GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Senior setter Samantha Ritter became just the tenth Maverick in program history to surpass the 2,000 career assist mark as the Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team claimed a 3-set Senior Night sweep of rival Western Colorado University on Friday night in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks improved to 17-9 overall and to 13-5 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with the 25-20, 25-11, 25-22 win over the Mountaineers, who saw their season come to a close with 11-15 overall and 7-11 conference records, respectively.
 
CMU honored its three seniors— Ritter, Katie Scherr and Camille Smith— as well as redshirt junior Kasie Gilfert before the match, which will almost certainly be the last home match of their respective careers.
 
With other results from around the conference on Friday, CMU will be the No. 5 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament and will play at fourth-seeded Colorado School of Mines on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Golden and Lockridge Arena.  The Orediggers (20-6) also finished 13-5 in RMAC play after winning at UCCS on Friday and hold the seeding tie-breaker over the Mavericks thank to their 5-set head-to-head win a week ago in Brownson Arena.
 
In this Friday's win over the Mountaineers, Gilfert led CMU with 13 kills and four blocks while hitting a sizzling .571.  She has decided to forgo her final year of athletic eligibility and will be graduating this year.
 
Smith also had a solid match with 10 kills and three blocks.  She hit at a .474 clip.
 
Ritter finished with 14 assists on the night and now has 2,001 in her career.  She reached the milestone in the third set on a Smith kill that gave the Mavericks a 10-7 lead in what ended up being the last and tightest frame of the night.
 
Scherr had five kills, seven digs, a service ace and block in the victory, which was CMU's 14th straight over the Mountaineers dating back to 2013.  The last six of those wins have been 3-set sweeps.
 
Meanwhile, junior setter Ara Norwood had 27 assists, six digs and a season-high-matching three service aces.
 
Sophomores Kerstin Layman and Holly Schmidt co-led the Mavericks with 11 digs.  Schmidt also finished with nine kills while Ashton Reese chipped in seven.
 
Western was led by seven kills from Kirsten Companik.  The Mountaineers' Hanna Hendrickson had 16 assists while Jordyn Todd had 11 digs.
 
The Mavericks rolled in the opening two sets and never trailed in either. 
 
After the Senior Night festivities, they jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first set and led by as many as seven points (20-13) before a late and small rally from the Mountaineers closed the gap to four.  However, it was not enough as the Mavericks claimed the set after hitting .295 as a team.
 
CMU hit at a sizzling .433 clip in the second set, highlighted by six Gilfert kills on just seven swings. 
 
The all-American put down kills from Norwood on each of the first two points before Norwood recorded a service ace to give the Mavericks a 3-0 lead.  CMU quickly extended the lead to seven (10-3) and never looked back, doubling the final advantage to 14 points.
 
The Mavericks also jumped out to 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the third set but allowed the Mountaineers to gain a 4-3 lead.
 
The Mavs would then surge ahead to a 10-7 lead before the Mountaineers chipped away at what would later be a 17-13 Maverick lead to eventually take a 20-19 advantage of their own.
 
However, a timely substitution helped force a Mountaineer service error as the Mavericks scored the next three points to re-take a 22-20 lead.

Another Mountaineer service error moments later then handed the Mavericks the overall win.
 
With Friday's win, the Mavericks went 8-1 at home this season but have also enjoyed their time in the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena winning six of their last seven matches there, including both the semifinal and championship match of last year's RMAC Tournament.
 
CMU also went 3-1 in the Oredigger Volleyball Classic to begin this season and won a 5-set match over the Orediggers in last year's regular season meeting.