Box Score How It Happened
In front of a raucous Junell Center crowd, the #18 Colorado School of Mines (27-6) fell in five-set thriller to South Central Region host Angelo State in the semifinals of the NCAA Regional Tournament on Friday, December 04.
The Orediggers gave the region's top team everything it could handle on its home court, but came up just short by the final of 17-25, 25-18, 17-25, 26-24 and 9-15.
Just like the night before, Mines fell behind early on some poor hitting and tough breaks. Finally, at 10-4, a timeout had to be called. Unlike the night before, CSM was unable to steady the ship this time as Angelo State hit .370 to easily win the first set, 25-17. The Belles were also aided by eight Oredigger attacking errors compared to only one for them.
The Orediggers again found themselves in an early hole as Angelo State jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead. A key 5-1 sparked by three kills from senior Frannie Cormier got Mines back level, and an error by the Belles gave Mines its first lead since the first point of the match.
The two teams then traded points back-and-forth until a pair of aces from junior Taryn Huber than one from junior Alanna Winfield gave CSM a 16-14 and forced ASU into a timeout. The lead went on to get as big as 20-15 before another Belles timeout had to be called. Mines then closed out the 12-5 run on a double block from Winfield and sophomore Ellie Monarch to take set two, 25-18.
The early part of the third frame went back-and-forth until the Belles broke a 5-5 draw with a 6-1 run that forced Mines into a timeout. The Orediggers got back to within three (13-10), but an ASU timeout got their lead back to six at 16-10 which forced CSM to take its second and final respite. While Mines got the ASU advantage back down to three at 18-15, the Belles closed out the frame with a final 7-2 jaunt to take a 2-1 lead.
Once again the Belles got out to a strong start as they jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the fourth set. The ASU advantage got to 15-8 when Coach Skadeland had to take her final timeout of the game.
Down 24-18 and looking out completely out of it, Mines pulled off an improbable 8-0 run to stave off elimination with a 26-24 victory in set four. The Orediggers found some light when the Belles made four consecutive errors to bring the lead down to 24-22. Then an unlikely kill from Taryn Huber followed by another from Megan Peterson tied the game up. CSM then closed out the incredible comeback with back-to-back kills from Alanna Winfield and junior Ashlyn Eitemiller.
The big comeback may have taken all the Orediggers had as they fell behind 8-3 at the turn. Mines did well to get it back to 10-6, but they weren't able to find that one last push as ASU held off for a 15-9 victory.
Notables
- The key stat that ultimately did CSM in was Angelo State's 12-4 dominance in blocks.
- The blocks also contributed to 26 attacking errors by Mines which was uncharacteristic of the squad.
- In Mines' 12-5 run in the second game, the Orediggers got a pair of aces from Huber and Winfield to spark that key stretch.
- Alanna Winfield led the Mines attack with 16 kills to go along with nine digs.
- Frannie Cormier and Megan Peterson also reach double-digit kills with 13 and 11, respectively. Cormier also had 11 digs for a double-double.
- In her final game in the Blue and Silver, setter Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood dished out 50 assists with nine digs and four kills
- For their impressive showings at the South Central Region Tournament, Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood and Alanna Winfield were named to the All-Tournament Team. Johnson-Hazlewood averaged 11.7 assists/set and a 3.00 digs/set while Winfield posted 3.62 kills/set on a .232 attacking percentage.
