GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks won the opening set 25-20 but watched the visiting MSU Denver Roadrunners come back to win the next three as they spoiled CMU's Senior Night in a competitive Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball match, Thursday here at Brownson Arena.
 
The Roadrunners' 4-set victory (20-25, 25-22, 25-17, 25-22) was their second in five days in the home-and-home series between the teams and allowed them to complete the regular season with 19-7 overall and 16-2 RMAC records.  The Mavericks dropped to 17-8 overall and 11-6 in the RMAC heading into their regular season finale on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Regis (24-3, 16-1 RMAC), currently ranked 11^th in the nation, in Denver.
 
The Mavericks will then return to metropolitan Denver again on Tuesday for their RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal, potentially against MSU Denver, which is guaranteed of a top 3 seed for the tournament and potentially a share of the RMAC title should CMU knock off Regis (16-1 RMAC) and No. 16 Colorado Mines (22-4, 16-1 RMAC) is upset by Chadron State (10-15, 7-9 RMAC), fighting for one of the final two RMAC spots, on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Golden.
 
The Mavericks will be the No. 5 seed in the tournament if they can win at Regis or if UCCS (13-11, 10-6 RMAC) loses at home to either Black Hills State (11-15, 8-9 RMAC) or South Dakota Mines (3-24, 1-16 RMAC) on Friday or Saturday, respectively.  In that situation, the Mavericks would play their RMAC Tournament quarterfinal at Colorado Christian (16-10, 13-4 RMAC) in Lakewood, assured of the No. 4 seed.
 
If UCCS is able to win both matches and the Mavericks are unable to win at Regis, CMU would fall to the No. 6 seed and potentially have a third opportunity against MSU Denver in the quarterfinals.
 
On Thursday, the Mavericks were led by MacKenzie Edwards, who had a team-high 17 kills to go along with 15 digs en-route to her 12^th double-double of the campaign.  Hattie Gianinetti, who along with her twin sister Megan, were honored during the pre-match Senior Night festivities, also had a solid match with 13 kills on .308 hitting.  Megan Gianinetti finished with three kills.
 
Defensively, the Mavericks were paced by 16 digs from junior libero Taylor Woods, who is now just four shy of 1,500 for her career.
 
MSU Denver received 18 kills from Taylor Duryea and 13 more from Santaisha Sturges, who leads the RMAC in kills with 389, just 20 ahead of Edwards.  Sturges also had a match-high 18 digs while libero Jackie Lopez chipped in 13.
 
CMU setter Samantha Ritter finished with 43 assists and nine digs while Katie Scherr had 10 kills and nine digs.
 
Roadrunner setter Alyssa Svalberg had 37 assists, seven digs and five kills to aid the victory.
 
There were a whopping 27 tie scores and 14 combined lead changes in the four sets.
 
In the opener, the Mavericks rallied from 13-10 down, going on a 7-1 run to reverse the 3-point deficit into a lead of the same margin.  The Roadrunners would claw back to within a point at 21-20 before kills by Alyssa Chutka and Scherr followed by back-to-back MSU Denver misfires allowed CMU to take the early lead.
 
The second set was the most competitive throughout and featured 12 ties and six lead changes.  It was tied at 18 before the Roadrunners went on to score six of the next eight points, including back-to-back service aces, to take a 24-20 lead.  The Mavericks fought off two of the necessary four set points before Duryea put the set away with a kill off a Maverick touch.
 
Both teams had early runs in the third set before MSU Denver used another 7-3 extended spurt to seize control, 17-12 en-route to the most lopsided set victory of the night.
 
However, the Mavericks came out strong in the fourth set building 3-point leads at 11-8 and 13-10 before a 10-4 Roadrunner surge gave the visitors a 20-17 lead.
 
Two Roadrunner mistakes allowed the Mavericks to close the gap to 20-19 before an exchange of service errors, a problem for both teams throughout the match, made it a 21-20 set.  Duryea and Sturges then put down kills to extend the lead to 23-20 before a Roadrunner service error and Edwards smash around a Duryea kill made the score 24-22.
 
MSU Denver's Alyssa Kelling then finished the match off with her second kill.