GUNNISON, Colo.— Outside hitters Sierra Hunt and Holly Schmidt each put down 14 kills as setter Sabrina VanDeList doled out 40 assists to lead the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks, who hit .402 as a team, to a 3-set road sweep on Saturday evening at Western Colorado University.
 
The 25-23, 25-15, 25-20 victory was the third straight for the Mavericks, who improved to 11-4 overall and to 6-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.  The Mountaineers, held to .142 hitting, fell to 9-7 overall and to 4-4 in the loop.
 
The Mavericks have now won 16 straight and 28 of the last 29 matches over the Mountaineers dating back to 2006.
 
Their Saturday night team hitting percentage was their highest in more than two years since CMU hit .408 in a Sept. 20, 2019 3-0 sweep at New Mexico Highlands.
 
Maverick middle blocker Tye Wedhorn also contributed significantly, putting down eight kills on errorless .615 hitting.  Meanwhile, right sides Maranda Theleus and Ashton Reese also had solid nights.  Theleus had seven kills and hit .400 while Reese finished with a career-high 13 digs in back row rotations.
 
Libero Kerstin Layman finished with a match-high 18 digs.
 
The Mavericks put down 51 kills and were guilty of just ten hitting errors throughout the match.  They also finished with an 8-5 advantage in blocks and dug up 58 Mountaineer attacks.
 
Western jumped out to a 12-5 lead in the first set and had the same 7-point advantage at 17-10 before the Mavericks roared back to tie the set at 19 when Schmidt put down two kills before Haley Hahn and VanDeList recorded a set-tying block.
 
The set was also tied at 20, 21, 22 and 23 as the teams exchanged points before Mountaineer service and ball handling errors gave the Mavericks the tight opening set.
 
The second set was also tight in the early stages and was tied at 9 and 11 before the Mavs went on another 8-2 extended spurt, thanks in part to three Schmidt kills, to build a 19-13 lead.
 
Moments later, Hunt and Wedhorn both had back-to-back kills as the Mavericks built a 22-14 lead while closing out the set on a kill and ace by VanDeList.
 
The Mavericks were then unstoppable in the third set as they hit .536 while putting down 18 kills in the final frame.  CMU led it 11-3 early before the Mountaineers did close to within one at 17-16. 
 
However, the Mavericks scored eight of the final dozen rallies to close out the 3-set sweep, their eighth of the year.
 
With Saturday's win, the Mavericks went 3-1 in road matches over the last two weeks.  They will return home next weekend hosting Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines on Friday at 7 and Saturday at 4 o'clock, respectively.