DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team held a 2-set lead in a bid to avenge its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference loss of the season, but saw that advantage slip-away as the upset-minded Mavericks dropped a 5-set heartbreaker to the nation's second-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners on Friday night here in the Auraria Events Center.
 
The Mavericks, now 8-4 overall and 3-2 in the RMAC, won the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-22 but watched the Roadrunners (11-2, 5-0 RMAC) storm back to win the third, fourth and fifth by 25-21, 25-16 and 15-11 scores.
 
The two teams were playing each other for the second time in 15 days after the Roadrunners had won a tight 4-set battle at Brownson Arena in both team's RMAC opener back on Sept. 16.
 
On Friday, Maverick right side Ashton Reese finished with a new career-high 17 kills.  Meanwhile, freshman Sydney Leffler put down 13 after recording a career-high 22 in the earlier meeting.
 
Sabrina VanDeList also had a solid night with 38 assists and 13 digs to tally her fifth double-double of the season.
 
Tye Wedhorn, Savannah Spitzer and Holly Schmidt all finished with eight kills in support of the Maverick cause while Jordan Woods had three service aces and eight digs.
 
Roadrunner outside hitter Rylee Hladky finished with 22 kills and nine digs while Alexis Benda added 12 kills and five blocks, helping the Roadrunners double-up the Mavs in the blocking category, 12-6.
 
The Roadrunners finished the night hitting .235 while CMU finished at a .194 clip, struggling down the stretch hitting just .036 in the fourth set and .136 in the fifth, when the Roadrunners recorded four blocks in the final set alone.
 
Leffler was on fire in the opening set, recording seven kills and hitting .462 in that frame alone.  Reese then matched her in the second set with seven kills and a .667 attack percentage as the Mavericks took the commanding 2-0 overall lead.
 
The Mavs then led by four points at 6-2 and by three at 9-6 and 10-7 in the third set.  However, the Roadrunners won seven of the next nine points to switch the momentum.
 
The two RMAC heavyweights then traded blows as the set was tied at every point from 14-21 before the Roardunners won the final four points of the set to stave off elimination.
 
The Mavs then got out to a 6-4 lead in the third set but watched another 5-0 Roadrunner run switch the momentum once again as the hosts went on to hit .296 in the fourth set to send the match to the decisive fifth set.
 
A 4-0 Roadrunner run broke a 2-2 deadlock in the deciding set and put the hosts up 6-2.  The Mavericks did not give in and battled back to within 8-7 on back-to-back kills by Spitzer before a Roadrunner block thwarted the mini-rally.
 
Later, the Mavs came back to tie the set at 11 on a Maranda Theleus kill before yet another Roadrunner block and Benda highlighted the match-deciding 4-0 run, which also included two CMU miscues.
 
The Mavericks will attempt to bounce back quickly as they will play at Colorado Christian (6-7, 3-2 RMAC) on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Lakewood.  The Cougars recorded a 3-set sweep over Westminster at home on Friday evening.