in the RMAC moves them up to ninth place in the conference.
Although the Cowgirls attacks were decent, the story of the match was errors by the Mountaineers. The Cowgirls managed just seven kills in their first set win and won the third set with a .056 attack percentage (11 kills). The Cowgirls had a 31 kills in the three sets while WSCU finished with 28 total errors. NMHU finished with a total of four service aces and seven blocks.
Alicia Moreno led the Cowgirls against the Mountaineers with 9.5 points, from nine kills and one block assist. The junior, from Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, played well on defense with 12 digs.
Sina Mauga also finished with 9.5 points against the Mountaineers. Mauga had seven kills and a total of four blocks for the Cowgirls.
The Cowgirls will continue RMAC action on the road as they travel to Alamosa, Colo. to take on the rival Grizzlies of Adams State University. The Grizzlies are in third place in the RMAC with a perfect 3-0 conference record and 5-6 in overall play. If you can't make it up to Alamosa to catch your Cowgirls in action, you can watch the match live online on the
America One Network.
GO COWGIRLS!!!
