GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team made quick work of visiting Westminster College on Saturday night as the Mavericks celebrated Senior Night with a dominating 25-13, 25-17, 25-19 victory over the Griffins while keeping their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title hopes very much alive.
The Mavericks finished with a huge 45-21 advantage in total kills as they improved to 16-5 overall and to 11-2 in the RMAC to remain just one match behind No. 21 Colorado School of Mines in the RMAC standings. The Orediggers, who will host the Mavericks in a fortnight in the penultimate match of the regular season bounced back from their first RMAC loss on Friday night to defeat Regis in four sets earlier in the evening knocking the Rangers to 10-3 in RMAC, one match behind the Mavericks and Dixie State, which upended CMU on Friday.
Westminster, in a dog fight for one of the final spots in the RMAC Tournament, fell to 7-14 overall and to 5-8 in the loop, a match behind Fort Lewis (6-7 RMAC) for the critical No. 8 position.
On Saturday, the Mavericks honored their four seniors in
Alyssa Chutka,
MacKenzie Edwards,
Natalee Todd and
Taylor Woods before the match, their final regular season contest of their careers.
The warm and fuzzy feelings continued into the match as the Mavericks hit an impressive .500 in the opening set finishing with a 19-5 edge in total kills during that frame while going on to hit .280 throughout the night.
Redshirt sophomore
Kasie Gilfert, the national statistical leader coming into the weekend for hitting percentage, was a large reason why. Gilfert finished with 16 kills and just one hitting error, which came on the Mavericks' first match point, on 21 swings to finish the night hitting .714.
Edwards and Chutka also contributed significantly offensively as Edwards tallied nine kills just 24 hours after surpassing the 1,000 career kill milestone. Meanwhile, Chutka tallied a season-high six kills and a pair of solo blocks.
Todd led the Mavericks with three blocks while Woods recorded a match-high 15 digs to lead the Mavericks to a 44-23 advantage in that category.
She led a back row that gave the Griffins fits as Westminster hit just .033 throughout the night.
Elsewhere, setters
Ara Norwood and
Samantha Ritter also played well. Norwood had 25 assists, seven more than the Griffins, while Ritter was just behind with 17. The pair also combined for 10 digs.
Camille Smith and
Katie Scherr also had solid nights as Smith finished with seven kills and a pair of blocks while hitting .357. Scherr had six kills and nine digs.
Audrey Smith led the Griffins with eight kills.
CMU has now won seven straight matches against the Griffins, all in straight sets.
The Mavericks have now won a dozen matches in 3-0 fashion this year and finish the regular season with an 8-1 home-court record while dropping just six sets in those nine matches. However, they will now head out on the road for their final five matches of the regular season before a potential RMAC Tournament quarterfinal home match on Nov. 6. That road stretch starts Friday at 7 p.m. in Alamosa against Adams State (8-13, 5-8 RMAC).
