Box Score DENVER - No. 14 and top-seed Regis University held off No. 25 and eight-seed Metro State on Thursday night, winning 23-25, 25-15, 25-15, 21-25, 15-10 in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Regis. MSU's season ended with an 18-11 record, while the Rangers improved to 26-8 overall. They will face No. 11 and No. 11 and fourth-seed Angelo State (Texas) on Friday in the semifinals of the South Central Region.

Several Roadrunners turned in career performances in the match, highlighted by Alex Green (Peoria, Ariz./Cactus H.S.)'s 28 digs. Her previous high was 21. Savannah Garcia (Platteville, Colo./Valley H.S.) also reached a career high with 19 digs and Tammy King (Colorado Springs/Liberty H.S.) added 10.

Offensively, Lauren Quijano (Wildomar, Calif./Elsinore H.S.) tied a career-best 20 kills, while hitting .400 in the process. Alysa Heath (Littleton, Colo./Chatfield H.S.) added 16 kills and Daleah Whitaker (Denver/Lakewood H.S.) had 14. Amy Wong (Litchfield Park, Ariz./Millennium H.S.), who had not recorded a kill in over a month, came off the bench in the second set and had eight kills, including four in the fourth-set victory.

Vanessa Gemignani (Colorado Springs/Doherty H.S.) assisted on 59 kills and helped MSU hit .193 as a team, while adding 19 digs on the defensive end, both totals being career highs.

The Roadrunners trailed 11-10 in the first set, but rallied to build an 18-14 lead as Heath got hot with three straight kills to finish the rally. Regis closed the deficit to 24-23 when Whitaker put down a kill to finish the set. Quijano and Heath combined for 14 kills in the first set and MSU dug up 26 attempts to hold Regis to a .163 attack percentage.

Regis rallied with a monster second set. With the score tied 2-2, the Rangers scored 16 of the next 22 points to lead 18-8. The difference came in hitting as Regis connected at a .308 clip and held MSU to just .067 on the attack. The Rangers also forced a side-out 13 times in 15 opportunities.

The third set was more of the same from the second set as Regis outhit Metro .281-to-.081 and took advantage of poor passing evidenced by three receiving errors by the Roadrunners.

Metro State recovered in the fourth set, hitting a match-best .409 Quijano connected for seven of the team's 19 kills in the set. The Roadrunners broke a 10-10 tie with three straight points and led the rest of the way.

The fifth set was controlled by the Rangers after they broke a 3-3 tie. They took a 10-5 lead and held on the rest of the way.

Metro State says goodbye to just two seniors this season, Gemignani and Wong.