The 17th ranked Lady Orediggers volleyball team hit the road this weekend to take on two conference foes on back-to-back nights, falling 3-1 to Metro State on Friday and winning 3-1 at Regis on Saturday.
Coming into Friday night’s match, Mines was riding a seven match winning streak, and looked to extend that streak with a win over the Metro State Roadrunners. However, Metro State showed up ready to defend their home court, which they did in one of the more competitive matches of the year. Mines grabbed an early 9-5 lead in the first game. Metro State fought back and took the opening game in extra points, 29-27. Mines rebounded strong with a solid 25-20 second game win, but lost the third in another long-fought 27-25 struggle in which neither team ever led by more than three points. Needing to take the fourth game to keep the match and the streak going, the Orediggers fell behind 7-3 early and never recovered, dropping the game 25-23.
Even in defeat, Mines played remarkably well as four players finished the match with double-digit kills, including 19 by reigning RMAC offensive player of the week Melanie Wannamaker (also Alanna Winfield-14, Sarah Pekarek-14, and Samantha Fischer-10). Defensively, four more players contributed double digit digs (Danielle Johnson-Hazlewood-12, Hannah Margheim-12, Corrine Din-12, and Taryn Huber-11).
Looking to rebound from Friday’s loss, Mines then took on #22 Regis University Saturday night and emerged victorious 3-1. Regis stole the first game of the match after jumping out to a quick 9-5 lead, but the Orediggers responded in the second game with an astounding comeback to seize momentum for themselves. Down 21-17 late in the game, Mines rattled off eight straight points to take the game 25-21. The third game found the Orediggers in a similar situation down 17-14, and once again they broke out a late 11-3 run to steal the third set and take a 2-1 lead in the match. Regis gave Mines a scare late in the fourth game, as they almost managed to pull off a late five-point comeback of their own to force a decisive fifth set, but critical kills by Winfield and Wannamaker gave Mines the game 26-24 and the match 3-1.
Wannamaker and Winfield topped the charts offensively for the Orediggers in this match with 19 and 18 kills respectively, plus an additional 15 from Sarah Pekarek. Pekarek also contributed 11 digs defensively to go along with Cassie Vick’s 14 and Hannah Margheim’s 19.
Mines will have a few days off before hitting the court again here in Golden on Tuesday, October 1st against Johnson & Wales University. That game kicks off at 7pm in Lockridge Arena.
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