COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Mataya Ward avoided any kind of sophomore slump in a big way in 2025, earning the first all-conference honors of her career when the Belle Fourche, South Dakota native was named Honorable Mention All-RMAC by the league on Thursday.
Ward led the Eagles and ranked seventh in the RMAC with 3.15 kills per set, racking up 233 total kills across 24 matches for the Eagles. Ward also ranked 10
th in the RMAC with 3.49 points per set.
The All-RMAC teams and awards are selected and voted on by the league's 15 head coaches. Coaches are not permitted to vote for their players.
Ward tallied double-digit kills in 13 matches, over half of CSC's 2025 contests. Among her memorable performances on the season were a 16 kill, 0 error, .552 hitting performance in CSC's RMAC win over Western Colorado on September 27, an 11 kill, 0 error, .524 hitting match the following week against South Dakota Mines and a season-high 18 kills in a marathon five-setter against Black Hills State.
In addition to hitting over .500 in two matches, Ward hit over .400 one additional time and over .300 five additional times this season.
CSU Pueblo senior Caelyn Gunn was named the RMAC Player of the Year while her teammate, junior Elena Stankovic, was the conference's Setter of the Year. The other major awards went to MSU Denver's Alyssa Boyte (Defensive Player of the Year) and Karyna Werley (Freshman of the Year).
UCCS head coach Tara Hittle is the RMAC Coach of the Year after turning around a Mountain Lions team that missed the RMAC Tournament last season to a share of the regular season title and No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
The RMAC Volleyball championships will conclude this weekend, with No. 1 MSU Denver facing No. 5 Colorado Mesa and No. 2 UCCS facing No. 3 CSU Pueblo at MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center this Friday and the winners meeting in the final this Saturday.
