ALAMOSA, Colo.—After opening the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) portion of the season with a three-game winning streak, the Grizzlies are now on a three-game losing streak. They look to break that spell as they hit the road to take on No.  6 Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo. on Friday and Chadron State College in Chadron, Neb. on Saturday.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Grizzlies played two games last week and dropped a heartbreaker to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in five sets (25-20, 17-25, 19-25, 25-19 and 10-15) on Friday night inside Plachy Hall. On Saturday, the Grizzlies battled early but eventually fell to CSU Pueblo in four sets (24-26, 25-22, 21-25 and 14-25).
 
RANKED OPPONENTS
The Grizzlies' win over Angelo State earlier this season was the Grizzlies first win over a Top 3 team. The Grizzlies had defeated then-ranked No. 5 Nebraska-Kearney in five sets in the 2008 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament quarterfinals on Nov. 14, 2008. Overall, against ranked (Top 25) opponents, since 2005, Adams State is 5-28 in matches and 27-91 in sets. That match win over Angelo State was the first sweep for the Grizzlies over a ranked opponent. So far this season the Grizzlies are 1-1 against ranked opponents as they fell to No. 16 Southwest Minnesota State, 3-0 (25-11, 25-10 and 25-11).
 
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES
Adams State has won six of their last ten overall as they enter the contest with a 7-8 overall record and a 3-3 RMAC record. 16th year Head Coach Lindy Mortensen now has 209 wins under her belt as the head coach. Adams State enters in a three-way tie for sixth place in the conference.
 
Individually, senior middle hitter Shannon Mulkey is ranked 14th in blocks per set (0.91).
 
Outside hitter Sai Collins, leads the team with 121 kills (2.37/set) while Mulkey is right behind with 118 kills and her 2.27 per set average.  Mulkey is also hitting .257 while Chasey Blach, a junior middle and outside hitter, is hitting at a .248 clip with 85 kills as the only Grizzly to have been in the starting lineup all 14 times.
 
Freshman Madeleine Benally and junior Bailey Schlosser have split time at the setter position with both making seven starts. Benally has recorded 219 assists in 34 sets, good for a 6.44 per set average.  Schlosser has a 6.97 per set average (251 assists) in 36 sets played.
 
Freshman Sierra Leone Sanchez leads the back row with 162 digs (3.12/set).
 
ABOUT THE OREDIGGERS
The Orediggers enter the weekend with a 13-1 overall record and a 6-0 RMAC record after they extended their program-best start with two wins this past weekend including their 10th match in a row. After the perfect weekend that saw them sweep Western Colorado and a four-set win over Fort Lewis, the Orediggers have jumped from No. 8 to No. 6 in this week's AVCA NCAA Division II Coaches' Poll. Mines' only loss of the season was a three-set sweep at the hands of Southwest Minnesota State on Sept. 4.
 
The Orediggers are the top attacking team in the conference as they lead the conference in hitting percentage with a .333 clip, kills by averaging 14.98 per set and assists as they average 13.55 per set.
Individually, the Orediggers have four players with more than 100 kills on the season as Taylor Hicken leads the way with 164 kills on the season. Hicken also leads Mines servers with 18 aces as five different teams players have 12 or more.
 
ABOUT THE EAGLES
The Eagles enter with a 3-10 overall record and a 1-5 conference record as they are on a three-game losing streak. The Grizzlies fell to Fort Lewis in four sets on Friday before also falling to Western Colorado in four sets on Saturday.
 
Adams State and Chadron State have already met once this season. The last time they met, Sept. 17 inside Plachy Hall, saw the Grizzlies come away with a three-set win, (25-18, 25-18 and 25-16).
 
Olivia Morten-Schell is the leading attacker for the Eagles as she averages 1.96 kills per set and 94 kills on the season.  Audrey Bennett is the is the top setter as she has 206 assists and averages 4.68 per set. Defensively, Rylee Greiman is the top defensive player with 186 digs on the season averaging 3.80 per set and Aiyana Fujiyama is the top blocker at the net with 46 total, 11 of which were solo blocks.
 
UP NEXT
The Grizzlies will return to action next week when they travel to Las Vegas, N.M. for a conference matchup at New Mexico Highlands on Tuesday before returning home on Saturday to take on Regis University at 6:00 p.m.