ALAMOSA, Colo.—After opening the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) portion of the season with a stellar five-set win over Colorado Christian in Lakewood and a three-set sweep of Chadron State in Plachy Hall, the Adams State University volleyball team will take to the road on Thursday and Friday when they take on the Westminster Griffins and the Colorado Mesa Mavericks.
LAST TIME OUT
The Grizzlies played two games last week, however, they have been off since Friday. The Grizzlies downed the visiting Chadron State Eagles on Friday, Sept. 17 with scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-16. In the match
Shannon Mulkey paced the Grizzlies with nine kills and six blocks while
Alexandra MacAskill had six kills and four blocks.
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. Tuesday's match was the first sweep for the Grizzlies over a ranked opponent. So far this season the Grizzlies are 1-1 against ranked opponets 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 five of their last seven overall as they enter the contest with a 6-5 overall record and a 2-0 RMAC record. 16th year Head Coach
Lindy Mortensen now has 208 wins under her belt as the head coach.
Individually, senior middle hitter
Shannon Mulkey is tied for seventh in that category with an even one block per set.
Outside hitter
Sai Collins, leads the team with 104 kills (2.60/set) while Mulkey is right behind with 90 kills and her 2.95 per set average. She is also hitting .240 while
Chasey Blach, a junior middle and outside hitter, is hitting at a .257 clip with 72 kills as the only Grizzly to have been in the starting lineup all 11 times.
Freshman
Madeleine Benally and junior
Bailey Schlosser have split time at the setter position as Benally having made seven starts while recording 189 assists in 25 sets, good for a 7.56 per set average. She ranks eighth in the RMAC while Schlosser has made four starts and ranks ninth in the RMAC with her 7.46 per set average (179 assists) in 24 sets played.
Freshman
Sierra Leone Sanchez leads the back row with 132 digs (3.30/set).
ABOUT THE GRIFFINS
Westminster enters the weekend with a 2-7 overall record and an 0-2 conference record. Their conference matches so far this season at home against then-ranked No. 24 Colorado Mesa in three sets and then-ranked No. 11 Colorado School of Mines in four sets.
Freshman libero, Alanna Lee, is averaging 3.39 digs/set. Lydia Parkinson (Miller) leads the Griffins with 2.44 kills/set and has 63 digs and 11 blocks defensively. Bri Mortensen is seventh in the conference in assists (245) and is averaging 7.9 assists/set. Freshman middle, Avery Alger, is ninth in the RMAC in hitting percentage (.325).
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS
Colorado Mesa enters the weekend with a 6-3 overall record and a 1-1 conference record as they fell to then-ranked No. 6 MSU Denver in four sets before sweeping Westminster.
The Mavericks' run of nine consecutive times to be included in the AVCA Division II Top 25' Coaches Poll came to an end on Monday as they dropped from the No. 24 spot out of the poll. They are listed in the 'others receiving votes' with 58 total points.
The Mavericks have won five straight and nine out of the last ten matches against Adams State to take a 37-16 lead in the Division II era (1992-Present) series history. Adams State's last win in Grand Junction came back in 2012, the only year the Grizzlies have qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament. The Mavericks are 19-7 against the Grizzlies at home. Maverick Coach Dave Fleming is 20-7 all-time against
Lindy Mortensen in the coaching battle.
Maverick redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman was named as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Week after she recorded 44 digs over seven sets last week, good for an impressive average of 6.29 per. She had a match and season-high 26 in Thursday's match against MSU Denver and then finished with a match-high 18 in Friday's three-set sweep of Westminster.
Freshman Sydney Leffler leads the Mavericks with 113 total kills this season and is second in the RMAC with her per set average of 3.65. Leffler also ranks fourth in the RMAC for points per set (3.87).
UP NEXT
The Grizzlies will return home next Friday (Oct. 1) and Saturday (Oct. 2) to take on UCCS and CSU Pueblo in conference action.
