DENVER - Florida Southern concluded play here Saturday evening in the Colorado Premier Challenge by suffering a hard-fought three-set loss to Regis University (27-29, 21-25, 23-25) in its final match at the Regis Fieldhouse.

With the setback, the Moccasins fall to 4-3 overall on the season and finished 1-3 in the Premier Challenge with its only win coming earlier in the day on Saturday against No. 5 ranked Central Missouri. The Mocs other two losses in the event came in five sets on Friday against No. 1 ranked Concordia-St. Paul and Metro State. Regis improved to 5-3 on the season and finished 2-2 in the Premier Challenge with the victory.

The Mocs defense was again strong in the loss to the Rangers as FSC collected a match-high 14 total team blocks and recorded 65 digs, including five players recording 10 or more digs.

One of the top performers for the Mocs defense was sophomore middle blocker Rachel Mostert (Clearwater, Fla.) as she recorded a career-high 10 blocks, including nine block assists, which is tied for the eighth-most on the school's single match charts. In addition to Mostert, junior right side hitter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.) added a career-high seven blocks and chipped in with a team-high 10 kills and 13 digs her for second double-double of the season.

With her 10 blocks, Mostert becomes the first Moccasin player to record 10 blocks in a match since Natalie Hortynski picked up 11 blocks against North Florida on Oct. 14, 2003.

Along with Marotti's 10 kills, senior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) added nine kills and 11 digs and finished the Premier Challenge with 56 kills and 43 digs en route to being selected to the 13-player Premier Challenge All-Tournament Team. In FSC's four matches in Denver, Stromberg averaged 3.50 kills and 2.69 digs per set and recorded six service aces and six blocks.

FSC jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, before Regis used a 12-5 scoring run to take a 12-9 lead. After a kill by Stromberg pushed the Mocs within two points at 12-10, Regis used a 4-2 run to push its lead to 16-12. The Mocs, though, would respond with a 5-1 run capped by a service ace from sophomore outside hitter Brindl Langley(Camas, Wash.) to tie the set at 17-all. Regis answered with a 5-2 run to take a 22-19, before the Mocs scored four straight points to take a 23-22 lead. From that point, the team's would trade the lead until the Rangers closed out the set by scoring three of the final four points to seal the 29-27 win. In the first set, both teams hit efficiently as FSC recorded 17 kills and hit .366, while Regis hit .404 and had 25 kills.

The second set was another hotly contested affair as the Mocs jumped out to a 10-6 lead, before Regis answered with an 8-0 run to take a 14-10 lead. The Rangers held a 19-15 lead when the Mocs used a 4-1 run capped by kill from redshirt senior setter Ali Skayhan (Beaverton, Ore.) to pull within 20-19. That would be as FSC would get as Regis closed the second set by scoring five of the final seven points to seal its 25-21 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match. The Mocs struggled with errors in the second set as they had 10 attack errors and hit just .022, while Regis hit .195.

Trailing 2-0 in the match, the Mocs scored the first three points of the third set and led 12-3 when the Rangers used a 5-2 run capped by a Callie Breaux kill to pull within 14-8. FSC would push its lead to 19-15, before Regis responded with an 8-4 scoring run to tie the set at 23, which was the only tie of the set. Regis would then use a kill from Mary Schroeder to take its first lead of the set at 24-23 and then cap the set and match with an assisted block by Schroeder and Samantha Mangseth.

Other key players on the night for the Mocs were junior middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.), Langley and Skayhan. Brady finished with six kills, while Langley had six kills and 13 digs and Skayhan had a double-double of 30 assists and 12 digs and hit .286.

Regis was paced offensively by Breaux as she had 21 kills and 14 digs and hit .320, while Schroeder had 12 kills and three blocks in the win. Alessandra Orlandini finished the match with 18 digs as Regis finished with 76 digs in the match.

Joining Stromberg on the Premier Challenge All-Tournament Team were Metro State's Lauren Quijano, Concordia-St. Paul's Riley Hanson, BYU-Hawai'i's Shih Ting Chen, Minnesota-Duluth's Ashley Hinsch, Colorado Mesa's Abby Ney, Minnesota-Duluth's Monica Turner, Tampa's Jessica Wagner, Tampa's Kahley Patrick, Southwest Minnesota State's Abbey Thissen, Concordia-St. Paul's Anna Schlaak, Colorado Mesa's Jordyn Moody and Tampa's Berkley Whaley, who was named the Premier Challenge's MVP as she helped Tampa go 3-1 in the two-day event.

The Mocs will return home to Lakeland and Jenkins Field House next weekend as they open Sunshine State Conference play on Friday, Sept. 17 against Lynn at 7 p.m. and will then host Florida Tech on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 4 p.m.

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