GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Earning her first start since Sept. 14 after coming off the bench to record 10 kills on Friday night, Colorado Mesa University redshirt sophomore right side Ashton Reese did two better on Saturday as she put down a dozen while hitting .500 to lead the Mavericks to a 3-set sweep of visiting UCCS in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.

The Mavericks hit .309 as a team in the 26-24, 25-14, 25-23 victory and improved to 7-1 at home, 16-9 overall and to 12-5 in RMAC play heading into their regular season finale and Senior Night match against Western Colorado University in six days' time (Nov. 15).  UCCS fell to 10-15 overall and to 8-9 in the loop with Saturday's loss.

Reese needed just 18 swings to record what was the second highest kill effort of her season and career.  She was making just her second start of the season.

Meanwhile, Kasie Gilfert finished with 11 kills while Camille Smith added seven kills and three blocks, while hitting at a .375 clip.  Sophomore outside hitter Holly Schmidt added eight kills, including three in the final stages, while senior Katie Scherr finished with five.  Scherr also tallied a match-high 16 digs, one more than sophomore libero Kerstin Layman.

Maverick setters Ara Norwood (20) and Samantha Ritter (18) combined for 38 assists as the distributed the ball well throughout the match.

UCCS was paced by 11 kills from Grace Nelson as the Mountain Lions hit .212 as a team.

Both teams were firing in the opening set at UCCS hit .500 in the first set.  However, the Mavericks also hit a solid .429 and took advantage of four and untimely Mountain Lion service errors to win the set in come-from-behind fashion.

UCCS had taken 18-16, 20-19 and 21-20 leads before one of those errors evened the set.

Scherr then served an ace at the other end of the court before a Mountain Lions hitting error gave the Mavs a 23-21 lead.  Lauryn Shockley would stop the capitulation momentarily before another service error gave the Mavs a 24-22 lead and a pair of set points.

UCCS did not let up and tied the set on kills by Shockley and Nelson before yet another service error gave CMU another set point, which they would convert on a Nelson misfire.

The second set was not nearly as close as the Mavericks gradually built a 7-point cushion at 16-9 before using a 6-0 run to increase the lead to a dozen (23-11) en-route to the comfortable second set win.  The Mavericks hit .440 in that frame and looked to close out the match in the third.

However, UCCS had other ideas and took an 11-7 lead before the Mavs rallied with an 8-2 run to take a 15-13 lead.  UCCS would come back to tie the set at 17 and again at 20 and 21.  Schmidt then drilled a killed down the line to put the Mavericks up 22-21 before coming up with a solo block on UCCS' Lauren Brown, who finished with five of her own on the other net.  Schmidt then put down yet another kill to put CMU up 24-21.

UCCS then erased the first two of three match points before another Schmidt cross-court smash bounded off the Mountain Lions and into the crowd to seal the Mavericks' win.