GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— 2021 AVCA Honorable Mention all-American and South Central Regional Freshman of the Year Sydney Leffler matched a career-high with 22 kills on impressive .487 hitting as she and the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks out-lasted visiting Colorado State University Pueblo in a 4-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball battle on Saturday in CMU's Brownson Arena.
 
Fellow outside hitter Sierra Hunt also put down 14 kills while right side Erin Curl had one of the Mavs' two double-doubles with 13 kills and 10 digs, helping the Mavs to their seventh straight victory, which moved to the Mavs to 15-4 overall and 10-2 in conference play.
 
With the 26-24, 15-25, 25-20, 25-22 win, the nation's 20^th-ranked Mavericks moved into a third-place tie with No. 23 Colorado School of Mines in the conference standings.  CSU Pueblo, receiving votes in the latest AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, slipped a match behind both at 9-3 in the loop. 
 
The ThunderWolves are now 16-4 overall and saw their 3-match winning streak come to an end.
 
The Mavericks hit .302 as a team but failed to record a single block until the fourth set, when they had three, unable to greatly slow a tenacious Pack attack that hit .343 throughout the 2-hour and 16-minute match, which included numerous replay challenges.
 
However, in the end, the Mavericks finished with a big 71-56 advantage in total kills and a 66-56 edge in total digs, allowing them to overcome CSU Pueblo's 8-3 advantage in blocks.
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList joined Curl with a double-double.  The redshirt sophomore and 2-time reigning RMAC Setter of the Week, finished with a season-high 58 assists and 11 digs.  She also recorded five of the Mavs' six service aces increasing her RMAC-leading ace total to 36 while matching her single-match career-high and moving to within three of 100 for her career.
 
Maverick Middle blockers Savannah Spitzer and Tye Wedhorn also managed nine and seven kills, respectively, in Saturday's win while Maddi Foutz had five.
 
Defensively, redshirt senior libero Kerstin Layman recorded 17 digs while Wedhorn was involved in two of the Mavs' three final-set blocks.
 
The ThunderWolves had three attackers in double-figures for kills, including Payton Van Veen, who had 13.  Hannah Delor also had a 10-kill, 11-dig double-double for the visitors.
 
The first set was the tightest and included nine tie scores and four lead changes as the Mavericks took a 23-20 lead on a Hunt kill before Van Veen answered with two of her own to close the gap to 23-22.
 
The teams then exchanged service errors before a Maverick hitting error resulted in a 24-24 tie.
 
However, Hunt, who had seven first set kills, and Leffler put down the final two points to give the Mavs the early lead.
 
The Mavs then got out to a 7-3 and 10-6 second set leads before the Pack rallied for a 12-4 run to take an 18-14 advantage.  The Mavs did get one point when the ThunderWolves were called for being in the net, but could muster no more as the visitors ended up scoring 15 of the final 18 points of the second set to even the overall match.
 
After committing seven hitting errors and being held to a .107 attack percentage in the second frame, the Mavericks regained their footing and put down 21 kills in both the third and fourth sets, hitting .372 and .381 in them, respectively.
 
After trailing 2-0 early in the third set, VanDeList had two service aces in a 5-point run.  The set was later tied at five and six before the Mavs went on another 5-1 run, which featured four Leffler kills, to go ahead 11-7.
 
The Mavs then gradually extended the lead to as many as six before kills by Curl and Wedhorn in the final three rallies proved to be enough for the final 5-point cushion.
 
The Mavs also got out to a 5-2 lead in the fourth set and never trailed in it, although the ThunderWolves hung around and closed to within 23-21 and 24-22 before Leffler finished the match with a kill on CMU's second match point to clinch the victory.
 
Leffler's 22 kills were the most of any Maverick in a single match this season.
 
The Mavericks ran their home-court record to 6-1 with what was their eighth straight home-court win over the ThunderWolves, who last won in 2011.
 
CMU will be on the road next weekend facing Western Colorado on Friday and Fort Lewis on Saturday evening before returning home for two of their final four, including a Oct. 28 match against Chadron State.