GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -The No. 8 ranked Colorado Mesa Mavericks volleyball team won the RMAC Tournament after sweeping the MSU Denver Roadrunner in dominating fashion in front of a standing room only crowd in Brownson Arena Saturday night (Nov. 15). The tournament championship is the first in school history.

Abby Ney would get the scoring started with her one timer past the Roadrunner defense. MSU Denver would then score the next three points to lead 3-1 early in game one. A kill by Audrey Steinkirchner and Roadrunner errors put the Mavs back on top 4-3. The scoring would go back and forth until another MSU Denver error gave CMU the 11-10 advantage. Colorado Mesa would lead the rest of the game even finding themselves up five late in the game. Jordyn Moody gave the Mavericks their third ace of the set to put them up 21-16. A powerful shot by Casey Ball was the game winner for the Mavericks, taking game one 25-17. Melissa Hess led the Mavericks in kills with four, while Audrey Steinkirhcner was the leader in hit percentage at .750. Christian Ozten led both teams in digs with four.

Mesa fell behind early in game two of the title match and would trail the majority of the game. A MSU Denver kill found Colorado Mesa down by five midway through the game, before the Mavs would rally and win six straight points to lead 16-15. CMU would then fall behind again 20-18. With the two teams deadlocked at 23, a service error would give the Mavs game point, and Audrey Steinkirchner blasted one to give game two to Colorado Mesa. In what was a common occurrence in the tournament, Melissa Hess was the leader in kills with seven and hit .700. Tiffany Petersen had seven digs.

With CMU up 2-0 and the championship within grasps for the Mavs, the Roadrunners made game three a tightly contested match. Midway through the game, the two teams would find themselves tied at nine. The Mavericks and Roadrunners would 13 tied scores and six lead changes in the game. The 20-17 score and three point lead for the Mavs would be the largest lead for either team in the game. With Mesa up 24-23 and championship point in hand, Casey Ball left no doubt about it and rocketed one past the MSU Denver defense and the crowd went wild. Colorado Mesa out-dug MSU Denver 19 to 15, while the Roadrunners hit .250 compared to the Mavericks .231 hitting percentage.

Melissa Hess had a match-high 14 kills and hit .542. Audrey Steinkirchner each tallied nine kills on the evening. Abby Ney hit .462 with seven kills. Jordyn Moody recorded her fourth straight double-double with 38 assists and 10 digs.  Tiffany Petersen had a game-high 15 digs, while Christian Ozten and Kricket Adleman each added nine and eight respectively. Colorado Mesa dug 56 attacks compared to MSU Denver's 52 digs. Both teams had 41 assists. The Mavericks hit .270, while limiting the Roadrunners to a .172 hitting percentage.
Melissa Hess's dominant performance in the tournament awarded her RMAC Tournament MVP. Erin Perez's spectacular defense and Jordyn Moody's setting put them on the RMAC All-Tournament team.

CMU (27-3) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament NCAA Tournament. The full NCAA Tournament field will be released at 8pm Sunday.