GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of three straight matches, all in 3-set sweeps, and six of their last seven matches overall, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will head out on the road for the first of two straight weekends.
The Mavericks, 8-3 overall and 3-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, will try to avenge their only loss in that stretch on Friday when they play at even-hotter and national No. 2 MSU Denver (10-2, 4-0 RMAC) at 7 p.m. in the Roadrunners' Auraria Events Center. CMU will then play at Colorado Christian, currently 5-7 (2-2 RMAC), on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Lakewood.
A live stream for both matches can be found on the RMAC Network. Live statistics can also be accessed at the links above.
Revenge on their mind
The Mavericks will look to avenge their only conference loss of the season on Friday when they face the MSU Denver Roadrunners for the second time in 15 days. MSU Denver spoiled CMU's home and conference-opener on Sept. 16 winning a tight 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20) decision. The Roadrunners were ranked sixth nationally at the time while the Mavs were 24
th in that week's AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll.
Maverick true freshman outside hitter
Sydney Leffler had a career and match-high 22 kills in the earlier meeting, which featured a combined 40 ties and 17 lead changes.
The Roadrunners, 10-2 overall, have won eight straight matches and co-lead the RMAC standings a 4-0 along with the Colorado School of Mines, ranked eighth nationally. Mines has also won eight straight matches.
CMU, still receiving votes in the AVCA poll, is part of a 4-way tie for third in the RMAC standings and is in a virtual must win situation on Friday to keep their hopes of defending their RMAC Championship alive.
Three straight in three
Since dropping the Sept. 16 match to MSU Denver, the Maverick have been on a tear winning each of their last three matches, all in straight sets. The Mavericks have held their opponents to 15 or fewer points in six of the last nine sets and have conceded 19 or more just once in that stretch.
Six of CMU's eight victories this season have come in three sets, while the other two victories have come by 3-1 margins. All three of CMU's defeats have come in 4-set affairs to teams ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA poll.
The Mavs have a 27-11 overall set record thus far into the season.
Defense has been the key
The Mavericks held Adams State and New Mexico Highlands to a combined negative .011 hitting percentage in last weekend's sweeps after holding Westminster to a .115 effort in the Sept. 14 victory.
In the process, the Mavericks have lowered their opponent hitting percentage to .143, a mark that ranks the Mavs second in the RMAC.
Home Sweet Home
With last weekend's victories over Adams State and New Mexico Highlands, the Mavs moved to 2-1 at home this season. The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavs went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season and are 61-12 (.836) at home over the past eight seasons since the start of 2014.
In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.
In the past four seasons, the Mavericks have won 25 of their 29 home matches, good for an .862 winning percentage, losing at home just once each season.
The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 2016 and 2017. CMU was also an impressive 15-1 in 2014 en-route to a RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last nine seasons since and including 2012, going 76-21 (.784) at home in that that span.
The Mavericks are slated to play six more home matches this season, their next of which comes on Oct. 15 against Black Hills State.
Right & Bright Reese
Maverick right side hitter
Ashton Reese had a monster night in Saturday's win over New Mexico Highlands recording a career-high 14 kills while hitting an impressive .571 against the Cowgirls. The total surpassed her former career-high of 13, which she had set on Sept. 27, 2019 against Westminster before matching that total on Jan. 24, 2021 in a win over nationally-ranked Regis last season.
Reese also went over the 300-kill mark for her career on Saturday and now has 306 to rank third on the current Maverick team in collegiate kills behind only fellow redshirt juniors
Holly Schmidt, an outside hitter, and middle blocker
Tye Wedhorn. Schmidt has 328 in her time as a Maverick while Wedhorn has 73 in 13 career matches as Maverick and 367 total kills in her collegiate career, which included two seasons at Fort Lewis (2018-19).
Enjoying a spot in the starting lineup
Maverick redshirt freshman defensive specialist
Libby Borgerding was in the starting lineup for both matches last weekend, making just her third and fourth starts of the season after transferring from Division I Omaha, where she played sparingly in the spring. The Highlands Ranch, Colorado native responded well to the opportunity, tallying eight digs in the Friday night sweep over Adams State, helping the hold the Grizzlies to a negative .056 hitting percentage. She then did even better on Saturday against New Mexico Highlands, reaching double-figures for the first time in her collegiate career with ten digs.
One every two
Maverick redshirt freshman setter
Sabrina VanDeList, the RMAC Freshman of the Year in the spring, has been a force behind the service line this season. VanDeList has tallied a team-high 19 service aces in the Mavs' 38 sets, good for an even average of one ace for every two sets played thus far. Her 0.50 per set average currently ranks her second in the RMAC statistics. If she were able to maintain that mark, VanDeList would also rank No. 2 on the Mavs' single-season ace per set charts behind only Drew Choules, who averaged an impressive 0.66 aces per set back in 2005.
VanDeList had five service aces in six sets last weekend recording three of CMU's eight against Adams State before recording both of the Mavs' aces in the win over New Mexico Highlands.
Continuing to be the only one
The Mavericks continue to have an individual ranked amongst the RMAC's top ten in all seven individual statistical categories, a claim that no other RMAC school can currently claim.
VanDeList, as mentioned above, currently ranks second in the RMAC for service aces and also stands third in the conference for assists per set (10.34).
Meanwhile,
Tye Wedhorn ranks third for blocking (1.10/set) and is now tenth for hitting percentage at .311.
Fellow middle blocker
Savannah Spitzer is fourth in the RMAC with her .351 hitting percentage while freshman outside hitter
Sydney Leffler is still in the No. 2 spot for kills per set at 3.49. Leffler also stands fourth in the RMAC for total points per set (3.80).
Defensively,
Kerstin Layman ranks third for digs per set at 4.63.
As a team, the Mavericks sit in the top half of the RMAC statistics in numerous categories, standing amongst the top three in eight of them. Ranking second in opponent hitting percentage as noted earlier, the Mavs are also hitting .238 to rank third in the conference. The Mavs also stand third in blocking (2.18/set), assists (12.79/set) and kills (13.50/set).
CMU also stands third in opponent assists, opponent kills and opponent digs.
300 & Counting
With CMU's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win over UCCS on Apr. 8, Maverick Head Coach
Dave Fleming became just the fifth of now six coaches in RMAC history to reach 300 career wins while coaching in the league. Fleming, who is just the fourth head coach in the program's history, which celebrated its' 35
th season last spring, was also named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time after leading the Mavericks to a 15-1 record in the spring.
Now in his 17
th season, Fleming is 308-162, good for a .655 winning percentage. His 308 career wins are the most of any active RMAC Coach and his tenure is equal to the longest in the conference amongst active coaches.
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has led the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles (2014, 2018, 2021-Spring), a 2014 RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).
The Mavericks have had winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and his teams have reached the 20-win mark five times, including in 2018, when they went 24-7 while winning the RMAC Tournament title and advancing to the semifinals of the NCAA South Central Regional. Fleming was also named as the RMAC Co-Coach of the Year that year after earlier earning that honor outright in 2009 and 2014.
The 2014 team went 29-4, won the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and hosted the South Central Regional portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament while advancing to the regional final.
About MSU Denver
The Roadrunners will enter Friday's match with a 10-2 overall record, including a 4-0 mark in conference play. They have won eight straight matches overall and won the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept. 11-12 before starting conference play with the hard-fought win at CMU four on Sept. 16. Since, the Roadrunners swept Fort Lewis at home and UCCS on the road before being pressed to a fifth set on Saturday at CSU-Pueblo. The 'Runners pulled out the fifth set, 17-15 after being handily defeated by 25-14 and 25-16 scores in the second and fourth sets, respectively, giving up 1-0 and 2-1 overall leads.
Rylee Hladky (19) and Avaline Lai (16) led the Roadrunners in kills during that match and lead the team in that category on the season totals as well. Hladky, named as the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, has recorded 163 kills and ranks fourth in the RMAC with her 3.47 per set average. Lai is sixth in the RMAC with her 3.19 per set average and has recorded 150 in total. She is also hitting .341 to rank fifth in the RMAC for attack percentage.
Hladky and setter Amela Quershia are tied for the team lead with 21 service aces a piece and are tied for fifth the RMAC with the per set average of 0.45.
Ember Canty, who had 15 kills to lead the Roadrunners in the earlier win over CMU has registered 45 blocks, good for a 0.98 per set average while falling just outside of the RMAC's top 10.
Quershia and Jessa Megenhardt have split time at the setter position in MSU Denver's 6-2 attack and are averaging a combined 11.66 assist per set.
Ashlyn Cianciulli, this week's RMAC Defensive Player of the Week, leads the team with 205 digs, good for 4.36 per set average to rank fourth in the RMAC. She had 25 digs in the win over CMU before registering a career-high 31 in the 5-set win over CSU Pueblo.
The Roadrunners are hitting .250 as a team to rank second in the RMAC and have four wins over nationally-ranked foes at the time of the meeting, including then No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul in the semifinal round of the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept. 11.
About Colorado Christian
The Cougars will enter a Friday night home match against Westminster with a 5-7 overall record. They are currently 2-2 in RMAC play after winning a 5-set match at UCCS on Saturday, which came on the heels of being swept by CSU Pueblo on Friday.
Redshirt Freshman outside hitter Libby Goodman, who played at Division I North Alabama last season, leads the Cougars with 125 kills and ranks third in the RMAC with her 3.47 per set average. She had a monster 21-kill effort on Saturday at UCCS.
Fellow outside hitter Breanna Allen, a senior, also ranks eighth in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.14 and has recorded 116 in total.
They also rank sixth and seventh in the RMAC for total points per set as well.
Freshman Izzy Jones ranks fourth in the RMAC for assists per set (8.65) while sophomore middle hitter Mackenzie Close is sixth in the RMAC for blocking at 1.05 per set. Sophomore Madelyn Long anchors the Cougar back-row with 175 digs, good for a 3.80 per set average that is tenth best in the RMAC.
As a team, the Cougars are hitting .198 to rank sixth in the RMAC. However, their opponents are hitting a combined .229 against them, only the 12
th best mark in the conference.
Series Histories
The Roadrunners and Mavericks have met at least once since at least 1993 in a long-standing rivalry that dates back before the Roadrunners joined the RMAC in 1996. MSU Denver is 31-11 in the 42 meetings between the teams in that time span, although the Mavericks had won three out of the last four meeting prior to MSU Denver's win on Sept. 16, including in the 2018 RMAC Tournament Championship match in Golden.
The Mavs have won just three out of 20 matches against the Roadrunners in Denver since 1993 and have lost four straight decisions there since claiming a 5-set win on Sept. 18, 2015.
Sixth-year Roadrunner Head Coach Jenny Glenn is 8-3 in the coaching battle with Maverick Head Coach
Dave Fleming, who is 10-20 against the Roadrunners in his tenure at CMU.
The Mavericks lead the Division II era series with Colorado Christian, 21-14, and have won four straight and seven of the last eight matches after the Cougars had won five straight meetings between 2010-13. However, the Mavericks hold only the slightest 8-7 advantage in away matches.
Three of the most recent four Maverick victories have come in straight sets while the other was in four.
Fleming is 12-6 against the Cougars and leads the coaching battle against CCU fifth-year court boss Bobby Blanken, 4-1.
Up Next
The Mavericks continue their 4-match stretch of away matches on Oct. 8 at Fort Lewis and Oct. 9 at Western Colorado before coming home to face the RMAC's two South Dakota schools on Oct. 15 and 16 in Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines, respectively.
