DURANGO, Colo.  The momentum gained from a first-set victory did not hold Tuesday evening as Western Colorado volleyball surrendered a 3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win to host Fort Lewis College at the Skyhawks' Whalen Gymnasium.

Emily Mangone's seven kills, two service aces and a solo block accounted for 10 of the Mountaineers' 25 points in the opening-game triumph. She finished the match with a team-high 13 kills.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: Fort Lewis def. Western, 3-1 (17-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-20)
Records: Western 2-8 (1-2 RMAC), Fort Lewis 4-5 (2-1)
Location: Whalen Gymnasium, Durango, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Western never trailed in the opening set, and the only tie score was at 1-1.
• That deadlock was broken by a Jaeda Davis-Golliher kill and followed by consecutive attack errors by the Skyhawks.
• A Western service error ended that brief string, but Mangone knocked down the first of her seven kills in the set to keep Fort Lewis from beginning any type of rally.
• The Mountaineer advantage grew to six (11-5) behind a 6-2 Western run that included both of Mangone's service aces, two of her kills, and a pair of kills by Jordyn Todd.
• The eight-point set win was capped by a Mangone kill off a set from Lexi Wilmoth.
• The wave of momentum receded, however, after that first set.
• Throughout the next two sets, FLC wins, Western had trouble stringing together points.
• It opened set No. 2 with a 2-0 start, but the next consecutive-point string wouldn't come until a pair of kills – first from Todd and then Davis-Golliher – cut a Skyhawk lead to 19-11.
• Not until late in the third set, at a 23-15 deficit, were the Mountaineers able to score a run greater than two points. They valiantly rallied with a 4-0 run beginning with Davis-Golliher's kill. Next came a Mangone kill followed by strong net play defensively with a solo block by Davis-Golliher and a block assist point by she and Savanna Meyer.
• A timely Fort Lewis timeout halted the rally, and the Skyhawks returned to the floor with consecutive points to take the set.
• The deciding fourth set was nearly even between the two battling squads. The difference was early in the set, though, as Fort Lewis' 7-1 run erased a 2-0 Western edge. At one point in the set, a 14-9 FLC lead, the teams traded points one by one through to a 19-14 score.
• Western staved off one set and match point at 24-19 with what would turn out to be Mangone's final kill of the evening, but the Skyhawks would steal the last point to win the night.

NET POINTS

• Mangone finished with 16.0 points in the match – tying for the match-high total – with her 13 kills, 2 aces and 1 solo block.
• Davis-Golliher also recorded double digits in kills, pounding out 11 in the match, while defensively adding a solo block of her own to go with a trio of block assists.
• Western actually had more total kills (47-42) and total blocks (7.0 to 5.0), but Fort Lewis was just a bit better on the success rate of its attacks (.184 to .162).
• Defensively, Elizabeth Rupprecht came up with a match-high 18 digs in leading Western. Also hitting double figures in digs was Delaney Ochsner with 10.
• Though Randi Wellhoefer added a third service ace to Western's match total, the Mountaineers were inconsistent from behind the service line after the first set, accumulating 15 service errors (FLC had 8) that made stringing together point runs a difficult task.
• The other side of the service coin, though, is that Western's serve receive was solid. It finished the night with a .952 success rate with only four reception errors in 79 opportunities.

UP NEXT
Western returns home for its next match, a 5 p.m. RMAC battle Saturday against Regis University.