CHADRON, Neb. – After a 2-2 showing during its final weekend of nonconference play, the Chadron State volleyball program will begin the 2025 RMAC season with a two-game road trip to the Front Range. 

The Eagles (3-5) will face Colorado Christian (5-3) at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 19 before an overnight trip to CSU Pueblo for a 3 p.m. match against the ThunderWolves (4-4) on Saturday.

Colorado Christian, the defending RMAC Championship finalists, earned a program-defining win over No. 2 Angelo State last Tuesday in the same gym CSC will visit Friday night, while CSU Pueblo features the league's leading attacker in Caelyn Gunn.

Both matches will be streamed on the RMAC Network. Fans can buy a single-game pass for $10 to watch each individual contest, or purchase a monthly ($25) or annual ($130) subscription to the network that provides access to all RMAC contests in all sports for the respective time period.

Looking Back
Chadron State traveled to Minnesota for the Maverick Invite last weekend, putting together a 2-2 record. All four matches went the minimum three sets, with the Eagles winning two against Upper Iowa and Minnesota-Crookston and dropping two against Minnesota State and No. 22 Northern State. 

RECAPS: Minnesota State | Upper Iowa/Minnesota-Crookston | Northern State

It was the second time in as many weekends that the Eagles lost to nationally ranked Northern State, after the Wolves also participated in the Eagle Classic in Chadron. The Eagles' two wins came against a Minnesota-Crookston team that entered the match undefeated at 5-0 for the first time since 2014, as well as a winless Upper Iowa squad.

RMAC Network Update
All RMAC matches will be livestreamed on the RMAC Network. Beginning in 2025-26, the RMAC Network has moved to a pay-per-view subscription system for all regular season and postseason RMAC contests. 

Fans have multiple subscription choices to choose from: $10 for a single game (access for 24 hours) or $25 for a monthly subscription and $130 for an annual subscription (monthly and annual subscribers have access to all games, regardless of school or sport, broadcasted on the RMAC Network). 

Any CSC staff, faculty or students with a csc.edu or eagles.csc.edu email address are eligible for $10 off an annual subscription under the RMAC's EDU Peak Pricing Promotion. With the discount, an RMAC institutional community member can purchase a yearly subscription for $120, which is more than half off a monthly subscription of the same length.

To purchase subscriptions, visit rmacnetwork.com/purchase. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their broadcast systems.

The "M" in M-V-P
Sophomore Mataya Ward drew plenty of attention throughout the weekend, earning a spot on the eight-player All-Tournament Team for the Maverick Invite. 

In four matches in Minnesota, Ward racked up 47 kills and had three matches of double-digit kills and two matches hitting .333 or better. Ward was the team match leader in kills twice during CSC's four contests, tallying a season-high 17 kills in the sweep over Upper Iowa. 

Ward was efficient in the final two matches of the weekend, slamming home 10 kills against just one error and hitting .333 in the win over Minnesota-Crookston, then hitting .364 with 15 kills against nationally ranked Northern State. 

On the season, Ward leads CSC with 83 kills, and her .246 hitting percentage is also the best on the Eagles roster among players with over 10 attempts. Ward's 83 kills rank tied for fourth in the RMAC while her 3.32 kills per set are fifth. 

Set for Success
True freshman Jillian Donovan has instantly emerged as potentially one of the top setters in the RMAC. The Lincoln, Nebraska native ranks second in the RMAC and 33^rd nationally in Division II with 9.69 assists per set (252 total assists). 

In eight matches this season, Donovan has topped 20 assists seven times and topped 30 assists four times. Donovan has done that despite Chadron State only playing one match above the minimum three sets this season (when she had a career-high 50 in a five-setter against Augustana).
 
While Donovan has been the Eagles' set leader in every match this year, she also led the team with 12 digs during Saturday's match against Northern State and recorded multiple blocks for the first time in her career during the win over Minnesota-Crookston. 

On the weekend, Donovan accumulated 118 assists, seven kills, 18 digs and four aces across four matches played.

"Hard" to Receive
Another true freshman, Lincoln Southwest High School's Shelby Harding, has emerged as a key defensive player and a weapon on the service line for the Eagles. Harding has recorded 13 service aces (ninth in the RMAC), and with 26 sets played, is averaging 0.5 aces per set which is tied for seventh in the conference. 

Harding did most of her damage during CSC's home Eagle classic, collecting nine of 13 aces on the season's opening weekend. The freshman also ranks fourth on the team with 47 digs and recorded double-digit digs for the first time in her career Friday, racking up 10 against Minnesota-Crookston. 

Poll Update
Chadron State volleyball is 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. Colorado Mesa is second in the poll, earning the final two first-place votes and 11 second-place votes. Colorado Christian, who advanced to the finals of the RMAC Tournament last season, comes in third in the preseason poll, ahead of last season's surprise third-place finishers South Dakota Mines in fourth. 

The rest of the top 10 features CSU Pueblo, Regis, Westminster, UCCS and Adams State and Colorado School of Mines in a tie for ninth. Spots 11-13 are incredibly close, with 11^th-place Fort Lewis receiving 59 points in the poll, 12^th-place Western Colorado receiving 57 and the 13^th-place Eagles receiving 55. The poll is rounded out by New Mexico Highlands and Black Hills State. 

The RMAC has two schools in the AVCA/TARAFLEX Division II national women's volleyball poll. MSU Denver is at No. 4 in the nation while Colorado Mesa is No. 23. Colorado School of Mines is receiving votes. 

RMAC Roundup
Heading into conference play, the presumed conference contenders (MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa) have done enough against tough schedules to remain nationally ranked, with the Roadrunners at 7-1 and the Mavericks at 4-3. 

UCCS is at the top of the standings with an unblemished 8-0 record. The Mountain Lions have only dropped three sets on the season but have not faced a team receiving national poll votes. 
The Colorado School of Mines Orediggers (7-1) are another hot starter. Mines has earned national poll consideration after defeating the likes of South Dakota Mines, Grand Valley State and Seattle Pacific over the first two weeks. The Orediggers will face MSU Denver and UCCS this week.

Two notable teams, the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds in last year's RMAC Tournament, are off to 0-8 starts. Regis is 0-8 against a competitive schedule, while South Dakota Mines, who put together an 18-9 record a year ago, is also 0-8. The Hardrockers already have a nonconference loss to Adams State (3-6).

Scouting the Opponents
Colorado Christian
The Colorado Christian Cougars are a program on the rise. Last season, CCU finished in a three-way tie for fourth in the regular season standings, earned the No. 6 seed in the RMAC Tournament, and promptly defeated No. 3 South Dakota Mines and No. 2 Colorado Mesa to advance to the finals. 

This year, the Cougars scheduled aggressively in nonconference play, with their first two matches coming against nationally ranked opponents Washburn and Grand Valley State. While the Cougars were 1-3 after the season's first weekend, CCU dealt an upset loss in Lakewood, Colorado to longtime power Angelo State, then ranked No. 2 in the nation. The Angelo State victory was part of a 4-0 week for CCU in which the Cougars did not drop a set, leading to a 5-3 record heading into Friday's matchup with Chadron State.

Junior Connelly Kilgore is CCU's leading attacker with 84 kills. The Cougars feature standouts at setter, as junior Krista Traynor ranks third in the RMAC in assists, and in the middle, as senior Renee Phillips leads the conference with 32 blocks.

CSU Pueblo
The ThunderWolves of CSU Pueblo are 4-4 on the year. Last year, the ThunderWolves were tied for fourth in the RMAC, but CSUP looks a lot different this season after the Pack lost head coach Austin Albers and many of their top players to Colorado Mesa. In turn, Pueblo hired away alum Jordan Bruere from Western Colorado, where she had led the Mountaineers to the program's first RMAC Tournament appearance since 2021 last year. 

The Pack went 1-3 on opening weekend, but that included two losses to then-No. 8 West Texas A&M. They rebounded to go 3-1 in Lubbock, Texas, splitting two matches with hosts Lubbock Christian and defeating Eastern New Mexico and Southwestern Oklahoma State. 

Senior Caelyn Gunn has double-digit kills in every match and 125 on the season. She is the leading RMAC attacker with 4.44 kills per set and has a .218 hitting percentage on 377 attempts. Senior Megan Mattingly has 120 digs while Gunn has 104, while three Pack athletes (Golden Finch, Finja Schul and Lilly Zwart) have 15 blocks or more.

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.