GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— True freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler matched a career-high with 22 kills and hit at an impressive and career-best .576 clip to lead the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks to their fifth straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory, which came in straight sets (25-17, 25-14, 25-14) on Saturday afternoon over visiting South Dakota School of Mines here in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks hit .393 as a team with 46 kills as they improved to 13-4 overall and to 8-2 in RMAC play. 
 
The Hardrockers, held to 27 combined kills on .105 hitting, fell back to .500 at 9-9 overall and are now 3-7 in conference play after a weekend split.
 
Leffler was on fire throughout the match, putting down five kills in the first set, nine more in the second before finishing her effort with eight third-set kills.   Her nine second set kills were three more than the Hardrockers had as a team in the frame.
 
Leffler, who hails from Eaton, Colorado, also had 21 kills in a 4-set win over Black Hills State on Friday and finished the weekend with 43 kills and a .395 attack percentage.  She also became the first Maverick since 2-time All-American Kasie Gilfert (Oct. 26-27, 2018) to record back-to-back 20-plus kill nights.
 
Leffler can largely thank reigning RMAC Setter of the Week Sabrina VanDeList, who had another strong outing.  The fellow Northern Coloradoan (Severance) finished with 36 assists, five digs, two blocks and two kills after registering a career-high 50 assists in Friday's win.
 
Middle blockers Tye Wedhorn and Savannah Spitzer also played strong supporting roles in the victory.  Wedhorn put down seven kills and three blocks and hit .429 while Spitzer finished with six kills, the same number of blocks and hit .455 as the Mavericks defeated the Hardrockers for the ninth time in as many all-time meetings.
 
Defensively, the Mavericks tallied 49 digs, 20 more than the visitors, as Kerstin Layman and Ashton Reese both reached double-figures with 15 and 12, respectively. 
 
Hardrocker libero Addie Stanley tallied 11 in the losing cause.
 
The first set was nip-and-tuck in the early going before the Mavericks scored nine of the final ten points to break what was a 16-16 tie, the tenth tie of the set.  Holly Schmidt, who finished with four kills and eight digs as CMU's other outside hitter served five successive points during that run while Leffler and Wedhorn combined for three kills in the set-ending 4-0 sub-spurt.
 
After hitting .306 in the first set, the Mavericks were even more dominant in the second and third sets, putting down 16 kills in each while holding the 'Rockers to 16 in total.
 
Like the first set, the second was tight early before the Mavericks used another 5-0 run with Schmidt behind the service line to take a 15-11 lead.  After surrendering one point, the Mavericks inserted Jordan Woods, who had back-to-back service aces and a forced overpass in yet another devastating 6-0 Maverick surge that build the home team's lead to 22-12 en-route to the victory, finished off by back-to-back blocks by Wedhorn, who teamed with Reese and Leffler.
 
The Mavericks then used another 6-0 run early in the third set to build a 10-4 lead, never looking back while routinely trading two points for one to cruise to the victory.  CMU made just two hitting errors in the second set and hit at a .542 clip in the final frame.
 
The Mavericks will now head back out on the road for two matches facing UCCS and CSU Pueblo next weekend in southern Colorado.  Those matches will be on Friday and Saturday, respectively and will both begin at 7 p.m.