.ST. GEORGE, Utah— The Dixie State University Trailblazers out-blocked the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks 16-4 en-route to a 4-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball win on Saturday evening here at the Trailblazers' Student Activities Center. 
 
The 25-22, 21-25, 25-16, 25-13 victory allowed the Trailblazers (15-6) to split the season series and moved them into third place in the RMAC standings at 10-3, one match ahead of the Mavericks, who had their 3-match winning streak snapped with the loss
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CMU, now 13-8 overall, is still in sole possession of fourth place at 9-4 and will play the final five matches of the regular season at home in hopes of clinching a top four spot, which would allow them to host a RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal as well.
 
Saturday's defeat was also the first in four meetings against the Trailblazers, a team CMU defeated in both the RMAC and NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournaments in 2018 and again on Sept. 28 in Grand Junction, Colorado.
 
The blocking was the huge difference in this match s the Trailblazers had just one more kill (50-49) and one more dig (61-60) than Mavericks throughout the evening.  Lauren Gammell was a beast at the net, recording a DSU single-match record 13 blocks while To'a Faleao put down 15 kills to lead the Trailblazers offensively.
 
Maverick middle Camille Smith matched Faleao with 15 kills and hit an impressive .591 while being a part of three Mavericks blocks.  Fellow middle Kasie Gilfert also chipped in 13 kills. 
 
However, the rest of the Mavericks were held to just 21 kills.
 
The Mavs were also guilty of 30 attacking errors throughout the night and hit just .124 as a squad.
 
DSU hit .279 and also had a 9-3 advantage in service aces.
 
Defensively, libero Kerstin Layman had a match-high 19 digs for the Mavericks while setter Ara Norwood had 23 assists and 14 digs to record her fifth double-double of the campaign.
 
The Mavericks fell behind 14-5 in the first set and but cut that 9-point deficit down to as few as two at 23-21 and again at 24-22 but ran out of time in the opener.
 
CMU started just as strong in the second set getting out to a 14-7 lead before the Trailblazers pulled to within two themselves at 23-21.  However, a Gilfert kill and attacking errors allowed the Mavericks to even the match.
 
However, Gammell and the Trailblazer block took over the third and fourth sets.  The hosts registered 10 blocks in those two sets, nine of which involved Gammell.
 
The Mavericks will begin their home stand on Friday (Nov. 1) at 7 p.m. against Fort Lewis.