Metro State Box Score
Concordia St. Paul Box Score
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DENVER - After a hard-faught loss in the opening set to No. 1 Concordia St. Paul, the Lady Blues weren't able to rebound in a 25-20, 25-15, 25-15 loss in the final of the Colorado Premier Challenge Saturday night. The loss was Washburn's first of the season.

No. 4 Washburn (7-1) reached the final by beating No. 9 Metro State in five sets, 19-25, 25-21, 28-26, 21-25, 15-12 in the semifinal of the Gold Bracket Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Blues will play their home and MIAA opener Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host Missouri Southern.

The Lady Blues and Golden Bears were tied 16 different times in the opening set including every point between 6 and 18. After the 18-18 tie, the Bears scored two in a row before a kill from Jessica Fey made the score 20-19. Washburn scored just once more before Concordia, the defending national champion put the set away.

The Lady Blues gave up big runs in the second and third set. They gave up a 9-0 run in set two to go down, 15-6 and in the clinching set they fell down quick, 7-2 and then an 8-1 run gave Concordia St. Paul a 15-7 lead. Washburn never got any closer than six down after that.

No Lady Blue reached double figures in kills. Breanna Lewis led Washburn with nine but added no blocks as Washburn totalled just two as a team. Amanda Guess and Abby Wittman totalled 10 assists each and Courtney Churchman had seven digs.

The Lady Blues hit .157 as a team while Concordia had a .436 attack percentage.

Lewis and Mollie Lacy were named to the all-tournament team. The two were much more effective in the first match Saturday. Lacy had 13 kills against the Roadrunners and Lewis added 11. Fey got 10 while Marissa Cox and Jessica Kopp came off the bench for eight each.

Metro State won the opening set to put Washburn behind for the first time all year. The Lady Blues answered with tough wins in the second and third set before MSCD forced set five with a win in the fourth.

The third set featured 17 ties. Washburn had set point at 24-23 before Bri Morley got a kill for Metro State. Lacy made it 25-24 with a kill and then a back-and-forth exchange of points made the score 26-26. Lacy's kill then forced set point and an attack error by Morley closed out the set.

Washburn was down, 2-0 and 4-2 in the fifth set. The Lady Blues then scored four straight to go up 6-4. Metro came back and there were six ties the rest of the way. The last came at 12-12 and then the Lady Blues held MSCD scoreless the rest of the way to clinch the match. The Roadrunners made three errors during that stretch and then a kill from Lewis closed the match.