SALT LAKE CITY – For the second time in as many nights, Chadron State lost sets twice by the minimum two points but suffered a three-set road loss, this time to the Westminster Griffins on Saturday afternoon in Utah by scores of 25-27, 15-25, 23-25.
Freshman Shelby Harding had one of the better games of her young career, hitting over .400 with 10 kills on 22 attempts and logging a team-high 16 digs. Mataya Ward paced the Eagles with 12 kills, hitting .323, while Gibson Beckler had seven kills and hit an errorless .389 on 18 attempts.
Chadron State hit .207 for the match and hit better than .250 in each of the final two sets. The Eagles had only 10 hitting errors, the fourth fewest CSC has had in a match this season and the fewest in any loss.
The Eagles continued with the two-setter system they have favored in recent weeks, as Cydnie Eskew finished with a career-high 16 assists while Jillian Donovan had 15 assists. Libero Avery Lacy chipped in 10 digs while Chloe Grady led the net defense with four blocks, including two solo denials.
The first set was sloppy for both teams, as the Eagles and Griffins combined for 14 of the match's 25 cumulative errors in the opening frame while both teams had their worst hitting percentages of the match. A 4-0 Eagles run punctuated by back-to-back solo blocks from Grady and Kally Kirkwood followed by an Eskew ace gave CSC an 11-7 lead.
But the Griffins came up with a 4-0 run of their own at a key time, with three kills and an ace putting the home team up 22-21. The teams alternated points until the Griffins edged ahead 24-23 for set point but missed two attack attempts to spot the Eagles a 25-24 advantage. The Griffins recovered to win the next three points and take the set, 27-25.
The offenses picked up in the second. While Chadron State hit well with 11 kills against just two errors for a .257 percentage, Westminster was better, hitting .310 and collecting 17 kills in the set. Westminster never trailed after 3-2 and pulled away to win set two decisively, 25-15.
The third set returned to a see-saw battle. Back-to-back kills from Shelby Harding and Gibson Beckler gave CSC an 18-16 advantage, and the two squads alternated points all the way up to a Natali Keni kill that put CSC up 22-20. Similarly to last night, however, CSC's opponent caught fire late in the set, as the Griffins closed on a 5-1 run including four kills to steal a third-set win, 25-23.
Chadron State (5-19, 1-11 RMAC) has two matches remaining in the 2025 season, and both are at home. The Eagles face Regis (3-21, 2-12) this Tuesday before Senior Day next Friday, November 14 against Colorado School of Mines (18-6, 8-4) in the Chicoine Center.
