Rapid City, S.D. – The No. 5 Colorado Mesa volleyball team extended their win streak to seven, coming out of this weekend's pod in Rapid City, South Dakota with wins over Fort Lewis and South Dakota Mines.

Holly Schmidt led all attackers, racking up 36 kills on the day, averaging 5.14 kills per set while hitting at a .400 clip. She also led the team in digs with 23 between the two games. Maddi Foutz added 20 kills and 17 digs, and teammate Maranda Theleus was the third Maverick with double-digit kills on the day with 14.

As a team CMU held their opponents to an .088 hitting percentage, tallying 16 blocks for the a 2.29 average per set.

GAME 1 vs. Fort Lewis
The second match of the day featured Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis. In the match prior, the Skyhawks fell in four to host South Dakota Mines.

With fresh legs, the Mavericks came out firing on all cylinders. In the opening set, they went on a 6-0 run to create a 6-point gap, and never looked back. Maddi Foutz capped of the set with a kill, taking 1-0 lead with a 25-17 first set score.

Set number two played out a bit different, as it was Fort Lewis in the drivers seat. After trading points, the Skyhawks capitalized on a few Maverick errors building up to a 16-10 advantage. Back-to-back-to back kills from Holly Schmidt allowed the team to close the deficit to four. Three different Mav players then went on a kill spree to regain the lead at 18-17.

Fort Lewis recorded a kill to bring it to 19-18, but it was all Mesa from then on out, going on a 7-0 run to complete the come back and take a two set lead.

The third and final set saw the Mavs get back on the same offensive flow as the first set, taking the sweep with a 25-15 score.

Ara Norwood notched a double-double with 17 assists and 11 digs. Holly Schmidt was just short of a double-double with 11 kills and 9 digs, and rounding out the Maverick offensive leaders was Maddi Foutz with 12 kills. Schmidt hit a whopping .500, and Foutz nearly matched it hitting .458. As a team CMU finished with a .333 hitting percentage, while holding FLC to just .025.
GAME 2 vs. South Dakota Mines
After sweeping the first match, the Mavericks had to wait it out a bit until their second and last matchup of the day against South Dakota Mines.

The momentum transferred over to game two, hitting .500 in the opening frame to jump out to a 1-0 edge. Letting off the gas a bit, set two found CMU behind early. By a score of 25-19, the Hardrockers evened the score.

Set three the Hardrockers threatened early to steal another set, but a 3-point run tied it up at 10. It wasn't until late in the set, did the Mavs gain a 23-19 advantage thanks to a trio of Hardrocker errors. Holly Schmidt put the stamp on the set 25-22.

The fourth set saw CMU jump out to a 6-1 lead, but saw it disappear as a pair of kills from SDSM and a CMU attack error tied it 11.
A 7-0 run allowed CMU to gain their biggest lead at 10, closing out the game on a kill by none other than Holly Schmidt.

Schmidt's power proved to be a problem for the other team, as she racked up a career high 25 kills to lead all attackers. Her 14 digs, gives her, her fourth double-double of the season thus far.

The team out shined their opponent in digs (64-47) and kills (58-40). The Mavs best hitting percentage came in the fourth set hitting .225, while their counterpart had nine kills and nine errors to hit zero.
 
NEXT UP:
The team will stay up north for one more day, playing a rescheduled matchup with Chadron State, Sunday at 1 p.m. Following the single game on Sunday, the team will return to Grand Junction and prepare to host a pod with top-ranked MSU Denver and UCCS, Thursday March 4.