GOLDEN, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team saw their 2019 season likely come to an end in heart-breaking fashion as the fourth-seeded Colorado School of Mines Orediggers outlasted the fifth-seeded Mavericks in an epic, back-and-forth, 5-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinal match on Tuesday night here at the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena.
 
The Orediggers, now 21-6 overall, won the final three points of the match to take the fifth set 15-13 after the Mavericks had taken a 13-12 lead with a 3-0 run of their own. 
 
Those come backs were prevalent throughout the match on both sides.
 
CMU (17-10) dropped the first set 25-20 but ended the second frame on a 10-2 run to take a come-from-behind 25-21 win and even the match at the intermission.   The Orediggers then won the third set 25-17 before the Mavericks controlled the fourth to win it 25-19 while forcing the decisive fifth.
 
The final frame featured nine ties and four lead changes.
 
There were 36 ties and 16 combined lead changes throughout the night.
 
In the fifth set, the Mavericks came from 4-3 down to take a 7-5 lead on kills by Ashton Reese and Katie Scherr followed by a Samantha Ritter service ace.  The teams then exchanged points as they changed sides of the net.
 
The Orediggers then won back-to-back points to tie the set at 8 before another exchange of points made it 9-9. 
 
CSM then won two more points to go up 11-9 and later went ahead 12-10.  However, the Mavericks received two kills from Kasie Gilfert on either end of an Oredigger hitting error to build their 13-12 lead.
 
Mines then pulled out the match with kills by Taylor Hicken, Rose Stuewe and Amanda Donais as the Mavs were called for being in the net on a block on the final rally.
 
CMU had three players in double-figures for kills with Gilfert leading the way.  She put down 15 and hit .353 while fellow First Team All-RMAC selection Camille Smith finished with 13.  Smith also had five blocks, two service aces and hit .321.  Reese registered 10 kills and three blocks while Holly Schmidt had nine kills, three blocks and two aces from her outside hitter position.
 
Defensively, Kerstin Layman had a match-high 16 digs while Ritter tallied 11.  The senior setter also tallied 22 assists to finish with what was her 27th double-double of her 2,023-assist career.  CMU starting setter Ara Norwood had similar numbers with 23 assists and nine digs.
 
The Mavericks hit .224 as a team throughout the night.  They hit .457 in the fourth set and .300 in the second before hitting .312 in the fifth.  However, they committed 16 of their 25 hitting errors in the first and third sets hitting just .045 in those frames combined.
 
The Orediggers had four players in double figures and hit .259 throughout the match.  Donais led the hosts with 14 kills.  She also hit .382.
 
Mines setter Drew Stokes finished with 45 assists and 12 digs.
 
CSM had a 14-9 advantage in blocks on the night as Abby Tiesman recorded seven.
 
Each of the last three and five of the last seven meetings between the Mavericks and Orediggers have gone to five sets dating back to 2015.
 
The Mavericks, who won last year's RMAC Tournament title in this arena over MSU Denver, were ranked tenth in last week's NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings, at least two spots outside of where they would need to be to potentially receive an at-large selection.
 
New rankings are due out Wednesday and will include CMU's regular-season ending win over Western Colorado last Friday.  However, they will not include this match as the ranking calls were held earlier in the week.
 
Mines, who was ranked third in the region last week, now advances to the RMAC Tournament semifinals to face the region's top-ranked and RMAC Tournament No. 1 seeded Regis Rangers, who will host the remainder of the RMAC Tournament after claiming a 3-1 win over No. 8 seed UCCS.
 
The No. 2 seeded MSU Denver Roadrunners and No. 3 Dixie State also won quarterfinal home matches on Tuesday and will face off in the other semifinal on Friday.  Those teams were ranked eighth and ninth in the region last week and have not lost since those rankings were announced.