SPEARFISH, S.D.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks out-hit host Black Hills State University .295 to .076 and received 17 kills from sophomore Kasie Gilfert alone as they won their sixth straight match in dominating fashion on Saturday evening here in the Yellow Jackets' Donald E. Young Center.
 
The Mavericks had a 46-26 advantage in total kills in the 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-16) victory, their 11^th 3-0 of the season, and improved to 15-4 overall and to 10-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
The latter mark is good for sole possession of second place in the conference standings after Dixie State University was swept by MSU-Denver on Saturday evening in St. George.  Dixie State (14-4, 9-2 RMAC) is the only team to have beaten the Mavericks in CMU's last 14 matches and will venture into the Mavs' Brownson Arena for a massive match next Friday at 7 p.m.
 
Only No. 22 Colorado School of Mines (17-2, 11-0 RMAC) is ahead of both teams in the conference standings.
 
In Saturday's win over the Yellow Jackets, Gilfert hit at a .583 clip putting down six kills in the opening frame and eight more in the last while finishing with three in the middle frame.
 
She was not the only Mav to shine. 
 
Senior libero Taylor Woods finished with a match-high 18 digs while senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards returned to the lineup to chip in 11 digs and a pair of service aces.  She also had four kills and is now just three away from 1,000 in her career.  Fellow outside hitter Katie Scherr also chipped in 11 digs and was just a kill shy of a double-double while hitting .316.
 
Meanwhile, setter Ara Norwood had 26 assists, six digs and four service aces while Camille Smith and Ashton Reese were a wall at the net.  Smith had a career-high eight blocks while Reese had a career-high six.  She also put down six kills while Smith and Natalee Todd finished with five each.
 
The Mavericks tallied ten total team blocks, three more than the Yellow Jackets, while reaching double-figures for the third straight match and the seventh time this season.  CMU also had a 59-42 advantage in total digs and a 6-1 advantage in service aces and was guilty of just two service errors.
 
The Yellow Jackets did not win a single point on their serve in the opening set as the Mavericks scored the first four points of the match while building a 9-2 lead en-route to the easy victory.
 
The hosts put up a much better fight in the second set, which was tied at 11 before the Mavericks went on a 3-0 run on kills by Reese and Todd surrounding a ball handling error.  The Mavericks then surged further ahead with a 7-0 run to go up 23-14 with setter Samantha Ritter behind the service line.  Scherr and Reese both put kills down in that run, which also featured a pair of blocks.  A Smith kill and Black Hills State service error then closed the set.
 
In the third set, the Mavericks used a 9-1 run that featured three Norwood service aces to go up 17-9 after the frame was tied at 8.  Gilfert then had four more kills down the stretch finishing the victory off with back-to-back kills.