RAPID CITY --- The South Dakota School of Mines women's volleyball team was very hot-and-cold Saturday afternoon during a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match at the King Center in Rapid City, S.D. Unfortunately for the Hardrockers, they went cold at the wrong time as Westminster snuck in and stole a win, 3-1.
 
 The Griffins defeated SD Mines, 25-23, 19-25, 25-14, 25-21. The 'Rockers were very competitive to start the match, but struggled down the stretch allowing Westminster to gain the upper hand and the eventual win.
 
First of all, give Westminster credit for the way they responded after the third set," said Hardrocker volleyball head coach Doug Tabbert. " They played very well coming out of the intermission. That was the time for us to claim an edge going forward and they did it to us instead. They handled things well at the end of the fourth set also—better than we did."
 
The Hardrockers finished with 43 kills and was 115-135 on the attack and added 43 assists, 64 digs and seven blocks.
 
I liked our offensive productivity the first two sets. We put up pretty good numbers and we ball controlled well enough to allow us to do that," Tabbert said. " The third set was a different story. Suddenly we just couldn't get kills with any consistency. After that we never really seemed to get any offensive momentum whereas they certainly did."
 
Westminster College tallied 52 kills and was 128-145 on the attack with 49 assists, 61 digs and 17 blocks. They were led by Amara Spere with 18 kills and Aubrey Louder with 16 kills.
"We knew Amara Spere was a very good player and that we had to limit her influence in the match. We did fairly well against her for a while but she made an impact down the stretch," Tabbert said. "Aubrey Louder also gave us fits. You have to give her credit for making as much of an impact as she did." 
 
Individually for the Hardrockers, freshman Kenzie Devries, in her first match back in two weeks, led her team with 11 kills and was 26-30 on the attack and collected three assisted blocks. Fellow freshman Caryn Hazards tacked on 10 kills and was 29-37 on the attack to go along with 10 digs. Sophomore Anna Breidt added nine kills and freshman Hannah Stevenson contributed with eight.
 
Freshman setter Allie Boggs led the Hardrockers with 38 assists and 16 digs in the match. Sophomore Elizabeth Jensen added 12 digs.
"It was good to have Kenzie back. She put up solid numbers after being out for an extended period," Tabbert said. "Anna had a solid offensive outing as well. Our serve receive and defense are continuing to improve, but we still more consistency in both phases."
 
The loss drops SD Mines to 1-20 on the season and 0-10 in conference play. The Hardrockers continue their home stand this weekend welcoming Western State Colorado University Friday at 7 p.m. and Colorado Mesa Saturday at 7 p.m.