DENVER— Senior middle Camille Smith and junior setter Ara Norwood each eclipsed career milestones on what was an otherwise difficult night for the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team which dropped a 25-21, 25-10, 25-19 decision to host MSU Denver in a battle of two of the top three teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings coming into Friday night.
 
The Roadrunners hit .319 as a team and had a 9-3 advantage in blocks as they improved to 10-3 overall while keeping their RMAC mark unbeaten at 5-0.  Meanwhile, the Mavericks were held to just .088 hitting and fell to 8-6 overall and to 4-2 in the RMAC.  CMU had come into the Auraria Events Center just a half-match behind the Roadrunners and tied with Regis for second place in the RMAC standings.
 
On the positive note, Smith, a 2018 First Team All-RMAC and AVCA Honorable Mention All-American, recorded six kills and a pair of blocks and now has 501 career kills.
 
Norwood finished with 15 assists and went over the 1,000 mark for her career.  She now has 1,006.

The Mavericks had just 31 kills as a team and committed 21 hitting errors, including 12 of which were unforced.  Kasie Gilfert had 11 to lead CMU.
 
Defensively, Kerstin Layman had nine digs to lead CMU.
 
MSU Denver was led by 13 kills from Alexis Benda, who was one of three Roadrunners who hit at over .400.  Caiden Rexius also had 20 digs while Alyssa Kelling, the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, had seven blocks and six kills. 
 
The Mavericks will attempt to bounce back on Saturday at 6 p.m. when they face the Chadron State College Eagles (9-4, 3-2 RMAC) in Chadron, Nebraska.