CHADRON, Neb. – For the second time this season, the No. 15 Colorado School of Mines volleyball team had to stave off an upset bid by Chadron State, but the defense made plays all night and led the Orediggers to a 3-1 victory on Friday evening at Armstrong Gymnasium.
The Orediggers (19-4, 13-1 RMAC) pushed their program record win streak to 12 matches behind set scores of 22-25, 26-24, 25-17 and 25-22.
The squad has now won 19 of its last 20 matches and Saturday's win gave the team a season sweep over the Eagles after capturing a 3-1 win earlier this season in Golden.
Senior Melanie Wannamaker and freshman Alanna Winfield posted 14 kills apiece to lead the team, while junior Sarah Pekarek closed out the Orediggers in double figures for the category with 11.
Pekarek added 13 digs to notch her ninth double-double of the season.
Wannamaker has now recorded double-digit kill totals in 22 of Mines' 23 matches this season. She added four blocks on the defensive side on Friday as well.
Winfield went over the 300-kill plateau for the season in Friday's win, becoming the second member of the squad to eclipse the mark in 2013 (Wannamaker). She led the team with five total blocks on the defensive end.
As a squad, Mines hit .172 to mark it second lowest attack percentage of the season in a win, and Friday's outing snapped a streak of five matches with a .250 team attack percentage or better.
Mines was able to win despite a season-high 11 errors at the service line.
Sophomore setter Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood, fresh off her fifth RMAC Setter of the Week award of the 2013 season, notched 46 assists and 10 digs for her team-leading 13th double-double of the season. Friday's performance put her over the 250-dig mark for the season.
Senior Hannah Margheim, this week's RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, stayed hot defensively with a match-high 30 digs against the Eagles, and needs just four more digs for her fourth-career, 400-dig season. Friday's effort was her second 30-dig performance of the season and the third of her career.
Freshman Taryn Huber added 10 digs, junior Cassie Vick followed with nine and sophomore Corrine Din added four.
Head coach Jamie Skadeland needs just one more win to record her third 20-win season in six years at the helm of the program and one more victory would give her 125 for her career.
The Eagles used a 9-to-4 run in the first set to open up a 5-5 game to a 14-9 lead, and the Orediggers could only trim down the deficit in falling by a 25-22 score.
The two squads battled to a 24-24 tie in the second set before an attack error by the Eagles coupled with a kill by Pekarek closed the set for Mines, 26-24.
The Orediggers bottled up the momentum from the second set victory and carried it over to the third where they mounted a 12-6 lead, capped by a double block by Samantha Fischer and Winfield. A kill by Pekarek pushed the lead to 22-15 before another kill by Winfield closed the set, 25-17.
CSC took an 18-15 lead in the fourth and final set on a kill by Barbie DeCent, but a kill by Fischer capped off a Mines run that saw the Orediggers knot up the set at 20-20.
Winfield pushed the Oredigger lead to 22-20 on her 13th kill of the match to force an Eagle timeout, her 14th put Mines up 24-22 and she combined with Fischer on a block to close out the set 25-22 and the match, 3-1.
The squad will close its weekend action with a 4 p.m. matchup against Black Hills State in Spearfish, S.D., on Saturday.
