Denver, Colo.: The Regis University volleyball team had one of the toughest draws in perhaps the toughest NCAA Division II Tournaments in the country at the Colorado Premier Challenge today.  The Rangers opened up with #9 Angelo State and finished with a match against #11 and defending national runner-up CSU-San Bernardino.

The Rangers (4-3) was up to the challenge as they went on to defeat Angelo in five sets and CSU-San Bernardino in straight sets.

Regis won the first, third and fifth sets by scores of 27-25, 25-20 and 15-11 and dropped sets two and four by scores of 25-18 and 25-17.  Regis trailed 24-20 in set one following an attack error by senior Makayla Higgins.  Head Coach Frank Lavrisha called a timeout to rally the troops and it worked with back-to-back kills by freshman Katie Klein and a redemption kill from Higgins to pull within 24-23.  Angelo State took a timeout but came out of the break with an attack error to knot the score at 24.

Klein tied the score at 25 again before the Belles had a set error and an attack error to give the Rangers the victory.  In the third set the Rangers led 21-16 before ASU (5-1) battled back to within 21-19.  The Rangers took a timeout and scored four of the next five points, all on kills, to take the third set.

The Rangers jumped out to an 8-1 lead in set five and never looked back in upsetting their second top 10 team in less than a week.

Junior Sage Martinson led the defense with 25 digs, while sophomore Maya Kirkeby dug out 16.  The Rangers combined for 10 total blocks with sophomore Gina Morgan a part of four along with junior Lauren Flanagan, who had two solo blocks.

Klein put down 16 kills while Higgins and freshman Caitie Breaux each chipped in with 15 kills.  Higgins was also solid on defense with 12 digs.

The Rangers put away the rebuilding and young Coyotes of CSU-San Bernardino winning games one and two 25-20 and 25-17.  CSUSB, who at one point had six freshman on the court, wouldn't go away in the third set.

CSUSB (2-4) led 19-11 late in the third set when the Rangers put on some kind of run.  "I was very happy with the resiliency of our team in the third set and for that matter both matches," says Lavrisha.  Lavrisha called a timeout and the Rangers responded closing the gap to 20-17 including two kills from the left arm of Klein.

The Coyotes extended their lead to 21-17 before three straight points from Regis including kills from Higgins and senior Caitlin McDonnell.  CSUSB Head Coach Kim Cherniss called a timeout but Regis was able to get a hitting error from CSUSB to tie the game at 21.  Mercedes Winchester put the visitors from California on top 22-21 but that would be all the scoring they would get.

Higgins had another kill and then the Rangers blocked two of the next three attempts by CSUSB to win 25-22 and advance to the Gold bracket of the tournament.

The Rangers will play at noon on Saturday against third-ranked Tampa on the campus of Metro State in the Auraria Events Center.

Klein pounded down 10 kills with just one error while Breaux supplied nine kills with no errors in just 13 attempts for a .692 attack percentage.  Freshman Jaclyn Williamson had a fine match as the Rangers setter with 39 assists in this match preceded by 57 against Angelo State.  She had eight digs in each of the games, some in pressure situations, leading the Rangers in that category in the win over CSUSB.

Martinson had three service aces and seven digs tied for second with Breaux and Kirkeby.