GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's sixth-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners outlasted the No. 24 Colorado Mesa University Mavericks in a back-and-forth tight 4-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Volleyball match on Thursday night in Brownson Arena.
The match, which was the RMAC opener for both teams, picked in the top two spots of the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, featured 40 ties and 17 lead changes. The Roadrunners then pulled away late for a 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20 victory to spoil CMU's home-opener.
Neither team led by more than four points in any set until the visitors used a 6-1 run to seize control late in the fourth.
Maverick freshman outside hitter
Sydney Leffler finished the night with a career and match-high 22 kills for CMU, which saw a 3-match winning streak snapped while falling to 5-3 overall. MSU Denver, hot off winning the prestigious Colorado Premier Challenge last week in Denver, improved to 7-2 while extending a winning streak to five.
Roadrunner middle Ember Canty had 15 kills on .591 hitting and was supported by right side hitter Alexis Benda, who posted 13 kills on .571 hitting. Canty connected for kills on each of her first seven attempts.
Meanwhile, Maverick setter
Sabrina VanDeList matched her career-high with 42 assists to finish with 40 or more for the third straight match. She also recorded 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the young campaign.
Maverick libero
Kerstin Layman registered a season-high 26 digs, one more than her Roadrunner counterpart Ashlyn Cianciulli.
MSU Denver's Rylee Hladky (11 kills, 12 digs) and Amelia Quershia (26 assists, 15 digs) also had double-doubles for the victors.
Savannah Spitzer also had a solid night for the Mavs with nine kills on .500 hitting while contributing five blocks.
The Roadrunners finished the night hitting .212 and out-hit the Mavericks .242-.029 in the final set. CMU finished with a .170 clip. The Roadrunners also had slight advantages in blocks (11-8), aces (5-4), kills (58-52) and digs (72-20).
The first set was arguably the tightest and included 14 ties and six lead changes, one of which came after the Mavericks took a 22-21 lead on a
Holly Schmidt kill and Roadrunner hitting error. However, a Hladky kill and Benda block put the Roadrunners back in front as they finished the set on a 4-0 run with kills by Hladky and Benda.
The Mavericks then bounced back in the second set hitting .297 as Leffler heated up with six kills in the frame alone. The Mavs had a slight lead for much of the stanza taking a 13-9 lead with a 4-0 run that featured three successive hitting errors by Hladky after a Schmidt kill.
The Roadrunners did pull within two points, including at 23-21, and then got to within one at 24-23 after spoiling the second of two set points. However, a Leffler smash evened the match at a set a piece.
The third set then included ten separate ties, including at 15, 17 and 18 before the Roadrunners pulled away in the final stages to take a 2-1 overall lead.
The visitors then pulled out to a 4-1 fourth-set lead before the Mavericks battled back to take an 8-7 lead of their own. Neither team would lead by more than a single point until MSU Denver took an 18-16 lead on an Avaline Lai kill.
Leffler answered back with one of her own before a Canty kill put the visitors ahead 19-17. Leffler then hit a bullet that was blocked by Lai and Mikayla McClinton, who had six rejections on the night, as the Roadrunners started pulling away.
The Mavericks will have an opportunity to bounce back quickly as they are already on the road to Salt Lake City Utah, where they will face Westminster (2-5) on Friday evening at 6 p.m. in the Griffins' Behnken Field House.
