MANKATO, Minn. – Chadron State fell on Thursday to the hosts of the invite where they will be competing through the weekend, falling in straight sets to Minnesota State Mankato 25-12, 25-21, 25-16.
Avery Lacy recorded 14 digs in the effort for the Eagles, who are now 1-4 on the season. Minnesota State remained unbeaten at 5-0.
Chadron State mostly struggled offensively, as the Eagles hit .027 as a team while their opponents hit .252.
Kally Kirkwood had seven kills to lead the Eagles, while
Gibson Beckler had six and
Mataya Ward had five, but none of the three recorded hitting percentages above .100 despite combining for 75 attempts.
Freshmen continued to contribute. CSC's best hitting percentage belonged to setter
Jillian Donovan, who hit .250 by putting away two kills with no errors on eight attempts. Donovan recorded 16 assists to lead the Eagles as the primary setter.
Shelby Harding added two aces to her season total and is now tied for second in the RMAC with 11 this season.
The Mavericks of Minnesota State wasted no time jumping out to an early lead on their home floor, hitting .316 in the first set while the Eagles had more errors than kills. After CSC won the opening point, MSU Mankato won the next five and eventually built leads of 12-5 and 18-6 on its way to a 21-12 opening-set win.
Chadron State was most competitive in the second set. The Eagles had 12 kills, including four from Kirkwood and three from Beckler. The set featured scoring runs by both teams, including a 4-0 run from CSC to take a 12-10 lead before the Mavericks went on a 6-0 run of their own to go back up by four points. With Minnesota State up 23-18, CSC used two Kirkwood kills plus an attack error to pull within two points at 23-21, but the Mavericks answered with the next two points to take the set.
In the third, Minnesota State used a kill, attack error and ace combination to take a 4-1 lead and didn't trail for the rest of the match. The Mavericks were extremely efficient, with 15 kills against just three errors in the set for a .480 third-set percentage.
Chadron State has a doubleheader on Friday. The Eagles will face Upper Iowa (0-4) at 11 a.m. and Minnesota Crookston (4-0) at 3 p.m. (MT), both in Mankato's gym.
