Spectators donned white to participate in the Whiteout Night theme as they watched UCCS volleyball fall 3-0 against the Regis Rangers on Sept. 17.
The first set began with several exchanges that resulted in a 3-3 tie. But Regis took the lead about halfway through the set, 10-6. UCCS went on a 5-2 run thanks to junior middle blocker Julia Geiger’s back-to-back kills.
A kill from junior outside hitter Hannah Ammerman put UCCS within one point of Regis, 12-11. The Rangers took hold of the set with a 9-3 run, leading to a 25-20 win to take the set.
The second set began with an early UCCS 3-2 lead. But the Rangers took hold of the match after UCCS committed 11 attacking errors. Regis won set two with a 25-16 score.
Heading into the third set, UCCS needed to win the next three to win the match while the Rangers just had to win the one.
The Mountain Lions began with the largest lead of the night, 7-5. The Rangers followed with a 7-0 run and a 12-7 lead which they held for the rest of the match. UCCS lost the set 25-14 and the match.
Junior setter Abbie Boren accounted for 23 of the team’s 24 set assists while redshirt junior Lauren Shockley had a team high of 10 digs along with five kills.
UCCS finished the match with 29 total kills with Ammerman leading individually for UCCS with eight kills and nine total points. Geiger followed her with six kills and a solo block at the net.
“I feel like I started pretty strong, but obviously can always do better. But eight kills feels pretty good, but I feel like could have fought a little harder,” Ammerman said.
Ammerman said she is a little injured right now due to hip surgery last summer and is feeling the repercussions from it but believes that she should not let that affect her.
Ammerman said that the team trained hard at practice and that all they need to do is translate what they have at practice to the games.
“We just need to take a moment,” she said. “We are better than the teams we are losing to. I know that we can do it. It’s just a matter of reminding ourselves that we can.”
Despite the loss, she said that she missed playing in front of fans and that the energy at Whiteout Night was amazing.
The loss dropped the Mountain Lions to 0-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and a 3-6 total record.
Regis has now won eight straight games in the all-time series; the Mountain Lions’ last win against the Rangers was on Sept. 17, 2016. Regis holds an all-time series lead of 42-7.
UCCS Volleyball’s next game will be at home on Friday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. against MSU Denver. They will follow that on Saturday at home against Colorado Christian University on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m.
