GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team completed a weekend sweep of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's two South Dakota members drilling the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers in three straight sets (25-17, 25-18, 25-10) on Saturday night in Brownson Arena.  The Mavericks, who had swept Black Hills State on Friday, hit an impressive .368 and tallied nine service aces and six unassisted kills from Hardrocker overpasses in Saturday's win.
 
The victory allowed CMU to improve to 14-6 overall and to 8-4 in RMAC play, good enough to move into a fifth place tie in the RMAC standings.  South Dakota Mines slipped to 3-19 overall and to 1-11 in the RMAC.
 
Maverick outside hitters MacKenzie Edwards and Katie Scherr led a balanced offense as each put down nine kills.  Edwards committed just one error and hit at a .381 clip.  Scherr hit at a .316 pace and added three service aces.  Both players also registered six digs.
 
Meanwhile, sophomore setter Samantha Ritter tallied her tenth double-double of the campaign with 28 digs and 10 digs.  Libero Taylor Woods led CMU with 13 digs and moved into the No. 4 spot on CMU's career digs chart with 1,418.  She has now been in double-figures in 32 straight matches dating back to 2016.
 
Four other Mavericks also tallied five or more kills as the Mavericks finished the night with a 41-29 edge in total kills.  Alyssa Chutka had six kills and hit .500 while Ritter and both Gianinetti twins (Megan and Hattie) put down five each.
 
The Mavericks were able to go deep into their bench as Coach Dave Fleming rotated 14 total players into the lineup.
 
With Woods behind the service line to start, the Mavericks jumped out to a 5-0 first set lead thanks in part two Woods service aces. They would go on to lead 9-2 after an Edwards ace and took a double-figure lead (18-8) after kills by Hattie Gianinetti and Edwards followed by back-to-back Scherr aces, the fifth and sixth of the first set alone.
 
The Mavericks would go on to lead by as many as 11 in the first set and put it away with three Scherr kills in the final five rallies.
 
The second set was a bit closer in the second set although the Mavericks would not trail as they scored 13 of their points of that set on Hardrocker miscues.
 
South Dakota Mines would score the first two points of the third set to earn their only set-lead of the night.  However, the Mavericks scored the next eight points off the set with Ritter serving and never looked back as they put down 15 kills while hitting .414 in the final frame.
 
The Mavericks will have little time to prepare for their next match as they will head to Gunnison on Tuesday to face arch-rival Western State Colorado (2-19, 1-11 RMAC).  They then host Westminster (Utah) next Saturday. 
 
Both matches begin at 7 p.m.