COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Chadron State College football player has taken home Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Week Honors for the second week in a row with Hunter O'Connor being named the Defensive Player of the Week today.
 
O'Connor, a junior from Broomfield, Colorado, joins Tommy Thomas, a sophomore from Fort Collins, Colorado, as a winner of the award this season. Thomas won Offensive Player of the Week after a four-touchdown performance against Fort Lewis.
 
Last Saturday in CSC's win over Adams State, O'Connor finished the game with three tackles, one tackle for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and one interception. His sacks resulted in a loss of eleven yards for the Grizzlies.
 
Although his second forced fumble of the season wasn't recovered by the Eagles, O'Connor returned his second career interception for five yards.
 
For the season, O'Connor has a total of 32 tackles, 10.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks.
 
As a team, the Chadron State defense had 13 tackles for loss and six sacks in the victory against Adams State.
 
O'Connor and the Eagles return home this weekend for a matchup with CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves on Saturday at 12 pm.

Volleyball facing #9 Colorado Mesa on Tuesday

CHADRON, Neb. -- The Chadron State College volleyball team is traveling to Grand Junction, Colorado for a matchup with #9 ranked Colorado Mesa on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
 
The Mavericks are currently 18-1 overall and 8-1 in conference play. Their lone loss was to MSU-Denver, the conference leaders and #6 ranked team in the nation.
 
The Eagles and Mavericks both were defeated by MSU-Denver in four sets.
 
Last weekend Colorado Mesa played the two opponents that CSC played two weeks prior. The Eagles defeated UCCS in three sets and fell to Regis in four sets, while the Mavericks beat both teams in four sets.
 
Offensively, Colorado Mesa is led by Sydney Leffler at the net. Leffler has 294 kills, an average of 4.39 a set, while hitting .250 this season. Leffler has been named the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week two times this season.
 
Savannah Spitzer is second on the team with 195 kills and a team high hitting percentage of .402. Like Leffler, Spitzer has also been named the RMAC Volleyball Offensive Player of the week twice this season.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList averages 11.75 assists per set with 787 tallied this year. Like her teammates, VanDeList has received weekly honors from the conference office, being named the Conference Setter of the Week four times, included this Monday.
 
Defensively, Allison Waller has a team high 292 digs, an average of 4.56 per set. VanDeList has also eclipsed the 200-dig mark with 201.
 
Waller has earned conference weekly honors for her defensive play two times this season.
 
Aesha Alrashed has a team high 41 blocks for the Mavericks while Spitzer is second with 37.
 
The match will be streamed live at rmacnetwork.com

CSC freshman is third in breakaway roping

LAMAR, Colo. -- Makala Wray, a freshman from Ord, had the most success for the Chadron State College rodeo team last weekend during the Lamar College rodeo that wrapped up the fall schedule in the Central Rocky Mountain Region.
             
Wray, who was the Nebraska State High School breakaway roping champion in 2021-22, finished third in that event at Lamar.  While her time of 3.4 seconds in the long go-round made her the 10^th and final qualifier for the finals on Sunday, she had more success than most of the other qualifiers during that run. 
             
Her time of 3.5 seconds was the third fastest and pulled her up to third place in the overall standings. There were 103 breakaway ropers at the rodeo.  By placing third, Wray earned $432. 
             
Two CSC barrel racers—Brooke McCully of Mullen and Morgan Rosander of Wolbach—did extra well in the long go-round, when their times were identical, 17.54 seconds.  But neither did as well in the finals and did not earn points by placing in the top six. Rosander's time Sunday was 18.30 seconds and McCully knocked over a barrel, adding five seconds to her time, making it 22.43.
             
However, their quick runs in the long go-round was worth $336 apiece.  There were 96 barrel racers. 
             
A couple of CSC cowboys placed in the top six in their events.  Bareback rider Cinch Kiger of Overton had scores of 69 and 75 to rank fifth and fourth in the go-rounds, and he was fourth in the final standings.  Steer wrestler Parker Johnston of Maywood had times of 5.3 and 7.3 seconds to finish sixth in that event.
             
Both Sid Miller of Merna and Tanner Whetham of Morrill qualified for the  tie down roping finals after catching their calves in 11.4 and 11.5 seconds, respectively. But Miller's time of 15.6 did not allow him to place among the top six and Whetham did not catch his second calf.
            
  Following the five rodeos this fall, the CSC women are in fifth place and the men are sixth in the team standings among the dozen team in the region. The spring season will begin in March.