SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks could not stop a blistering Northwest Missouri State University attack which hit at a .389 clip in a 25-22, 25-18, 25-19 victory at the Drury Invitational on Friday evening here at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
The nation's 18^th-ranked Bearcats improved to 6-0 with the victory while the Mavericks fell to 4-3 overall and 1-2 at the tournament heading into a Saturday 9 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. Mountain) encounter with Missouri Western State.
 
Morgan Lewis had 13 kills and hit .524 to lead the Bearcats while Jaden Ferguson put down 11 kills.
 
Katie Scherr and Maranda Theleus both had nine kills and hit. 389 for the Mavericks.  Kasie Gilfert also recorded eight kills while Ara Norwood had her second double-double of the season with 17 assists and 10 digs to lead the Mavericks in both categories.
 
NWMSU had a 53-36 advantage in kills and made just nine hitting errors throughout the evening.  Both teams finished with 39 digs while the Mavericks had a slight 5-4 edge in blocks.  The Mavs also had six different players serve seven combined aces and allowed just two. CMU was also guilty of just three service errors and hit .204 offensively.