SALT LAKE CITY— Redshirt freshman outside hitter Sierra Hunt came off the bench to record a career-high 14 kills while hitting at an errorless .667 clip to lead the No. 24 Colorado Mesa University volleyball team to a 3-0 bounce-back victory at Westminster College here in the Griffins' Behnken Field House on Friday night.
 
The Mavericks, who dropped a 4-set match to No. 6 MSU Denver at home on Thursday, hit .328 throughout the evening and dominated the Griffins at the end as they won 11 of the final 13 points, including each of the last eight, to claim the 25-17, 25-23, 25-14 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory.
 
Fellow outside hitter Holly Schmidt also finished in double figures for the Mavs with ten kills while Ashton Reese finished with nine on .533 hitting from the right side.  Middle blocker Savannah Spitzer also had six kills on .545 hitting for the Mavericks, who improved to 6-3 overall and to 1-1 in the RMAC.
 
The Griffins, held to just 27 kills and .115 hitting, fell to 2-6 overall after their first RMAC match of the young season.
 
Hunt, who had not played in three matches and sparingly this season after picking up Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors in the spring season, answered her call to the floor in a big way after coming in with the Mavericks down 15-14 in the second set, by far the tightest of the three.
 
She then delivered five kills in the remainder of the set, including one on the final point.  Hunt also had an important set-tying kill that evened the frame at 21 after the Griffins had came out of a timeout to take a 21-20 lead.
 
Meanwhile, Hunt was even better in the third set connecting on nine of her 12 swings in the final frame as the Mavs won each of the final eight points of the match.  Hunt had four kills in that stretch alone, including the match-clincher.
 
The Mavericks had 52 kills throughout the match, 25 more than the hosts as Sabrina VanDeList doled out 37 assists.  VanDeList also had eight digs.  Libero Kerstin Layman had a match-high 18 digs as the Mavs recorded a 54-39 edge in that defensive category.
 
In the first set, the Mavericks trailed early, 7-6 but rattled off the next seven points with Jordan Woods at the service line as the Griffins committed four successive hitting errors.  Leading 13-7 at that point, the Mavericks never looked back extending the lead to as many as nine (19-10) while cruising to the opening set win largely behind five kills from Schmidt.
 
The Mavericks have now won 12 consecutive matches over the Griffins.  All but two of those wins have come in straight sets.
 
The Mavs will return home and prepare for a 2-match weekend in Brownson Arena hosting Adams State and New Mexico Highlands next Friday and Saturday (Sept. 24 and 25), respectively.