DENVER, Colo. – The competition could not have been stronger when the University of West Florida faced No. 1 Concordia St. Paul and No. 3 Lewis on Friday on the opening day of the Colorado Premier Challenge. The Argonauts held their own but ultimately fell in both ends of the doubleheader, dropping to 3-3 on the year.
 
Rachel Neblett led UWF with 22 kills across the two matches, averaging 3.14 per set and hitting .425 for the day. Monique StCyr added to her all-time UWF career assists lead with another 49 combined helpers in the two matches, and Barbara Briceno pitched in with 14 kills, 13 digs and 4 blocks, which tied her with Neblett for team high on Friday.
 
In their last three matches, the Argonauts have now played the top three teams in the AVCA Top 25 poll.
 
Match 1: UWF 1, No. 1 Concordia St. Paul 3
UWF and the Bears matched each other point-for-point in a first set that went CSP's way, 25-21. The teams combined for four lead changes, 11 ties, and neither team led by more than four points at any time in the set. 
 
Neblett led UWF in each of the first two sets, with five kills in the first and four in the second and posting a .500 attack percentage across the first two frames.
 
The second set belonged Concordia St. Paul, but UWF bounced back with a strong effort in the third set and took a 25-20 win. The Argos benefited from their trademark strong play at the net and capitalized on shaky attacks from CSP, forcing 13 attack errors from the Bears.
 
Barbara Briceno led the UWF attack in the third set, picking up four kills. Like the first, scores in the third set stayed tight the whole way through, and neither team led by more than four points until Jordyn Poppen's final kill of the set gave West Florida the 25-20 victory.
 
Concordia St. Paul got out to a quick 5-1 lead in the fourth, but UWF responded by scoring five of the next six points and tying things up at 6-6. From there, the top-ranked team in the country was able to score two or three points at a time and ultimately take a 25-18 fourth-set win to finish up the match.
 
Neblett finished the match with 14 points, a .364 hitting percentage, and 4 blocks, while Monique StCyr's 24 assists were a team high.
 
Match 2: UWF 0, No. 3 Lewis 3
Lewis got off to a hot start to begin UWF's second match of the day, taking the first set 25-14. But the Argos did not let the rough start get to them and forced three ties in the second set.
 
After West Florida cut the second set deficit to 13-14, the Flyers ended up taking the second 25-17 with runs of three and five points to close out the set. Lewis took another quick start in the third, getting ahead 5-0 before UWF took a timeout.
 
The Argonauts battled back and cut the score to 22-23, but Lewis was able to keep its rhythm going and took a 25-22 win to close out the match.
 
StCyr added another service ace and 25 more assists in the second match of the day, Neblett chipped in with 11 more kills, and Barbara Briceno had 8 kills, 8 digs and two blocks.
 
West Florida will play Florida Southern at 12:30 pm CT on Saturday on the campus of Regis University, and the Argos will then play Tampa at 3:30 pm at the same location.