Sophomore Liz Franz goes up to make the kill.
The volleyball team is finishing up their season as the men and women's basketball teams tune up with exhibition play to get ready for their season.
Women's Volleyball
The hopes of the Regis women's volleyball team were on the line this past weekend as they traveled to Silver City, New Mexico to take on Mesa State in the first round of the RMAC playoffs. The first game of the match did not start off in the Rangers' favor as they hit -.060 and while they had one more kill than Mesa State, they had eight more errors.
The second game was a battle for the Rangers at 29-26, it looked as though Mesa State would go up 2-0. However they battled back to win the next five points. Sophomore Liz Franz made a huge impact in the second game with eight kills and a .636 hitting percentage.
But Mesa State bounced back strong in the third game and once again the Rangers hitting efficiency .098 played a role in the game three loss. In the crucial fourth game it looked once again as though Mesa would come out victorious. But it was two kills by sophomores Franz and Hannah Tautolo that helped the Rangers go on a 6-1 scoring run and force a decisive game five.
In game five Mesa State jumped out to an early 8-2 lead. Once again hitting errors proved to be the difference as Rangers committed seven hitting errors and had only a .042 hitting percentage.
Despite the loss, Franz played well for the Rangers. She finished the match with a career high 20 kills, .280 hitting percentage, seven digs, one solo block and three block assists. Freshmen Chelsea Pavlik finished the match with a double-double 12 kills and 28 digs. Freshmen Meghan Meehan also had 12 kills while Tautolo finished with 10 kills and 25 digs. Freshmen Felicia Ciarelli totaled 53 assists for the game while sophomores Kristin Thompson finished with 25 digs and Nia Ingram added fifteen.
Despite losing the match in five games, 30-17, 29-31, 30-24, 29-31, 15-11, the Rangers finished the season with an overall record 16-13. The Rangers also earned postseason honors this week. Pavlik was named Freshmen of the Year as well as All-RMAC first team along with senior Rachel Ross. Ciarelli was named to the All-RMAC second team and Franz was an honorable mention.
Men's Basketball
This year the men's team has many new faces as the return only three players from last years team: seniors Chris Brever, Nick Winder and Brandon Butler. The Rangers took their new team on the road this week as they took on Colorado State University in an exhibition game on Halloween.
The Rangers held CSU to only 29 points the first half but were only able to put 18 on the board for themselves while shooting below 40 percent. A much better second half performance of 35 points unfortunately was not enough to get the Rangers back into the game as they ended up coming out on the losing end 69-53.
Seniors Brandon Butler and Nick Winder played well. Butler was one rebound short of a double double as he finished the game with 16 points, nine rebounds while shooting 60 percent from the field as well as dishing out five assists. Winder was also one rebound short of a double- double as he finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Newcomer junior Geremy Gibson in his Ranger debut was one point short of double digits as he finished with 9 points. In action this week the men travel to Colorado University for an exhibition game at 7:00 pm.
Women's Basketball
The women's team expectations were once again high as they went into the season ranked 23rd in the preseason poll. On Friday, they traveled to Greeley to take on the University of Northern Colorado.
Tough defense was the difference for the Rangers as they held UNC to 13 points in the first half and only 40 for the game. The Rangers also forced UNC into 21 turnovers on 15 steals. Nine Rangers players put points on the board for the Rangers to help in the offensive efforts.
As usual, senior Diana Lopez led the way for the Rangers as she finished with 18 points on 7-13 shooting. She also grabbed four rebounds and made four steals while managing to keep herself out of foul trouble. Sister Denise Lopez also made an impact on defense as she pulled 11 rebounds along with 9 points and 4 assists. Sophomores Jenny Viera and Paulina Tuell added six points a piece for the Rangers in the 57-40 win.