How It Happened
An absolute domination will send #18 Colorado School of Mines (27-5) to the semifinals of the NCAA South Central Regional as they swept fifth-seeded Texas Woman's University in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, December 3 in the Junell Center on the campus of Angelo State.
After a slow start, Mines blew the Pioneers off the court in just over an hour to the tune of 25-20, 25-18 and 25-17 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Postseason. In the process CSM broke the school single season record for wins with tonight's 27th of the season.
If you were to watch the first part of the opening set you wouldn't have though that Mines could win the set as they fell behind 10-3 and were hitting in negative numbers. The poor hitting forced CSM head coach Jamie Skadeland to calm the squad down with a timeout. Now down 13-7, the Orediggers went on a 10-4 run to tie the game at 17 apiece.
Now with the match back level, Mines finally took its first lead on sophomore Ellie Monarch's kill at 19-18. From there, CSM never looked back as they took the opening set, 25-20.
The second set saw both teams come out on fire hitting the ball as they each traded the lead back-and-forth all the way to 12-12. Mines continued to swing the ball at a high level which forced the Pioneers into mistakes and allowed the Orediggers to go on a dominating 12-4 run to essentially put the frame away. That key stretch was trigged by four kills from senior Megan Peterson who work the middle of the court to perfection.
The Orediggers drilled an impressive 18 kills in that frame on a game-high .341 attacking percentage.
Now up a commanding 2-0 overall, Mines laid the hammer down in the final set and never TWU off the mat with a dominating 25-17 victory. Leading 15-13, Mines went on 10-4 run to end the game and with that the match.
Notables
- CSM will advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the past five seasons.
- Mines won essentially every single category on the night as they had more kills (49-30), hit for a better percentage (.245-to-.118), out-assisted (48-28) and had more digs (72-60).
- Senior Frannie Cormier and junior Alanna Winfield led the offensive attack with 13 kills apiece. Cormier also had the game's highest attacking percentage at .316.
- Megan Peterson also reached double-digit kills with 12.
- Senior Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood posted her team-high 19th double-double of the season with 44 assists and 15 digs. Her 44 assists were a season-high for a three-set match.
- As mentioned, Mines had a season-high 72 digs for a three-set match. Leading that defensive charge was junior libero Taryn Huber who posted 18 on the night.
- Huber and her defense didn't allow a single Pioneer player to reach double-digit kills.
Up Next
Mines is back in action tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. (CST) as they will try to take down host Angelo State on its home court. Should they win tomorrow night, Mines will play for its first ever NCAA South Central Region Championship on Saturday.
