GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Redshirt sophomore Kasie Gilfert and junior Camille Smith both set new career-highs and combined for 40 kills while hitting .565 to lead the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team to an epic 5-set win over the nationally-ranked and defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champion Regis University Rangers on Friday night in Brownson Arena.
 
Gilfert had 26 kills and hit .556 while recording four blocks while Smith finished with 14 kills, seven blocks and a .583 attack percentage as the Mavericks scored the final five points of a 25-20, 20-25, 28-26, 25-27, 15-12 victory over the No. 24 Rangers. 
 
CMU came from behind in each of the three sets they won.
 
The victory, was also keyed by a 13-kill, 11-dig double-double from outside hitter Katie Scherr, who had very timely kills, 21 digs from senior libero Taylor Woods and some solid bench play as the Mavericks remained perfect at home improving to 12-4 overall and 7-1 in the RMAC, good for sole possession of second place in the conference standings.
 
The victory was CMU's first over a nationally-ranked opponent since Oct. 15, 2016 (No. 18 Colorado School of Mines).
 
Regis, which came into the night tied with the Mavericks for third place fell to 10-7 overall and 6-2 in the RMAC despite 18 kills from both Isabelle Gosar and reigning RMAC Player of the Year Nikki Kennedy, who like Gilfert came out of the Legend High School program in Parker.
 
Elsewhere, the No. 23 Colorado School of Mines Orediggers outlasted Dixie State in another 5-set thriller in Golden to remain perfect in the RMAC at 8-0.  Dixie State, which is the only team to defeat the Mavericks in the last 11 matches, is now in third place at 6-1 in the conference standings.
 
Friday's match in Brownson Arena featured a total of 46 ties and 24 lead changes and was truly a slug-fest, especially in the third and fourth sets which both went to extra points after comebacks from both teams.
 
The Rangers fought off two match points in the fourth set and then took 6-3, 7-5 and 8-6 leads in the fifth before the Mavericks would even things up at 8 on a block by Gilfert and Allison Smith, who saw extended playing time at the outside hitter position for the first time in two seasons in place of 2017 AVCA Honorable Mention All-American MacKenzie Edwards, who inched closer to the 1,000 career kill effort with three kills. 
 
Edwards is now just seven shy of that milestone.
 
Allison Smith, who redshirted in 2017, had four kills and nine digs while Edwards finished with 10 digs and three kills.
 
With the fifth set and match tied, the Rangers then jumped out to a 10-8 lead on a kill by Caitlyn Burroway and a solo block by Kennedy on Gilfert, the Maverick star's only hitting error of the night.
 
Gilfert (Northern Arizona) and Kennedy (Denver), who both started their collegiate careers at the NCAA Division I level, then exchanged kills as the score went to 12-10 in favor of the Rangers before kills by Gilfert and Scherr tied the match.  The Rangers then took both of their timeouts around a Gosar hitting error before kills by Scherr and right side hitter Ashton Reese finished off the Mavericks' comeback.
 
CMU also came back in the opening set and trailed 16-8 before a 17-4 run over the second half of the set gave the Mavericks the lead.
 
The Rangers would win the second set by an identical 25-20 score as they hit .425 in the frame before the third set went back-and-forth with 10 ties and six lead changes.  The Mavericks were down 20-17 after a 3-0  Ranger run in that frame before Scherr had two kills in a 4-0 Maverick run that also featured a Gilfert/Camille Smith block that put the hosts up 21-20.
 
The Rangers then tied the set at 21 on a Kelsey Green kill before the Mavericks would go on to build a 24-22 lead only to see the Rangers come back with a 4-1 spurt of their own to take a 26-25 edge.
 
However, the Mavericks did not let up and scored the final three points of the set on two Ranger miscues and a Gilfert set-ending kill.
 
The fourth set was truly epic and was tied on 21 separate occasions with neither team ever leading by more than two points.  The set also included 10 lead changes.
 
One of those came in the late going as Camille Smith put down back-to-back kills to give the Mavericks a 24-23 and a match point.  Gosar and Reese then exchanged kills to set up another Maverick match-point at 25-24 before Green, Burroway and Gosar put down kills to keep the Rangers alive.
 
The Rangers then seized early control of the fifth set and trailed just once at the end as they were victimized by four combined kills from Gilfert and Scherr in the 5-0 and 6-1 match-winning Maverick run.
 
There were several other impressive numbers put up in the match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes.  Maverick starting setter Ara Norwood matched her career-high with 29 assists while Samantha Ritter finished with 25 assists and 15 digs in what was her third straight double-double off the bench as the second setter in the Mavericks' 6-2 offensive attack.  Both of those figures were new season-highs for Ritter.
 
Ranger libero Kristina Schell finished with 36 digs while setter Silvia Basso had 54 assists and eight digs.  Green added 13 kills and three blocks for the Rangers while Burroway had 11 kills and 14 digs to record her team's lone double-double.
 
The Mavericks finished the night with a .215-.205 edge in team attack percentage and had an 88-78 advantage in total digs.  Both teams finished with 66 kills, a sign of how even the match truly was.
 
The Mavericks will now look to close out a 4-match home-stand with another victory.  They host Colorado Christian (7-10, 5-3 RMAC) on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.  The Cougars won at Western in straight sets on Friday evening in Gunnison.