CHADRON, Neb. – With a short turnaround before the final week of the regular season, Chadron State volleyball will seek to end 2025 on a high with upcoming Tuesday and Friday night home matches.

The Eagles (5-19, 1-11 RMAC) begin the week with a match against Regis (3-21, 2-10 RMAC), which could be significant for final standings seeding. Chadron State will close out the regular season on Friday against Colorado School of Mines (18-6, 8-4 RMAC), which will also be Senior Night. First serve is set for 6 p.m. for both matches.

Chadron State needs a 2-0 week to top 2024's 6-20 record, and a 1-1 week to equal last year's output. The Eagles have not beaten Regis since 2007, but the Rangers are in an unfamiliar position near the bottom of the league standings, while the Eagles are two seasons removed from ending a similar drought against Colorado School of Mines, who had beaten CSC 24 times in a row before the Eagles' five-set win in 2023.

Both matches will be available to stream on the RMAC Network, while Tuesday night's match will also be broadcast live and for free on Double Q Country KQSK 97.5 and 105.9 FM, with Dave Collins on the call.  

Promotional Notes
Tuesday's match will be CSC volleyball's annual Staff and Faculty Appreciation Night. Each member of the roster will be joined by a CSC staff or faculty member on the court during player introductions as a way to acknowledge the impact those staff members have had on CSC students.

Then, Friday will be Senior Night as the Eagles honor six outgoing seniors for their contributions to the Chadron State program. The Senior Night ceremony will occur after the conclusion of the match against Colorado School of Mines.

The Chadron State seniors taking part in Friday's postgame ceremony are Bella Adams, Alejandra Briseno, Bo French, Shelbi Hazlitt, Natali Keni and Rylee Ward.

Looking Back
Chadron State embarked on its final road trip of 2025, heading over the Rockies to take on Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction and Westminster in Salt Lake City.

RECAPS: Colorado Mesa | Westminster

Although Chadron State fell 3-0 in both matches, the Eagles lost four of six sets on the weekend by the minimum two points, needing extra points twice as CSC lost the third set to Mesa 26-24 and the first set to the Griffins 27-25. 

The results mean that the Eagles will end 2025 with an 0-10 record in true road matches. Chadron State is 3-8 in the Chicoine Center, where this week's two matches will be contested, and went 2-1 in neutral site matches during the nonconference season. 

Stat Standouts

• Mataya Ward ranks sixth in the RMAC with 3.31 kills/set and 3.61 points/set.
• Jillian Donovan ranks third in the RMAC with 671 total assists, and fourth in the RMAC with 8.60 assists/set. 
• Shelby Harding ranks fourth in the RMAC with 0.38 aces/set, while her 29 total aces are tied for sixth. 
• Avery Lacy ranks 12^th in the RMAC with 3.52 digs/set, and 13^th with 271 total digs.
• Chadron State has three players averaging over two kills per set – Ward, Kally Kirkwood (174 total, 2.23/set) and Gibson Beckler (164, 2.13/set). 
• The Eagles have three players with over 100 digs – Lacy, Gibson Beckler (222, 2.88/set), and Shelby Harding (203, 2.64/set). 
• Chadron State has three players who have recorded over 30 blocks on the season – Bella Adams (44), Kally Kirkwood (37) and Shelbi Hazlitt (35).
• As a team offensively, CSC ranks 11^th in kills (12.04/set), 10^th in assists (11.01/set), 10^th in hitting percentage (.192) and 12^th in points (14.81).
• As a team defensively, Chadron State ranks third in the league in digs per set (16.54) and 12^th in blocks (1.59/set).

Immediate Impact
True freshman Shelby Harding has established herself as a player to watch both this season and as her career unfolds at CSC.

Harding ranks third on the team in digs (203) and fifth in kills (72) while giving Jennifer Stadler a versatile player who can plug holes all around the rotation. Harding has been trusted more offensively as the season has gone on, as she is averaging 0.94 kills/set across the entire season, but that number jumps to 1.39 kills/set in conference matches only. 

Harding's two best offensive games have come in the last two weeks. Harding slammed home a career-high 12 kills on a .611 hitting percentage in October 30's win over Black Hills State. In the Eagles' most recent match against Westminster, Harding added another 10 kills and hit .409. She had just one error in each of those two matches.

The offensive production didn't slow Harding's ability on the defensive end, either. The Lincoln, Nebraska native has 10 matches with double-digit digs, a total that includes all three matches Harding has managed 10 kills or more as well. Additionally, Harding's team-leading 29 aces includes 14 matches with at least one ace and nine matches will multiple aces.

Harding has appeared in every match and in all but two sets of her true freshman campaign so far. 

Three is a Magic Number
It has been a rare sight for Chadron State fans to see a volleyball match go past three sets in 2025. Win or lose, CSC has played the minimum three in 20 out of their 24 matches this season. All five of Chadron State's victories have been sweeps. 

This has been particularly true at home, as 10 of CSC's 11 home matches have been over in three sets, including all three of CSC's home wins. The lone exception was on the second day of the regular season, when Augustana (now 14-12, 8-10 NSIC) came back from two sets down to beat the Eagles in five during the Eagle Classic. 

Thanks to other two-set comebacks, the team that wins the first set has also won the second set in 22 of Chadron State's 24 contests – with the only exceptions being a five-set loss to Colorado Christian on September 19 and a four-set loss to Adams State on October 10.

Unsurprisingly, Chadron State has the fewest sets played in the RMAC with 79. RMAC teams are averaging 87.53 sets played across the conference at this point in the season.

Century Mark
Assuming she plays in both matches this week, Bella Adams will suit up for her 105^th and 106^th career matches at Chadron State to close out her career. Adams, the only member of the upcoming Senior Night class to start a match for CSC in each of the past four seasons, is sitting on 99 career starts and will hit triple digits if she's in the starting lineup for one or both matches. 

A Second-Team All-RMAC honoree in 2023 and a key piece of the team that broke a 20-year RMAC Tournament drought for the Eagle program, Adams enters the week with 654 career kills and 277 total blocks. She needs six kills to reach 150 for the season, which would be her third time in four seasons reaching that milestone.

RMAC Update
The final week of the RMAC season is here and there is much still to be decided, from the league title to the eight teams qualifying for the RMAC tournament. Colorado School of Mines, CSC's Friday opponent, will likely be playing for a lot as the Orediggers can finish anywhere from third to ninth entering Tuesday's action.

Here is the current RMAC standings:

School	RMAC	Overall
MSU Denver	11-1	21-3
UCCS	11-1	22-2
CSU Pueblo	8-3	16-7
Colorado School of Mines	8-4	18-6
Colorado Mesa	8-4	14-9
Fort Lewis	8-4	14-9
Adams State	7-4	15-11
Westminster	7-5	15-9
South Dakota Mines	6-5	9-14
New Mexico Highlands	4-7	12-13
Colorado Christian	4-7	9-14
Black Hills State	2-9	6-17
Regis	2-10	3-21
Chadron State	1-11	5-19
Western Colorado	0-12	1-23

 
The RMAC has been topsy-turvy this season. While MSU Denver (which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over UCCS) was projected to win the league and controls its own destiny to do so again, RMAC co-leaders UCCS were picked eighth in the RMAC's Preseason Coaches Poll. 

Third-place CSU Pueblo was picked fifth while the preseason second (Colorado Mesa), ninth (Colorado School of Mines) and 11^th-place teams (Fort Lewis) are in a three-way tie for fourth. The preseason teams picked third and fourth (Colorado Christian and South Dakota Mines, respectively), are out of the playoff picture currently.

Chadron State can overtake Regis in the standings with a win Tuesday. If Chadron stays in 13^th through the weekend, that means that the Eagles would host an RMAC Power Pod for the second consecutive year next season, welcoming the 2025 14^th and 15^th-place finishers to Chicoine.

Poll Numbers
Chadron State volleyball was projected for a 13^th-place finish in the RMAC, matching its finish in last season's standings, according to the RMAC Volleyball Preseason Coaches Poll. 

MSU Denver, who have won four straight RMAC regular season championships, is the runaway favorite to win the league this season, receiving 13 of a possible 14 first-place votes. 

The RMAC has just one school ranked in the AVCA/TARAFLEX Division II national women's volleyball poll – MSU Denver at No. 10. UCCS is receiving votes. 

Scouting the Opponents
Regis
The Regis Rangers have a storied volleyball history. Since 1997, they have won five RMAC titles, seven RMAC Tournament titles and made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, highlighted by runs to the Final Four in 1998 and 2019. They were fourth in the RMAC last season and were picked sixth in the preseason poll this year.

Things have not gone according to plan. The Rangers are 3-21 overall, with a 2-10 RMAC record, and began the season 1-18. Regis's only RMAC wins are against Black Hills State and Western Colorado, which both came in five sets, although the Rangers did record a Power Pod win over Colorado Christian. Regis went 0-2 last weekend against the same opponents as the Eagles, losing in three sets to Westminster and four sets to Colorado Mesa. 

Preseason All-RMAC selection Braiziah Dixon leads the Rangers. Dixon has 1.61 kills per set on a team-high .237 hitting percentage while leading the team with 71 blocks. Senior Isabella Smith (213 kills, 2.73/set, .157) has been the primary offensive option alongside freshman Sabrina Landman (146 kills, 1.72/set, .109).

Head coach Joel List has been around for much of Regis volleyball's golden era, as 2025-26 marks his 20^thyear with the program, the last nine of which have been as head coach. List has five NCAA tournament appearances and one Final Four run as a head coach and was named the RMAC Coach of the Year and Region Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2019, with another regional honor in 2023.

Colorado School of Mines
The Orediggers are fighting for a top four seed in the RMAC, as they enter the week in a three-way tie for that spot and 8-4 in conference (18-6 overall). Mines has won seven of its last nine matches but went 1-1 last week with a three-set win over Black Hills State and a five-set loss to South Dakota Mines. 

Jenna McLaughlin is a two-way threat, ranking seventh in the RMAC in hitting percentage (.329), total kills (262) and blocks per set (0.99). McLaughlin's 90 total blocks are fourth in the league and her kills/set (2.88) rank 10^th. The Orediggers have spread the wealth offensively with five players over 150 kills on the season – McLaughlin, Amanda Donais Dudley (236), Abbie O'Shay (161), Naomi Romslo (157) and Francesca Nuzzo (153). 

Mines excels defensively, as the Orediggers hold opponents to a league-low .156 hitting percentages and pace the conference with 2.28 team blocks per set. Offensively, Mines ranks fifth in kills (13.02/set) and hitting (.215).

Colorado School of Mines also has a long-tenured head coach in Jamie Magalei, who is in her 18^th season as Mines head coach and 19^th season on staff. The Orediggers have six RMAC Regular Season titles, five RMAC Tournament titles and 13 NCAA tournaments in her career. 

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Jennifer Stadler will begin her seventh season in charge of the Chadron State volleyball program in 2025, accumulating a 51-94 record in her first six seasons. 
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. 

In her first year at CSC in 2019, Stadler immediately led the Eagles to a winning record of 14-12 and coached the RMAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in Ashton Burditt. 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.