COLORADO SPRINGS - Colorado School of Mines sewed up a top-four seed and a home playoff match as it cruised past UCCS, 3-0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-19) in the regular-season finale.

The Orediggers end the regular season at 20-6 overall and 13-5 in RMAC play, finishing tied with Colorado Mesa for fourth; by virtue of their head-to-head tiebreaker, Mines will be the RMAC Tournament's #4 seed and will host Mesa Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal match.

Mines hit .306 led by a 15-kill night from Lindsey Jin, a 14-kill, .476 night by Rose Stuewe, and Abby Tiesman's 11-kill, .435 performance. Drew Stokes produced 48 assists in three sets and added six digs and three kills. UCCS, held to .183, was led by Grace Nelson's 14 kills.

Only the first set proved to be close as both teams went back and forth into extras. Mines took a 22-20 lead after a Jin kill, but a block and two Nelson kills helped UCCS tie it at 23 before a service error by Jordyn Kinsey and a third straight Nelson kill took it to 24-24. Mines took the lead on a Stuewe kill, however, and sealed the 26-24 set win on a Tiesman ace.

The second second was all Orediggers, 25-16, as they hit a blistering .438, and Mines had just three errors in the third to win 25-19. UCCS, meanwhile, was held below .200 in both sets (.152 in the second and .143 in the third) as the Oredigger defense, paced by Elle Duis (20 digs) and Gabby Castronova (8 digs) held the Mountain Lions to just nine and 10 kills in those sets, respectively.

NEXT UP
Mines' RMAC Tournament quarterfinal against Colorado Mesa will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lockridge Arena. The winner will face the Regis/UCCS winner on Nov. 22, at the highest remaining seed.