FORT COLLINS, Colo. – HBU saw its first NCAA postseason appearance cut short in a 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-16) loss to Colorado State in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship Thursday night in Moby Arena.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Sara Arroyo and junior right side Anna Gadway each had seven kills for the Huskies (21-9), who tied for the highest win total in the 10 seasons under head coach Trent Herman. Senior middle blockers Ebonie Ballesteros and Jada Allen each added five kills and senior outside hitter Mikayla Vivens had three kills and six digs. Junior setter Ellie Wipf dished out 25 assists and had four kills. Freshman outside hitter Alexia Jones led HBU defensively with 11 digs and sophomore libero Kaley Feris had eight.
 
Annie Sullivan led the Rams (19-10) with nine kills, Karina Leber had eight, while Sasha Colombo and Jacqi Van Liefde each had seven. Ciera Pritchard handed out 32 assists to go along with three kills and five digs. Alyssa Bert came up with eight digs and served up four aces, while Helena Perez matched her for the team lead with eight digs.
 
CSU hit .253 for the match, while holding HBU to .117. The Huskies outdug the Rams, 39-36, but were outblocked for only the third time this season, 4-3. CSU also had eight aces to HBU's two.
 
Vivens finishes her career ranked ninth all-time at HBU in kills with 1,172 and 10^th all-time with 1,238 digs and was the sixth member of the 1,000 Kill-1,000 Dig Club. Ballesteros finishes her career ranked ninth all-time with 314 total blocks.
 
CSU will face UTEP, which defeated Tulsa in four sets, in the second round Friday at 8:30 p.m. CST.