GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado – The Angelo State volleyball season came to its conclusion with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-23) loss to top-seeded Colorado Mesa on Friday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II South Central Championships at the Brownson Arena.

The Belles (21-9), who have advanced to the past four NCAA regional tournaments, couldn't overcome a fast start by the No. 7-ranked Mavericks (28-3) in the first set and couldn't maintain momentum in the second set as CMU battled back from being down by as many as seven points. ASU continued fighting to stave off elimination in the third set and led 23-22 on a Zoey Hanrahan kill, but kills by Jordyn Moody and Casey Ball and an attacking error by the Belles closed out the set and match.

"I told my girls that I was happy that we went down fighting," ASU head coach Chuck Waddington said. "We came out in the first set and let Mesa do the things that they do really well. They were able to run their middles like crazy and we didn't do much to stop them. They are a really strong team who are really strong on offense and scramble on defense. They are the No. 1 seed for a reason. I love my team whether we win or we lose and they played hard tonight."

The Mavericks advance to face West Texas A&M at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinals, while Tarleton State and Arkansas Fort Smith will play at 6 p.m. on the other side of the bracket. WT earned a five-set win over Regis on Friday and the TexAnns advanced with a sweep of Metro State in the first quarterfinal match of the tournament.

Shelby Wilt closed out her record-setting career at Angelo State with 18 digs against the Mavericks and also had three assists. Wilt, who is the first Belle in program history to compete in four NCAA tournaments, finished her career with the all-time record of 2,474 digs in her four years.

"We came out a little slow at the beginning, but I don't think it was because of a lack of confidence," Wilt said. "We just weren't in-tune with how we know we can play at that time. We were confident coming into the match."

"I couldn't have picked a better program to be a part of. I've loved every second of being a Belle. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a successful program and make an impact and I hope the girls take it and run with it. They're going to be dang good next year."

Brianna Sotello and Hanrahan led the Belles with seven kills each, while Mallory Blauser and Arielle Bond contributed six kills each. Sotello added four blocks and eight digs and Haley Bianco added five digs and a service ace. Alexa Johnson finished the match with 21 assists and five digs, while Kelly Hasbrouck had six digs and an ace and Katie MacLeay had two digs.

The Belles finished the match with a .184 attacking percentage, while the Mavericks were able to hit .268 on the night. ASU had a 46-43 dig advantage, but had 18 errors compared to CMU's 13 errors. The Mavericks, who were playing in front of 1,252 of their home fans, took command early in the match by taking the first set 25-16. CMU led 10-7 after going on a 3-0 run and were up 22-13 with a 6-0 run which was ended on a Sotello kill.

ASU looked to have found its footing in the second set by jumping out to a 5-1 lead on kills by Klohe Harrion and Blauser along with three errors from the Mavericks and then were out to a 10-4 advantage as Hanrahan, Blauser and Lynn had kills. The lead grew to 15-7 with another Sotello kill and it was 17-11 with another Harrion kill. CMU started mounting a comeback though and tied the set at 18 on an error by the Belles. The Mavericks took their first lead in the set at 19-18 on another ASU error and then had a 21-20 lead on an ASU service error. CMU closed out the set on a 3-0 run with two kills and an ASU error.

"We rotated our lineup a little bit to get some better blocking matchups versus their middle attackers," Waddington said. "I think we worked really hard to get our hands over the net. They run such a fast tempo in the middle that if you're late you're going to get beat. I was blessed that we were able to make those changes on the fly. You're never going to be able to completely stop those kids, but I felt like we were able to contain them. It gave us opportunities at the end which is what we asked for. We put ourselves in a position to compete at the end of the game."

Melissa Hess had a match-high 15 kills and .414 attacking percentage for the Mavericks, while Audrey Steinkirchner added 11 kills and Moody had 14 digs and 30 assists in the three-set win.

The Belles season ends with the program advancing to the regional tournament for the fourth straight season for the first time in program history. ASU is now 5-4 at the regional tournament over the past four seasons and have reached the regional tournament eight times in program history.