CHADRON, Neb. – After eight nonconference matches away from home, Chadron State volleyball will begin both its home slate and RMAC schedule with a pair of conference matches at the Chicoine Center this weekend. 

The Eagles (2-6) will welcome Colorado School of Mines (3-5) on Friday night before meeting MSU Denver (7-1), the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, on Saturday night. Both matches are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. 

Saturday will be the only scheduled time this season that Chadron State's football and volleyball teams are scheduled to play at home on the same day. There will be two national top five teams visiting town, with the football team taking on No. 4 Colorado School of Mines at noon prior to volleyball's match against the No. 2 Roadrunners. 

Tickets remain on sale, but fans outside of Chadron can watch both matches for free on the RMAC Network or follow along with live statistics. Friday night's match against Mines will also be broadcasted live on the radio on Double Q Country 97.5 and 105.9 FM, with Dave Collins on the call. 

Looking Back
Chadron State went 2-2 in the Rosella Meier Fall Classic at Nebraska Kearney. The Eagles defeated the University of Mary in four sets and Missouri Southern in three sets, but were swept by Oklahoma Christian and then-No. 6 Nebraska Kearney

RECAPS: Friday (OC, Mary) | Saturday (Missouri Southern, UNK)

Alejandra Briseno led the team in kills during each of the final three matches of the weekend. The junior had a game-high 18 kills against Mary, a game-high 15 kills against Missouri Southern and a team-high seven kills against Kearney. Briseno hit .349 against Mary and .310 against MSSU and only had nine attack errors on the weekend, with no more than three in any match.

Avoiding Revenge
Chadron State will open the RMAC season against a team highly motivated to hand them a defeat. The Eagles will be facing the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers for the first time since September 15 of last year, when Chadron defeated Mines in Colorado in what was one of the bigger RMAC upsets of the season. 

RECAP (2023): CSC vs. Mines

The win was the first against Mines for the Chadron State program since 2007. The Eagles came back from two sets down to win, losing the first two sets 18-25 and 25-27 before rebounding to win the next three – 25-19, 25-18, 15-9. 

Several standouts from that match remain on the Eagles roster. Bella Adams had 17 kills while hitting a staggering .593. Kendyl Kirkwood had a career-high 51 assists in last year's Mines match while senior Maddison Wright had a career-high seven blocks. 

Last season, Colorado School of Mines was picked fourth in the preseason poll, but early-season stumbles to Chadron and Westminster within the first three RMAC games loomed large, as Westminster won a tiebreaker for the No. 8 seed and Mines finished ninth in the conference, missing the tournament entirely. Chadron State earned the No. 6 seed and made the conference tournament for the first time since 2003. 

This season, Mines was projected by the league's head coaches to return to form and finish sixth in the league, while the Eagles were picked eighth. 

Can You Dig It?
Chadron libero Alondra Hernandez was an Honorable Mention All-RMAC selection a season ago and has picked up right where she left off and then some. 

Hernandez had recorded 137 digs in eight matches this season. Her average of 5.27 digs per set leads the entire RMAC and ranks 24^th in Division II. The senior has maintained a streak of double-digit digs in every match this season, recording 20 or more digs on three occasions with a high of 32 last Friday in the win over Mary. 

Double Double Trouble
The Eagles had a different player record a double-double in the first three games of the weekend. 

Graduate setter and Lewis-Clark State transfer Sofia Langer notched the first double-double of her Chadron career with 16 assists and 13 digs against Oklahoma Christian. Against Mary, Alondra Hernandez had a game-high 32 digs while adding 10 assists. 

On Saturday, Kendyl Kirkwood notched her second double-double of the year with 13 assists and 11 digs against Missouri Southern. Kirkwood previously had 30 assists and 12 digs against Cal State San Marcos, the only double-double of Chadron State's opening weekend.

Pardon My French
A pair of juniors who didn't see much court time over the first couple of seasons in their college careers made a substantial impact over the weekend in Kearney. 

Bo French, a junior outside hitter from Brighton, Colorado, appeared in just one set over her freshman and sophomore seasons but played in all three against Oklahoma Christian on Friday. French set career highs with four kills, 21 kill attempts and two digs. 

Setter and defensive specialist Rylee Ward has had an expanded role throughout this season. The La Grange, Wyoming native played in 13 sets last season but equaled that number just in Kearney alone. She has played in 21 sets so far in 2024, including appearances in every set of CSC's last five matches. 

Ward had a career week, as she set a career high twice with 17 assists in back-to-back wins over Mary and Missouri Southern, a career high with nine digs against Mary and a career-high three kills against Missouri Southern. Ward also had four service aces with no errors against the Marauders.

In the Polls
MSU Denver will be the second nationally ranked team that Chadron State has faced this season, after the Eagles fell to then-No. 6 Nebraska Kearney last weekend. The Lopers are now up to No. 4 in the national poll. The Eagles have played another opponent who is currently ranked – Point Loma at No. 25 – but the Sea Lions were unranked at the time of the match vs. CSC. 

Currently, there are two RMAC teams ranked in the nation's top 25 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll – MSU Denver at No. 2 overall and Colorado Mesa at No. 17. Regis is among the teams receiving votes. 
In a preseason vote of the league's head coaches, Chadron State was picked to finish eighth out of 15 teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, receiving 96 points in the poll. 

MSU Denver led the way with seven first-place votes and 189 points. The Roadrunners have won the last three RMAC regular season titles. Colorado Mesa received six first-place votes and 183 points to narrowly finish second in the preseason poll. Regis was picked third, receiving the final two first place votes. 

The other teams picked ahead of Chadron by the coaches are South Dakota Mines, CSU Pueblo, Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian. After the Eagles in eighth, the rest of the poll is rounded out by Fort Lewis, Westminster, UCCS, Adams State, Western Colorado, Black Hills State and New Mexico Highlands. 

Scouting the Orediggers
Colorado School of Mines will enter Friday's match in Chadron with a 3-5 record. The Orediggers went 1-3 at their own hosted tournament, defeating Concord in four sets before losing in straight sets to both Missouri Western and Gannon and falling in four sets to Michigan Tech. 

Last weekend, the Orediggers went to Idaho and went 2-2. Mines got wins over Saint Martin's and Augustana while losing to Point Loma and Biola. Like Chadron, Point Loma defeated the Orediggers in straight sets. 

Redshirt senior Hannah Kinnison leads the Orediggers with 98 total kills and 3.27 kills/set. Kinnison has recorded double-digit kills in five of Mines's eight matches, including the last four. She is hitting .224 on the season. Kinnison also leads the team in digs with 103 (3.43/set) and has four double-doubles this year.

Freshman middle Jenna McLaughlin has been Mines's most efficient hitter, with 66 kills against 17 errors on 160 attempts for a .306 percentage, while also pacing the team in blocks with 27, a total that ranks sixth in the RMAC. 

Head coach Jamie Magalei is in her 17^th season as head coach and 18^th season overall at Colorado School of Mines. Over that time, the Orediggers have won six RMAC regular season titles, five RMAC tournament titles and advanced to 13 straight NCAA Tournaments from 2009-2022. Prior to Mines, Magalei was an assistant coach at Minnesota State-Mankato and an all-conference setter at the University of North Dakota. 

Scouting the Roadrunners
MSU Denver is 7-1 this season. The Roadrunners won their third consecutive RMAC regular season title last year but lost in the finals of the RMAC Tournament to Regis. They were picked to win the conference again this season and have climbed to a No. 2 national ranking. 

After going 4-0 with four sweeps on the season's opening weekend, the Roadrunners faced a gauntlet last weekend at the Colorado Premier Challenge, which they hosted in Denver. MSU Denver swept No. 20 Dallas Baptist, defeated then-No. 17 Central Missouri in four sets, lost to then-No. 13 Chaminade in four sets, then beat then-No. 5 in a five-set thriller. 

Junior Annika Helf leads MSU Denver with 76 kills and 3.45 kills/set. Senior outside hitter Riley Anderson, a First Team All-RMAC selection last year, returns and has collected 3.29 kills/set while hitting .311. Senior libero Abbie McCrimmon had 3.43 digs per set to lead the team, while two players (Kryssa Moerman and Alyssa Boyte) have over 40 blocks.

The Roadrunners are hitting .302 as a team, the best hitting percentage in the RMAC by a wide margin (Colorado Mesa is second at .267). Despite the competition they have faced, MSU Denver is also holding opponents to just a .151 hitting percentage, lowest in the conference. They also lead the RMAC in blocks, with 3.02 per set.

Head coach Jenny Glenn is entering her ninth season in charge of the Roadrunners. She has been named RMAC Coach of the Year four times, including in each of the last three seasons. She has a 191-47 all-time record, including a 125-9 RMAC mark, entering the 2024 season. Prior to MSU Denver, Glenn was an associate head coach at the University of Northern Colorado. 

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Jennifer Stadler will begin her sixth season at the helm of the Chadron State volleyball program in 2024. 

In her first year in charge in 2019, Stadler immediately led the Eagles to a winning record of 14-12. That year, Stadler coached the RMAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in Ashton Burditt, who is now an assistant coach on her staff.

The Eagles had a banner year in 2023, finishing 15-12 for the program's highest win total since 2003. Chadron also had an 8-6 conference mark in 2023, finishing sixth in the league and qualifying for the RMAC Tournament for the first time in 20 years. 

Prior to CSC, Stadler coached for eight seasons at Sheridan College in Wyoming, racking up three straight 20-win seasons from 2012-2014. She was a player, assistant coach and interim head coach at current RMAC foe Black Hills State, back when the Yellow Jackets competed in the Dakota Athletic Conference. 

Entering the 2024 season, Stadler has a career record of 45-74 at Chadron State.