Sports Reporter
acastro@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
Coming off a five-game winning streak, CMU’s volleyball team played two of its toughest matches of the season. They faced off in two grueling five set matches, both coming in at over two hours long. The Mavs faced off against the Skyhawks on the road Tuesday night for a win (25-19, 25-13, 23-25, 23-25, 12-15), but lost to the Mustangs of Western New Mexico Saturday night (25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 16-25, 7-15) in Brownson Arena.
The Skyhawks gave a valiant effort, but ultimately fell to the Mavs, largely due to their 13 service errors. Freshman Christian Ozten led the Mavs with 14 kills, and senior Kelly Regimbal added an additional 11 to the Mavs’ tally.
Coming off the win in Durango with a six-game winning streak, the Mavs battled against the Mustangs at home. This time the Mavs fell short, ending their winning streak and hopes of an undefeated RMAC record this season.
In what seemed to be yet another match of total Mav domination on the court with the team up two games, it couldn’t pull out the win Saturday.
“Obviously it’s frustrating,” assistant coach David Skaff said. “Credit to WNMU, they took advantage of what we gave them and ran with it. I felt we got tentative in the last 3 sets and it hurt us.”
The Mustangs took control in the third game, forcing the Mavs to a fourth game.
“After losing the third game, I knew we needed to get our energy up and start playing our game,” senior Megan Rush said. “We needed to get control of our side and stop worrying about what they were doing.”
The Mavs couldn’t muster enough energy to propel them over the Mustangs, who were up 10-1 in the fourth before the Mavs were able to get back into the game. Rush credits the fans with helping the Mavericks.
“Playing at home with a crowd always helps when you’re down,” Rush said. “The energy from the crowd did help us get ourselves back into the game.”
Going into the fifth and final game, the Mustangs played a flawless hitting game, committing no errors. That proved to be too much for the Mavs to handle.
Hoping to put their loss behind them, they’ll be hitting the court this week in order to prepare themselves for next week’s matches.
“We are going to have to come together as a team,” Rush said. “Come to practice Monday ready to work, and find a way to start believing in our strengths as a team.”
The Mavs will be on the road next week, facing Adams State on Friday and Western-State Saturday.
“Adams is a very different style team than WNMU and we can’t change what we’re doing,” Skaff said. “We have our style and need to stick to our weapons.”
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