GOLDEN, Colo. – An electric, boisterous crowd of Oredigger supporters turned out to Volk Gymnasium on Friday night and witnessed the #21 Colorado School of Mines Volleyball team's 3-0 win against Colorado Christian.
 
Mines received contributions across the lineup with Rose Stuewe's 14 kills leading the way. Stuewe earned her kills on .500 hitting and added one block as well. Emily Knight was right behind, touting 11 kills and a .526 attack percentage. Megan Neil and Shannon Perna combined for 17 kills while Neil hit .400 and Perna hammered out four service aces. Elle Duis produced 16 digs in the back row. Drew Stokes coordinated it all with 42 assists, four digs and 4-for-4 effort on the attack with zero errors to hit 1.000. Also notable were three additional service aces off the hand of Jada Price.
 
Mines (13-4, 8-1 RMAC) extended its winning streak to eight matches and earned the sweep behind a team hitting percentage of .418. Colorado Christian (10-8, 5-4 RMAC) managed to hit .283, but dropped its second straight match due eight combined service aces by the Orediggers compared to one from the Cougars. The visitors did out block Mines, 4-3. However, the home team proved more successful extending rallies as they finished with 46 digs compared to CCU's 28 digs. The final kill count also fell in favor of the Orediggers, 53-41. The rest of the top-ranked teams in the RMAC won on Friday as well to keep Mines at #3 in the conference standings with the second-best record in the league. MSU Denver, the #2 team in the nation improved to 9-0 in RMAC play, as did #16 Regis.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The weather outside was cold and overcast on Friday evening with fall arriving in full force, and the Orediggers were playing away from their normal home. None of that seemed to matter as Oredigger nation filled the stands in intimate Volk Gymnasium, filled with the energy of Homecoming Weekend. Mines took the hometown support and immediately charged to a 10-1 lead in the opening set, and never looked back. Six kills and an .857 hitting percentage by Knight, combined with five kills and a .444 average from Stuewe capped a 25-15 win in game one.
 
Set two proved to be the game of the night. Colorado Christian bounced back from its sluggish start at hit .400 as a team for the frame. That efficiency helped CCU put together a 4-0 run which gave the Cougars an 18-16 advantage on Mines. It turned into a 20-17 lead for the visitors, but the home team would not go away. Perna knocked down a kill, took over the serve, and guided the Orediggers on their own 4-0 run from the line to make it 21-20 in favor of Mines. What followed were eight ties, three lead changes and seven total opportunities at set point. In the end, Perna knocked down another kill, CCU made an attack error and Neil ended a long rally to clinch the 31-29 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
After the rollercoaster that was game two, Mines honored Oredigger legend Jackie Stabell at center court on the eve of her induction into the Mines Athletics Hall of Fame. There's no evidence proving that recognition made the difference, but either way, game three was all Orediggers. Five early ties and four lead changes proved to be a misnomer in the box score. Mines ran away to a 25-17 win and the sweep thanks to four more kills from Stuewe, 14 assists by Stokes and eight, third-set digs by Duis. The home team hit .500 for the set and limited CCU to a team attack percentage of .161. It took Mines less than 90 minutes to complete the victory.
 
NOTABLES
- Mines improved to 40-24 in the all-time series with Colorado Christian including three straight sweeps of the Cougars.
- The last time the Orediggers swept CCU three straight times was in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
- Duis notched a service ace on Friday night to take sole possession of #6 on the program's all-time list, moving past Sarah Pekarek.
- Stokes is now 10 assists away from breaking Mines' career assists record.
- Perna moved up to 18 aces for the season and boasts six in her last two matches.
- Price's three service aces marked a career high for the true freshman.
- The last time the Orediggers played in Volk Gym on a Friday night was Oct. 18, 2019. In that match, Stuewe, a true freshman at the time, knocked down 13 kills on .571 hitting.
- Mines Athletics has not lost a head-to-head competition since Thursday, Sept. 15. The Orediggers are a combined 22-0-1 since Friday, Sept. 16.
- Head Coach Magalei now owns a career record of 331-106.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines hosts #2 MSU Denver on Saturday night at 5 p.m. inside Volk Gym. Tickets can be purchased online at www.minesathletics.com/tickets. Live coverage will also be offered at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines volleyball on Twitter at @MinesVolleyball and on Instagram at @mines.volleyball. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.