Grizzlies dominate Cougars to snap slide
Set school-record for single-set margin of victory
ALAMOSA, Colo.— The Adams State College Grizzlies hit a combined .491 in the second and third games as they dominated the Colorado Christian University Cougars en-route to a 30-26, 30-7, 30-12 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win that snapped a 4-match slide, Saturday evening in Plachy Hall. Sophomore Andrea Tuck (Erie, Colo.) put down a match-high 11 kills to lead the Grizzlies, who improved to 8-11 overall and 4-7 in RMAC play. The Cougars, led by seven Kelly Clausen kills, fell to 1-19 overall and to 0-11 in RMAC play as their conference losing streak was extended to 25 matches.
The Grizzlies hit .337 on the night and held the Cougars to a negative .052 attack percentage. Led by freshman middle blocker Kelsey Miller (Las Animas, Colo.), the Grizzlies also had an 11-3 advantage at the net as they beat the Cougars for the seventh straight year.
Miller, who started for the first time in her career, matched her previous season total with seven blocks.
Although Tuck was the only Grizzly with 10 or more kills, ASC also received solid offensive efforts from Kimberly Ingram (Roswell, N.M.), Brittany Muchmore (Peoria, Ariz.) and Darcy Jennings (Lakin, Kan.) in the match that lasted just 70 minutes. Ingram had nine kills while hitting .375 on 16 swings while Muchmore put down eight kills while hitting a career-best .538 on 13 attempts. She and Jennings, who had six kills on a .357 hitting night, each had three blocks.
Freshman setter Mary McNeil (Phoenix, Ariz.) had 28 assists and was just one dig shy of a double-double while junior libero Jessie Pickens (Cortez, Colo.) led the team with 10 digs.
Although the first game was close, the Grizzlies never trailed and watched Cougar setters Elisa Imhof and Sasha Kissman commit six of CCU’s seven first-set ball-handling errors.
The first set was tied 6-6 before a 6-0 run triggered by back-to-back Ingram kills and continued by solid Pickens serving gave ASC a 12-6 lead. The Cougars valiantly came back to tie the game at 20 thanks to a 10-3 run before Muchmore and Miller blocked Tina Nance, who committed 11 hitting errors throughout, to put ASC ahead 21-20.
Nance then answered back with one of her four kills to tie the game at 21 before a Kissman setting error put ASC up for good.
Clausen started Game 2 with a kill giving the Cougars their only lead of the night. However, it was short lived as the Grizzlies went on a 10-0 run behind McNeil’s serving to take a 12-2 lead. Tuck had three straight kills in that spurt while the Cougars, who hit negative .182 in the game, committed five attacking errors.
Leading 7-6, the Grizzlies went on another 10-0 run with Ronica Stanley (Cortez, Colo.) at the service line as the Grizzlies posted a .625 attack percentage in the game, the most lopsided Grizzly victory in school history.
The Grizzlies were only a little less potent in the third game as they jumped out to a 10-5 lead before the Cougars got back to within four at 11-7. ASC then scored 19 of the final 24 points as the Cougars could not convert a single service point the rest of the way.
ASC hit .379 in that game while the Cougars misfired on 14 attacks while hitting negative .128.
The Grizzlies, who could be in a tie for eighth place in the overall RMAC standings by the end of the night, now depart on a 4-match road-trip that starts next Thursday night at Chadron State. The Grizzlies came into Saturday trailing Colorado State-Pueblo, which was hosting Metro State, for the eighth and final RMAC Tournament spot.
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