ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tasked with the toughest opening matchup of any Division II school in the country, the No. 11 Colorado School of Mines volleyball team battled the six-time defending National Champion and top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears, but fell in three games on Friday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn. 

Mines (0-1), the defending RMAC Champions, failed to get in a groove through the first two sets in falling by scores of 25-12 and 25-18. 

The third game, however, saw the Orediggers post a .364 team attack percentage in jumping out to a 10-6 lead through 16 points. 

Mines continued to push the lead, going up by as much as 18-10 on a kill by junior Sarah Pekarek. An attack error by CSP (1-0) on the 32nd point saw Mines hold a 20-12 lead, but the Golden Bears fought back to hold off a pair of set points and eventually tie the match at 24. 

The teams traded points to push the match to 25-25, before CSP used a Mines attack error and a kill from Kayla Koenecke to capture the game, 27-25, and the match, 3-0.

Offensively, Mines was led by returning All-American Melanie Wannamaker, who knocked down a team-high 14 kills on a .500 attack percentage. She added one block and two digs on 26 total attacks. 

Rookie Alanna Winfield was next on the stat sheet with nine kills on 19 attacks for a .421 attack percentage, while Pekarek added eight kills and six digs as well.  

Sophomore Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood dished out 33 assists and added seven digs on the defensive end while finishing 1-for-3 on attacks. 

Senior Hannah Margheim led the back line with 14 digs to move her up the all-time program digs list with 1,371 for her career.