GOLDEN, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team won the final two points of the first set to win it 25-23 and then rode that momentum the rest of the way towards a convincing 3-set sweep and their second Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title in program history on Saturday night.
 
Middle blockers Kasie Gilfert, named as the Tournament MVP, and Camille Smith each put down 10 kills while the Mavericks played a stellar defensive match to claim the 25-23, 25-13, 25-18 championship match win over the MSU Denver Roadrunners here inside the Colorado School of Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
The Mavericks held the Roadrunners to a .051 team hitting percentage as Smith was in on six of the Mavericks' nine blocks.  The Roadrunners also committed 19 other unforced hitting errors and were guilty of five service errors, that the Mavericks took full advantage of.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks were flawless from the service line and recorded six aces, including four from libero Taylor Woods, who joined Gilfert on the all-tournament team alongside fellow senior MacKenzie Edwards and sophomore setter Ara Norwood.
 
Gilfert, who hit .500 with just one error on an efficient 18 swing, fittingly ended the match after the Roadrunners had cut into what was a 12-point fifth set lead.
 
Meanwhile, Smith hit .381 with just two errors on 21 attempts and was a beast on the block as she surpassed 100 for the season joining Gilfert, who set a CMU rally-scoring era (2001-Present) record with 14 blocks in Friday's semifinal win over Dixie State.
 
Meanwhile, Woods led the Mavericks' back row with 15 digs going over 500 for the third time in her illustrious record-setting career.  Edwards chipped in another 11. 
 
Allison Smith also had a nice match off the bench on the right side with six kills and four blocks while Norwood recorded 16 assists and eight digs as the Mavs' starting setter.  Samantha Rittter had 11 kills and eight digs in the other rotations of CMU's 6-2 offensive attack.
 
The Mavericks have now defeated the Roadrunners in both of their RMAC Tournament championship runs, the last of which came in 2014 in Grand Junction.
 
CMU is now 23-6 this season and is guaranteed of an eighth NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in program history.  They will learn their seeding, opponent and location of the South Central Regional portion of that on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. MST via www.ncaa.com and will almost certainly be heading to Texas— either Stephenville or Commerce.
 
MSU Denver dropped to 21-9 with the loss and will be hoping for an at-large selection.  The Roadrunners were ranked eighth in the latest regional rankings but defeated seventh-ranked Regis in the quarterfinals on Tuesday before taking down third-ranked and tournament host Mines in come from behind fashion on Friday.
 
The Mavericks were ranked fifth in Wednesday's regional rankings.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce, ranked second, won the Lone Star Conference Tournament over top-ranked Tarleton State in Stephenville on Saturday afternoon, to stake a claim of hosting the regional.
 
The Mavericks will not worry about all of that for now and instead will celebrate what Saturday's triumph and their now 6-match winning streak that has seen them drop just three total sets.
 
The Mavericks, who are now 16-0 when holding their opponents below .100 hitting this year, scored the opening three points of the night on back-to-back-to-back kills by Gilfert but were down 4-3 before a service error evened the set.  The Mavericks then went on a 5-0 run that featured a Smith and Smith tandem block and two other unforced Roadrunner hitting errors to go up 12-7.
 
However, MSUD Would gradually claw back and tied the set at 18 and again at 22 and 23 before a Gilfert kills and Taylor Duryea errant attack gave the Mavs the opening set.
 
The second set was nearly as close in the early going before the Mavericks exploded for a 16-6 extended run to claim the second set.  The Mavericks hit .269 in that frame and .176 overall as the 'XX Runners were guilty of 12 hitting errors while hitting at a negative .057 clip.
 
The Mavericks then jumped out to a 6-1 lead behind Woods serving in the third set while gradually increasing the lead to as many as 12 at 22-10.
 
Metro would score four straight and eight of the next 10 points to momentarily spoil the Mavericks coronation before Gilfert finished it off.