GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team (17-9, 11-7 RMAC) enters the postseason on Tuesday night facing the MSU Denver Roadrunners (19-7, 16-2 RMAC) for the third time in 11 days in the quarterfinal round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.  The Mavericks are the sixth seed while the Roadrunners are seeded third.
 
Tuesday's match in the Auraria Events Center in downtown Denver will begin at 7 p.m.
 
Wearing out I-70
 
The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team has been putting a lot of miles on Interstate-70 as of late and will be making their third trip to Denver in the last two weeks alone for Tuesday's match.  It will also be their fifth trip to the metropolitan Denver area this season.  The Mavericks played at MSU Denver on Nov. 4 after facing UCCS in Colorado Springs the night prior.  Then then capped their regular season at Regis on Saturday (Nov. 11) after playing at Colorado Christian in Lakewood and at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden on Oct. 13 and 14, respectively.  The Mavericks also began the season at Mines' early season Oredigger Volleyball Classic on Sept. 1-2.
 
Four straight double-doubles
 
Junior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards tallied her third and fourth straight double-doubles last weekend and now has a team-high 13 to her credit this season.  She tallied 17 kills and added 15 digs in the Mavericks' final home match of the season against MSU Denver on Thursday before leading all players in both categories with 15 kills and 15 digs at No. 11 Regis on Saturday.  Edwards now has 29 career double-doubles after putting up 15 en-route to First Team All-RMAC honors last season and one as a true freshman in 2014.
 
Speaking of double-doubles
 
Edwards was one of three Mavericks to have recorded double-doubles against Regis on Saturday.  Fellow outside hitter Katie Scherr, a sophomore, finished the match with 10 kills and 13 digs to register her sixth double-double of the season and her 2-year Maverick career.  Meanwhile, sophomore setter Samantha Ritter finished with 36 assists and 10 digs against the Rangers to record her 12^th double-double of the year.  Ritter, who had 43 assists on Thursday, was just one dig shy of a double-double against MSU Denver.
 
Fourth over 1,500
 
Junior libero Taylor Woods became just the fourth Mavericks in school history to eclipse the 1,500 dig mark for her career on Saturday night.  She had 13 digs at Regis and now has 1,509 in her career.  Woods is just the second Maverick in the rally scoring era (2001-Present) joining Ashley Loftsgard, who had 1,578 in her 2005-08 career.  Amy Miller (2542; 1991-94) and Pam Glenn (1783; 1992-95) are the other two Mavericks to have reached the milestone.
 
Ten from 1,000 

Sophomore setter Samantha Ritter is just 10 assists away from 1,000 for the season.  The Mavericks have had their starting setter reach that total in each of the last four years although Ritter, who has played in 94 sets, could be the first Maverick since Tara King in 2010 to have played fewer than 100 sets while reaching the mark.  King had 1022 assists in 99 sets that year.­­
 
Looking back to previous post-seasons
 
The Mavericks have enjoyed a good bit of post-season success as of late reaching the RMAC Tournament Championship match in both 2014 and 2015, winning it at home in 2014.  The Mavericks also won two NCAA South Central Regional matches in 2014 and 2015 but were eliminated in the first round of both tournaments last year.  In their last 13 post-season matches over the past three years, the Mavericks are a solid 8-5 and have gone 5-2 in their last three RMAC Tournament appearances.
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Scouting the Roadrunners
 
MSU Denver will enter Tuesday's match with a 19-7 overall record and went 16-2 in RMAC play to finish third in the conference standings, just a single match behind co-champions Regis and Colorado School of Mines.  The Roadrunners have won six straight and 16 of their last 17 matches, including Thursday's 4-set win over the Mavericks in Grand Junction, in what was their regular season finale.  They have been amongst the "others receiving votes" category in the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll for the past three weeks (a new poll is due out later Monday) and have been ranked fifth in each of the first two sets of regional rankings.
 
Junior outside hitter Santaisha Sturges is the RMAC leader for both total kills (389) and kills per set (4.09), ranking 21^st nationally for the latter.  She recorded 13 kills in Thursday's match and had 15 in the first match against CMU on Nov. 4.  Meanwhile, junior outside hitter Taylor Duryea had 18 kills in Thursday's match and 14 in the first meeting and is second on the team with 219 this season.
 
Junior middle blocker Stephanie Laraway is ranked sixth in the RMAC with her .330 attack percentage while senior teammate Vasati Fiatoa is eighth at .328.  Senior defensive specialist Jackie Lopez also ranks third amongst the RMAC leaders in service aces (0.35/set) while senior setter Alyssa Svalberg directs the attack and is fifth in the RMAC for assists per set (10.77).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks and Roadrunners will play for the third time in the last 11 days on Tuesday after facing off three times in both 2015 and 2016 as well.  MSU Denver has won each of the last five matches in the series, ending CMU's 2016 season in the NCAA South Central Regional in San Angelo, Texas after winning both matches of a home-and-home on Nov. 4 and 8, 2016.  The Mavericks had won all three matches between the teams in 2015, including a RMAC Tournament semifinal in Golden and had won four straight overall prior to 2016.  They Mavericks also defeated the Roadrunners in the 2014 RMAC Tournament Championship in Grand Junction.

Up Next
 
If the Mavericks are able to win on Tuesday night, they would advance to the RMAC Tournament semifinals against either No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines or No. 7 seed Adams State.  The semifinal winners then meet in the championship match on Saturday.  The top remaining seed after the quarterfinal round will host the remainder of the tournament meaning that Regis has the inside shot to do so.  The Rangers host No. 8 seed Black Hills State, making their RMAC Tournament debut, in a quarterfinal match.  The winner of that will then take on the winner of the No. 4 seed Colorado Christian and No. 5 seed UCCS quarterfinal match, which will be played in Lakewood.
 
The RMAC Tournament Champions receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament joining the champions of the Heartland and Lone Star Conference Champions and five other "at-large" selections determined by the final regional rankings.