LAKEWOOD, Colo.—The Black Hills State University volleyball team made the six hour trek to the Denver, Colo. area to embark on their first RMAC competition of the 2015 season. The opening eight games of the 2015 season for BHSU included #7 Washburn, #22 Northern State and #25 Augustana University.  

The rigorous start prepared the Yellow Jackets for their quest to take home the RMAC's Rocky Division crown, but the Cougars from Colorado Christian stood in their way first.

Colorado Christian (5-5, 0-0 RMAC) won three of their last four games prior to tonight's match.  Most recently, the Cougars fell to Flagler College 3-1 on September 15 to close their six-match stand in Florida.  

The Yellow Jackets trailed the Cougars 2-0 and couldn't rebound in a 3-1 loss. The loss drops BHSU to 3-6, 0-1 RMAC. 

Colorado Christian 3, Yellow Jackets 1

BHSU was on the cusp of commanding the lead throughout the opening stages of the set. The Yellow Jackets and Cougars were tied on five separate occasions before the women in green and gold took their first lead at 11-10 on an attack error. 

The Cougars took a brief lead before BHSU took the driver's seat again 14-12 on a Danielle Torpey kill followed by a Cougar attack error. Both teams traded points to make the score 15-13 before the Cougars took the lead for good.

Kills from Taylor Sturms, Kaylee Pierce, Connie Olson and Hope Baldrica paced the Cougars' run to a 25-19 set one victory.

The Cougars jumped to a 13-7 set-two lead and didn't look back. Colorado Christian errors mixed with a kill each from Shelby Mayer and Kenzie Kazmer paced a BHSU comeback that narrowed the score to 13-12.  

A pair of Torpey kills down the stretch helped BHSU tie the match 19-19. However, that was enough to fuel Colorado Christian to a 25-22 set-two win. 

The Yellow Jackets trailed Colorado Christian 3-2 to open set three, but that's the only time they surrendered the lead.  BHSU capitalized on five Cougar errors to take a 9-6 lead.

BHSU continued to widen their lead slowly before securing a 25-14 victory, which happened to be the largest margin of set three.

The Yellow Jackets tied things 7-7 in set four, but couldn't regain the lead at all in a 25-17 set-four loss.

Torpey led BHSU with 10 kills while Brynn Eckhardt registered 32 assists.

The Yellow Jackets will return to action tomorrow, September 19 at #11 Colorado School of Mines.  Game time is set for 5:00 p.m.