DENVER – The No. 11-ranked Angelo State volleyball team took fourth place at the Colorado Premiere Challenge after dropping matches against No. 4 Concordia-St. Paul and No. 14 Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday at the Regis Fieldhouse.

The Belles (6-2) opened the day with a four-set loss to the six-time defending NCAA Division II National Champion Golden Bears (25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 25-18) before falling to the Mustangs (21-25, 28-26, 25-16, 25-22) in another four-set contest to finish off their tournament experience.

"While today's losses were disappointing, I feel like our team will come away from this with a strong sense of what it takes to be a top-5 program," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "I'm really looking forward to practice this week and the start of Lone Star Conference play."

ASU completed the tournament with a 2-2 record, including a win over No. 3 Nebraska-Kearney and an important in-region match against Metro State on Friday. ASU is now 1-2 on the season against ranked opponents and 5-0 in matches against South Central regional opponents.

Angelo State's Maddie Huth and Maggi Jo Keffury were named to the all-tournament team for their performances during the weekend.

No. 4 Concordia-St. Paul 3, No. 11 Angelo State 1

The No. 11-ranked Angelo State volleyball team lost its first match of the season, falling 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 25-18) to No. 4 Concordia-St. Paul in Saturday's first match.

"I loved the fight in our girls," Waddington said. "We learned what the next step looks like. I feel like we are pretty close."

Against Concordia-St. Paul, the defending six-time NCAA Division II National Champion, the Belles were held to a season-low .196 team hitting percentage but still maintained a competitive presence throughout the match. Maddie Huth led the Belles with 15 kills and added seen digs, while Maggi Jo Keffury had a career-high 45 assists and eight digs.

Leah McWilliams led ASU with 12 digs, while Shelby Wilt provided 10 digs and Haley Bianco and Katie MacLeay each contributed seven digs. McWilliams added nine kills, while Courtney Bartusiak and Arielle Bond had eight kills each. Bartusiak led ASU with three blocks with Kailyn Troxell and Huth both having two blocks against the Golden Bear attack.

Angelo State took the second set of the match with strong offensive pressure and steady defense. Down early, the Belles tied the match at 11-all on a CSP attacking error and then held a 14-11 lead following two Huth kills, a McWilliams kill and another error by the opponent. The Belles didn't separate themselves and were down a point before Bond had a kill to square the match at 17. An error, block assist by Bond and Bartusiak and a kill by Keffury gave ASU a 20-17 lead that grew to 23-21 on a Troxell kill before a Huth and Troxell block assist ended the set at 25-22.

ASU led the third set early by as much as three points at 10-7 on a Huth kill, but the set would stay close and be squared at 15 before the Golden Bears went on a run and took a 21-16 advantage on a Belle error.  

Emily McDonough led CSP with 15 kills with Kara Pioske adding 14 and Kayla Koenecke 13. The Golden Bears outblocked ASU 12-5 in the match and had four aces. The match was the first ever meeting between the two programs.
 

No. 14 Southwest Minnesota 3, No. 11 Angelo State 1

The Belles opened the match with a 25-21 win in the first set, but saw the Mustangs (5-3) storm back to take the next three sets including overcoming a 18-10 deficit in the fourth set to close out the match.

Keffury led Angelo State with 39 assists and added six digs, while Bond matched a career high with 15 kills for the Belles and had a .359 hitting percentage. Huth continued her strong play in the tournament with 14 kills, a .321 hitting percentage and a season-high six blocks, while the Belle defense was led by Wilt's 18 digs and 13 digs each from MacLeay and Kaelen Valdez.

Both teams finished the match with 12 blocks and were limited offensively. The Belles were held to a .131 team hitting percentage and had 25 attacking errors, while SMSU managed a .181 team hitting percentage and had 28 attacking errors. The Mustangs had three players with double-digit kills, led by Abbey Thissen's 17 kills. Emilee Gutzmer had 54 assists with Rachel Westby contributing 28 digs.

The Belles are now 0-2 against SMSU after Saturday's loss. The only previous meeting between the two programs was the 2006 season opener. 

Up next: Angelo State begins Lone Star Conference play next week with matches against Midwestern State (7-1) and Cameron (4-4) at the Junell Center. ASU opens conference action at 7 p.m. on Friday against the Mustangs before playing at 2 p.m. on Saturday against the Aggies.