COLORADO SPRINGS/DENVER, Colo. – The Western New Mexico University volleyball team has been on quite the run to start the conference season and they will look to carry that over into a pair of tough upcoming road games this weekend against UC-Colorado Springs and MSU Denver.
The Lady Mustangs, 14-3 overall and winners of nine-straight matches, will take their perfect 9-0 conference mark to face UC-Colorado Springs first on Friday beginning at 7 p.m. The Mountain Lions are 12-6 overall and 7-2 in the RMAC as they recently had a six-match winning streak snapped this past Saturday at the hands of nationally ranked Colorado Mines, 3-1. Some of their top wins this season include a 3-2 victory over Tarleton State, a 3-0 win over Texas Woman's and a 3-1 win over MSU Denver.
The offense has three players with over 100 kills led by 316 from Kim Catlett. Taylor Hamilton adds 206, while Cassidy Bush has 168. Morgan Evans has been the main setter with 742 of the 869 team assists. On defense, Catlett has 255 digs to lead the way, followed closely by Natasha Habert with 246. Hamilton leads the team in blocks with 72, with 12 coming solo.
They are 6-3 at home this season and last year they claimed 3-1 win over WNMU in Colorado Springs.
On Saturday at 4 p.m., the Lady Mustangs will face MSU Denver. The Roadrunners are 10-8 overall and 7-2 in the conference and are currently on a seven-match winning streak which has included wins against Colorado Mines and Regis. Another top win they have this season is a 3-1 victory over Angelo State.
Four players have pounded over 100 kills for the Roadrunners led by 231 from Michaele Smith. Vasati Fiatoa adds 147, Summer Greager with 125 and Ryan Hoerdemann with 121. Brandi Torr has 660 of the team's 775 assists. On defense, Kylie Haun has collected 260 digs and in terms of blockingFiatoa has 49, with seven coming solo. Smith leads in solo blocks with nine.
The Roadrunners are 4-3 at home this season and took last year's meeting, 3-0, over WNMU in Denver.
WNMU hasn't lost since a 3-1 setback against CSU San Bernardino back on Sep. 12. During their nine-match run, only two have gone five sets, while they have tallied four sweeps.
Leeta Grap (Kamuela, HI/Hawaii Preparatory Academy) has been at the top of the offensive charts for the Lady Mustangs all season as she has 247 kills and averages 3.80 per set. She ranks third in the conference in kills per set at 3.80 (44
th nationally) and fourth in points per set at 4.15 (67
th nationally). Three other Lady Mustangs have accumulated 100 or more kills including
Shannon Rich (Folsom, CA/Folsom) (128),
Heather Verrill (Barstow, CA/Barstow ) (126) and
Sheila Menezes (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Escola Estadual Prof. Antonio Ablas Filho) (101). Verrill and Rich have some of the top hitting percentages in the conference with Verrill in fifth with a .290 and Rich in sixth with a .288. When it comes to setting the table,
Melanie Hughes (Riverside, CA/Martin Luther King Jr.) has 480, while
Chyler Imai (Kapaau, HI/Kohala) is second with 150. Hughes also leads the way with 22 service aces. On defense,
Ashley Mataele (Laie, HI/Kahuku) continues to be near the top in digs with 314, averaging 4.83 per set. She ranks third in the conference and 77
th nationally in digs per set. Grap has also added 201 digs and Imai with 134. In terms of blocking, both Rich and Verrill are over 60 led by Rich's 63 and 24 solo blocks. Verrill has 60 blocks and 14 solo. Rich is fifth in the conference in blocks per set (0.97) and Verrill is ninth (0.92).
WNMU as a team leads the RMAC in digs per set (17.65), match win-loss percentage (.824) and opposition hitting percentage (.115). They rank 36
th, 20
th and 12
th, respectively in each of those categories nationally.
Live video and stats will be available for both matches.
