CHADRON, Neb. – After a 2-2 opening weekend, Chadron State will play its final four matches against non-RMAC opponents this Friday and Saturday at a classic co-hosted by Augustana and Sioux Falls.

The Eagles will play three times at Augustana's gym and their final match in USF's gym. The two facilities are separated by six miles in Sioux Falls.

CSC will face Augustana (4-0) at 12 p.m. MT/1 p.m. CT (local) and Upper Iowa (3-1) at 3 p.m./4 p.m. on Friday, both at Augustana's Sanford Pentagon. The Eagles will remain there to play UMary (2-2) on Saturday morning at 9 a.m./10 a.m. before heading to USF's Stewart Center to face the Cougars on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m./4 p.m.

Numbers to Know

• 14: Players who saw action across the season's first four matches
• 3: Players who have both appeared in every set and started every match so far (Kally Kirkwood, Sarah Meservey, Rayssa Da Silva)
• 20: out of 26 matches in 2025 that went the minimum three sets, win or lose, for CSC (3 of 4 so far in 2026)
• 9: Aces by Avery Lacy in the Eagles' first four matches (16 last season)

How to Go
This weekend's classic is co-hosted by Augustana and Sioux Falls. 

Augustana is selling day passes for $10 Friday and Saturday at this link.

At Sioux Falls, day passes are on sale for $15 for adults and $10 for seniors/youth at this link.

How to Tune In
This weekend's classic will be behind a paywall on MIDCO Sports, the provider that partners with the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. This weekend's matches are the only matches that are notincluded with any monthly or annual subscriptions to the RMAC Network, as they are not hosted by RMAC institutions.

MIDCO Sports sells monthly passes for $15 at this link. Unfortunately, no single-game passes are being offered.

Fans can also follow along via live stats and on social media (@cscvolleyball on X/Twitter, csc.volleyball on Instagram).

Looking Back
Chadron State had a 2-2 season-opening weekend at the Hardrocker Volleyball Classic, losing its first seven sets before winning the final six. 

The Eagles endured opening-night sweeps at the hands of Jamestown, which would go 4-0 in the classic, and hosts South Dakota Mines. Saturday was a different story, as the Eagles rebounded from an opening-set loss to Lake Superior State to take a 17-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-20 victory, then cruised over Minnesota Crookston 25-23, 25-18, 25-17.

Mataya Ward recorded a team-high 40 kills across the weekend, followed by Gibson Beckler (27) and Kally Kirkwood (26).

5-for-5
Under a new eligibility ruling passed by the NCAA this summer, all NCAA student-athletes will have five years of eligibility while developmental redshirts and medical waivers that previously could grant another year of eligibility have been eliminated.

To accommodate this new system, Chadron State is changing how student-athletes are labeled on the football roster – using the term "freshman" for a player in their first year of college, "sophomore" for a player in their second, "junior," "senior," and "fifth-year," regardless of whether the player has previously received a redshirt year.

For example, a player now being referred to as a "junior" has been with Chadron State or another college volleyball program for two seasons (regardless of if they played or not during those seasons) and has three years of eligibility remaining, including 2026.

Lace's Aces
Avery Lacy hit some hot streaks on the service aces, tallying nine service aces across the opening four matches of the season, over half of her 2025 season total. Her nine total aces and 0.69 aces/set both rank second in the RMAC. 

Making Lacy's service aces more dynamic was the senior's ability to string them together. Lacy tallied seven aces during CSC's two wins and found the floor three times in a row against Lake Superior State and went back-to-back twice against Minnesota Crookston.

Not to Be Outdone…
Lacy, in her second season serving as the CSC libero, also excelled at the defensive end during the opening four matches. 

The senior totaled 70 digs (5.38/set), a per-set total which ranks second in the RMAC and 19^th in all of NCAA Division II. Lacy is also within the nation's top 50 in total digs, tallying 13 or more in every match with a match-high 24 against Lake Superior State and a per-set high of 6.33 after 19 digs in three sets against Minnesota Crookston.

Lacy is also doing a large portion of CSC's defensive work. No other Eagle has more than Jillian Donovan's 25 digs.

Patrolling the Middle
Junior middle blocker Sarah Meservey also made an impact in week one. Meservey, who hails from Spanish Fork, Utah, recorded three or more blocks in every match and totaled 17 blocks through CSC's first four matches. 

The 17 total blocks are second-most in the RMAC through the season's first week, is as her current average of 1.31 blocks/set. 

Not far behind is Kally Kirkwood, who has 15 blocks (1.15/set), ranking fifth in the RMAC. 

The Eagles' block has been working well in tandem. Neither Meservey or Kirkwood have recorded a solo block and the Eagles only have two as a team, but CSC still ranks fourth in the RMAC in total blocks with 29 on the strength of their two-woman tandems and block assists.

Two-Setter System
Chadron State has been rotating between sophomore Jillian Donovan and senior Cydnie Eskew at setter. Donovan has started three of four matches and tallied 65 assists to Eskew's 52, but Eskew has appeared in every set.

While many college volleyball programs use multiple players at setter, the rotation is a departure from last season and a compliment to Eskew's emergence. This time last season, Donovan played every point during the first week of the season and racked up 154 assists on weekend one.

Eskew, a Casper, Wyoming native, worked her way into the lineup and started four matches down the stretch for the Eagles in 2025.

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Jennifer Stadler will begin her eight season in charge of the Chadron State volleyball program in 2025, accumulating a 56-115 record in her first seven 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.