PUEBLO – The No. 18 Colorado School of Mines volleyball team was able to battle through its worst team attack percentage of the season on Thursday evening to post a 3-0 victory over CSU-Pueblo in RMAC action at Massari Arena in Pueblo.
Mines (12-4, 6-1 RMAC) captured its fifth-straight win and its 12th in the last 13 matches despite a .122 team attack percentage, a full 11 points lower than it registered in a 3-1 loss to Wingate during the first weekend of the season.
The win by head coach Jamie Skadeland's squad was the seventh in the last eight meetings against the ThunderWolves (7-9. 4-3 RMAC).
Junior Sarah Pekarek was the lone Oredigger in double figures for kills with 11 coming on a .200 attack percentage. She added four digs and two blocks defensively as well.
Senior Melanie Wannamaker was held to a single-digit total on kills for the first time this season with eight, though she still registered a .294 attack percentage. She entered the weekend as the reigning RMAC Offensive Player of the Week.
Two-time defending RMAC Setter of the Week Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood added 29 assists and 10 digs for her eighth double-double of the season, while senior Hannah Margheim led the squad in the latter category with 11.
Freshman Alanna Winfield added eight kills and two blocks as well, while fellow rookies Ashlyn Eitemiller and Samantha Fischer added four and three kills, respectively, and four blocks each.
Despite a pair of .000 attack percentages by both squads in the first set, Mines was able to capitalize on an early lead and carry it to a 25-21 victory. Mines, who entered the weekend ranked No. 2 nationally in kills per set (15.31), captured the win despite just eight kills in the opening stanza.
A kill by Kacy Griffin cut Mines' lead in set two to 17-14, and another kill by Griffin cut the lead back to three at 20-17, but the Orediggers would be able to push their lead back out to as much as 23-18 on a kill by Pekarek, before a kill by Wannamaker closed the set with Mines up 25-22.
CSUP staked an early 6-3 lead in set three, but Mines needed just three points to erase the deficit. The two teams traded the next six points to push the score to 9-9 before the Orediggers posted six straight points to take a 15-9 lead. The Orediggers would use that advantage to carry the rest of the set en route to a 25-21 set win and a 3-0 win in the match.
The squad will continue its current three-match road trip on Friday with a 7 p.m. matchup with Adams State in Alamosa.
