CHADRON, Neb. – After a strong RMAC championships showing, the Chadron State women's wrestling program has two duals remaining before the first-ever NCAA Women's Wrestling Regional Championships.

The Eagles are on the road to face Colorado Mesa in a Saturday night dual at 6 p.m. in Grand Junction before hosting Fort Hays Tech Northwest the following Wednesday, February 11 for Senior Night at 6 p.m. in the Chicoine Center.

Looking Back
Brianna Vollendroff became the first-ever RMAC champion in CSC women's wrestling history, winning the 103-pound title as four Eagles finished on the podium and nine placed at the RMAC Championships.

RECAP: Vollendroff Wins RMAC Title, Eagles 5th

Rylee Balcazar finished second at 110 pounds, losing 7-7 on the second tiebreaker to Colorado Mesa's Adriana Gomez (both recorded the same number of takedowns, so Gomez earned the win by being the most recent to score). 
Esther Peters (207) and Piper Cadden (131) both placed third at their respective weights.

Senior Night
Chadron State will honor five seniors during Wednesday's dual against Fort Hays Tech Northwest – Hattie Baldwin, Alissa Dubois, Maddox Gehlhausen, Brianna Vollendroff and Shania Wear. 

The decorated group includes the program's first RMAC champion (Vollendroff), a three-time Summit Award winner (Wear) and two wrestlers who are set to graduate with a 4.0 GPA (Wear and Gehlhausen). Four wrestlers have appeared in an RMAC dual for the Eagles this season (Baldwin, Gehlhausen, Vollendroff, Wear). Dubois has not competed this season but wrestled in nine matches last year.

Standings Update
The matchup between Colorado Mesa and Chadron State will be the final contested RMAC dual this season, and as it turns out, is a tiebreaker for second place. 

The Eagles and Mavericks are both 2-1 in RMAC duals, having each defeated Texas Woman's (1-3 in RMAC) and Adams State (0-4 in RMAC) and lost to Simon Fraser (4-0 in RMAC). Simon Fraser locked up the regular season championship in addition to winning the tournament championship last week.

National Rankings
Chadron State does not currently have an NWCA ranked wrestler (the most recent rankings are from December 19), but four Eagle wrestlers appear in The Open Mat's most recent rankings, which are updated weekly. 

Esther Peters remains CSC's highest-ranked wrestler at No. 9 at 207 pounds in The Open Mat, followed by Brianna Vollendroff (No. 14 at 103), Rylee Balcazar (No. 16 at 110) and Piper Cadden (No. 20 at 131). 

Three Eagles crack the NWCA's regional rankings (top five) – Vollendroff (No. 5), Balcazar (No. 5) and Peters (No. 3).

Projected Lineups
(rankings NWCA/The Open Mat)

Chadron State
103 – NR/#14 Brianna Vollendroff
110 – NR/#16 Rylee Balcazar
117 – Adrianna Lopez or Trona Bates
124 – Ana Rojas-Zamora
131 – NR/#20 Piper Cadden or Maddox Gehlhausen
138 – Meredith Nash
145 – Eliza Davis
160 – Hattie Baldwin or Rowyn Wiltgen
180 – Cosette Desrosiers
207 – NR/#9 Esther Peters

Colorado Mesa
103 – #3/#3 Mia Zuniga or Kinlee Bradley
110 – NR/#10 Adriana Gomez
117 – #10/#9 Sophia Cornish or Jojo McDaniel
124 – #4/#6 Lorianna Piestewa
131 – NR/#18 Hania Halverson or Brooke McCurley
138 – Keyla Ajoleza
145 – #9/#8 Gretchen Donally
160 – Valerie Glenn or NR/#15 Celina Preston
180 – Kim Carlin or Maggie Smith
207 – #6/#7 Jayleen Sekona

Fort Hays Tech NW
TBD

Scouting the Mavericks
Colorado Mesa, ranked No. 7 in the NWCA's team rankings, have a 10-8 dual record but have dualed nine ranked opponents this season. 

The Mavericks had three champions at the RMAC Championships (Adriana Gomez at 110, Sophia Cornish at 117 and Jayleen Sekona at 207). Those three are among six potential Maverick starters that have a top-10 national ranking according to the NWCA, Open Mat or both. 

Saturday could see a rematch of the 110-pound final between Balcazar and Gomez that finished 7-7. The Eagles could also see Mia Zuniga, the nation's No. 3-ranked 103-pounder who missed the RMAC Championships and saw Vollendroff take down the conference title. 

Coach's Corner
Head coach Sammy de Seriere is in his first season at the helm of the Eagle program after spending two seasons as CSC's lead assistant coach. He is the third-ever women's wrestling coach at Chadron State. 

In his two years on staff at CSC, De Seriere has contributed to the Eagles qualifying eight wrestlers to the NCWWC National Championships across 2024 and 2025. He worked closely with Esther Peters, who became Chadron State's women's wrestling's first-ever All-American last season and, like de Seriere, is a heavyweight. 

De Seriere began his coaching career in 2022-23 as a volunteer assistant for his alma mater, the men's wrestling program at Western Colorado. Overlapping with Summers, then a Mountaineers assistant coach, de Seriere helped Western place fourth nationally at the Division II National Championships during his lone season on staff, the program's first team trophy in 19 years. 

As a student-athlete, de Seriere competed for Western Colorado for five years at heavyweight, once finishing in sixth place in Super Region VI. A strong student, de Seriere was a three-time Dean's List selection and earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC, RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll and NCAA Division II Scholar All-America honors as a senior.