CHADRON, Neb. \\u2013 After a spirited RMAC regional pod week, where Chadron State volleyball went 1-1 in nine nonconference sets against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines, the Eagles will return to matches that count in the RMAC standings when they host Adams State and New Mexico Highlands.
The Eagles (7-7, 1-3 RMAC) welcome Adams State (8-8, 2-2 RMAC) on Friday night before hosting New Mexico Highlands (2-12, 0-4 RMAC) on Saturday night. First serve for both is set for 6 p.m. at the Chicoine Center.
Numbers to know
- 13: Blocks last Thursday by Sarah Meservey, tying a school record.
- 9: Meservey's rank in Division II in total blocks (69).
- 4: Times, including last Thursday at South Dakota Mines, that Jillian Donovan has tallied her career high of 16 digs.
- 0: Undefeated teams remaining in RMAC conference play.
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Promotional notes
Friday night will be CSC's 2026 Dig Pink match. Fans are encouraged to wear pink, and for any fans needing a pink shirt, CSC volleyball will be selling $5 pink T-shirts on the concourse ahead of Friday night's game, with all proceeds going to the Circle of Light Foundation in Chadron.
How to tune in
For the second straight year, the RMAC Network is under a pay-per-view model, with single-game, monthly and annual subscription options to watch all of Chadron State's home games and away conference games.
PURCHASE: RMAC NETWORK
Fans can purchase monthly subscriptions to the RMAC Network for $25 or annual passes for $130. Those prices are both unchanged from the 2025-26 season.
All remaining Chadron State regular season volleyball games, both home and away, will be on the network.
Fans can also follow along via live stats and on social media (@cscvolleyball on X/Twitter, csc.volleyball on Instagram).
Looking back
Chadron State continued to play lengthy, gritty matches against its two geographical rivals last week, defeating Black Hills State in four sets and falling to South Dakota Mines in five. Against South Dakota Mines, the Eagles dropped the first two sets but won sets three and four to force a deciding fifth set won by the Hardrockers.
RECAPS: Tuesday (BHSU) | Thursday (SDM)
Both of last week's matches were nonconference bouts as part of the RMAC's annual "Regional Pod" weekend. The Eagles will face the Yellow Jackets and Hardrockers in conference matches on October 13 and October 17.
Player of the week
Sarah Meservey is continuing to emerge as one of the top middles in the RMAC and Division II and put her name in the Chadron State record books last week.
Meservey tied a school record and set an RMAC season high with 13 blocks vs. South Dakota Mines and put together a cumulative weekly performance which saw her honored as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
Meservey averaged 2.0 blocks per set during the matches against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines. She tallied four kills and five blocks against BHSU before her record-tying night of 13 blocks (two solo) in five sets against the Hardrockers. You can watch all 13 blocks here.
The 13 blocks were the most in any match by an RMAC player since the 2024 season and the most by an RMAC player in a five-set match since 2016. The Chadron State school record of 13 blocks, now matched by Meservey, had stood since 1988 from Susan Stam against Rocky Mountain College.
In winning the RMAC's weekly honor, Meservey became the first Chadron State conference weekly honoree since libero alum Alondra Hernandez during the final week of the 2024 season and only the second for CSC in the 2020s.
Meservey's 1.28 blocks per set rank 12th in NCAA Division II and second in the RMAC. Her 69 total blocks rank ninth in Division II and third in the RMAC.
1,000 club
Chadron State sophomore setter Jillian Donovan recently passed a major milestone as the Lincoln native has now exceeded 1,000 career assists at Chadron State.
Donovan sits at 1,062 career assists entering this week's action after averaging 6.78 assists per set during the week against BHSU and South Dakota Mines. Donovan has exceeded 30 assists in a match five times so far this season after doing so 11 times as a true freshman.
Donovan's 6.43 assists per set on the season ranks fifth in the RMAC and her 341 total assists in 2026 rank sixth.
In addition to passing the assists milestone, Donovan tied a career high with 16 digs (done three times previously) against South Dakota Mines.
Well-rounded Ward
While it is no surprise that junior Mataya Ward was one of CSC's top attacking options last weekend and throughout the season, Ward also set career highs in aces and blocks over the course of the RMAC Regional Pod Week in addition to averaging 16 kills per match.
Against Black Hills State, Ward racked up 17 kills at a .289 hitting percentage, but also tied a career high of four service aces, set earlier this season against Sioux Falls. Prior to 2026, Ward had not recorded more than two service aces in a match; she has now done it three times (four vs. USF on September 5, three vs. Western Colorado on September 19, and four vs. BHSU on September 22).
On the defensive side of the ball, Ward set a new career high with five total blocks in the match against South Dakota Mines, contributing heavily (along with Meservey) to Chadron State's 19 blocks against the Hardrockers that is tied for the most in the RMAC this season by one team in a single match.
This season, Ward leads the team with 169 kills and ranks second with 16 aces. She is also fifth on the team in digs with 66. She ranks seventh in the RMAC with 3.13 kills per set.
In the polls
Chadron State was picked 15th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The poll is voted on by the league's head coaches, who each rank the other 14 programs without voting for their own team.
UCCS finished atop the poll with 187 points and eight first-place votes after capturing a share of the RMAC regular season championship a year ago, the first such title in program history. Colorado Mesa (169 points, one first-place vote) came second in the poll and had the most second-place votes (five) of any school.
MSU Denver received four first place votes, second most in the league, but only ended up tied for third in the poll, receiving 165 points alongside Colorado School of Mines.
CSU Pueblo is in fifth, while Colorado Christian, Fort Lewis, South Dakota Mines, Westminster and Regis round out the top 10. Adams State, New Mexico Highlands, Western Colorado and Black Hills State rounded out the poll, finishing just ahead of CSC's 38 points.
No RMAC teams are ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Colorado Mesa, MSU Denver and Colorado School of Mines are receiving votes in the poll.
Scouting the Grizzlies
Adams State volleyball is 8-8 overall and 2-2 in RMAC play. In conference matches, the Grizzlies have swept Westminster and New Mexico Highlands while being swept by Colorado Mesa and Colorado School of Mines.
The Grizzlies went 2-0 during nonconference Regional Pod action last week, winning in five sets over Highlands before sweeping Fort Lewis.
ASU has four attackers with over 100 kills: Carolisa Folau (158), Aubrey Rothermich (153), Sienna Markovich (112) and Lizzie Macintosh (104). Rothermich has the best hitting percentage of the bunch at .205.
The Grizzlies have standouts at other positions as Ashlyn Jones ranks third in the RMAC in digs per set (4.64), Isabella DeRosa ranks third in assists per set (7.91) and Rowan Tribelhorn ranks fifth in the league in blocks per set (1.05).
Head Coach Andre Foster is in his first season at Adams State. Foster is coming off a pair of one-season head-coaching stints at Division III Nichols College, where he coached both men's and women's volleyball and led the men to a 24-5 record in 2024, winning conference Coach of the Year honors. He then jumped to Division I New Haven, going 5-22.
Scouting the Cowgirls
After a 2025 season when the Cowgirls won their most matches since 2013, the 2026 New Mexico Highlands team is 2-12 with an 0-4 mark in RMAC play entering this weekend. They are 1-7 at home.
The Cowgirls were swept by Westminster, Colorado Mesa, Adams State and Colorado School of Mines in conference matches. During the Regional Pod week, the Cowgirls pushed Adams State to five sets before another sweep at the hands of Fort Lewis.
Aziza Morris leads the Cowgirls with 129 kills and ranks tied for 12th in the RMAC at 2.87 kills per set. Lea Susoy, a native of Turkey, has been all over the place for the Cowgirls, leading the team in attack attempts and aces (17) while ranking second in both kills (109) and digs (117).
Naya Dornic ranks 12th in the RMAC with 3.58 digs per set. Dornic, a native of France, and Susoy are among three international athletes on the NMHU roster.
Meg Grose is in her third season as NMHU head coach. Under her direction, the Cowgirls went 5-21 in 2024 and improved to 12-16 in 2025. Grose is a former Peru State student-athlete, starting four years at setter, and previously coached as an assistant at Southern Arkansas and New Mexico Highlands and one season as a head coach at Lawrence University (DIII, Wisc.) before returning to lead the Cowgirls.
5-for-5
Under a new eligibility ruling passed by the NCAA this summer, all NCAA student-athletes will have five years of eligibility upon entry to college while developmental redshirts and medical waivers that previously could grant another year of eligibility have been eliminated, with exceptions for military service, religious missions and pregnancy.
To accommodate this new system, Chadron State is changing how student-athletes are labeled on its sport rosters, using the term "freshman" for a player in their first year of college, "sophomore" for a player in their second, "junior," "senior," and "fifth-year," regardless of whether the player has previously received a redshirt year.
For example, a player now being referred to as a "junior" has been with Chadron State or another college volleyball program for two seasons (regardless of if they played or not during those seasons) and has three years of eligibility remaining, including 2026.
Coach's corner
Head coach Jennifer Stadler will begin her eighth season in charge of the Chadron State volleyball program in 2025, accumulating a 56-115 record in her first seven seasons.
Prior to CSC, Stadler coached for eight seasons at Sheridan College in Wyoming, racking up three straight 20-win seasons from 2012-2014. She was a player, assistant coach and interim head coach at current RMAC foe Black Hills State, back when the Yellow Jackets competed in the Dakota Athletic Conference.
In her first year at CSC in 2019, Stadler immediately led the Eagles to a winning record of 14-12 and coached the RMAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in Ashton Burditt. The Eagles had a banner year in 2023, finishing 15-12 for the program's highest win total since 2003. Chadron also had an 8-6 conference mark in 2023, finishing sixth in the league and qualifying for the RMAC Tournament for the first time in 20 years.
