DURANGO, Colo.— Playing against her former team and for the final time in her former Whalen Gymnasium stomping grounds, Colorado Mesa University redshirt senior Tye Wedhorn put down 12 kills and six blocks while hitting .500 as part of a balanced Maverick attack in a 4-set Rocky Mountain Athletic conference win at Fort Lewis College on Saturday night.
 
CMU's Sydney Leffler, Sierra Hunt and Savannah Spitzer were all in double figures for kills as well with 16, 14 and 13 as the Mavs rallied from a set down to win their ninth straight match by a 19-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-21 score. 
 
The nation's 20^th-ranked Mavericks finished with a 63-34 advantage in total kills helping them overcome 32 total hitting errors, 13 Skyhawk blocks and 11 FLC service aces.  In the process, they improved to 17-4 overall and to 12-2 in the RMAC, moving into a tie for second place in the conference standings with No. 18 Regis and No. 22 Colorado School of Mines.
 
No. 2 MSU Denver leads the conference with a perfect 14-0 conference record after claiming a 4-set Saturday afternoon win at Regis in Denver.
 
FLC, held to a .094 attack percentage, thanks in large part to nine blocks and 67 digs, fell to 8-12 and 6-8 in the league.  The Skyhawks are tied for seventh in the conference standings with two weeks to go in the regular season.
 
Although the Mavericks were solid offensively, they also relied on the defense as fifth-year senior libero Kerstin Layman amassed 29 digs, the second highest total of her impressive career.  Redshirt sophomore setter Sabrina VanDeList also had 15 while recording her seventh double-double of the season with 44 assists.  She also had three service aces to pad her RMAC lead while becoming just the fourth Maverick in the rally-scoring era (2001-Present) to surpass the 100 ace career milestone.
 
Erin Curl also recorded four blocks and seven kills from the right side while Leffler had three blocks, including two solos.
 
Wedhorn, a Second Team All-RMAC honoree as a freshman at FLC in 2018, made just one hitting error on 22 swings throughout the match while Spitzer hit .292 opposite her in the rotation.
 
Wedhorn and Hunt both put down four kills in the opening set.  However, the Skyhawks tallied five aces and three blocks in the opening frame as they extended a 13-10 lead to as many as seven at 19-12 on a run that included back-to-back Ella Butler aces followed by a block.
 
Butler, who finished the match with eight block assists and six aces, added another ace to reach set point before Lauren Shea put down a kill to give the Skyhawks the opening set.
 
Held off-balance and to a .156 hitting percentage in the first set, the Mavs came out firing in the second.  They hit .412 as a team in the second frame, building an early lead before the Skyhawks pulled back within one at 10-9.
 
The hosts would get no closer as a service error triggered a 6-1 Maverick run that featured three Hunt kills.
 
Leading 16-10 at that point, the Mavs then went on to extend their lead to eight at 20-12 thanks to a Wedhorn kill, Jordan Woods service ace and kills by Curl and Leffler.
 
The Mavs then cruised to the most lop-sided set win of the night.
 
CMU continued to roll in the third set and took a 7-1 lead as VanDeList had back-to-back aces in a 4-0 serving run to begin the set.
 
The Skyhawks also trailed 13-6 and 15-9 but did pull back within three at 17-14 before a Hunt kill and Woods ace coming out of a timeout helped the Mavs to put away the set to go ahead, 2-1 overall.
 
CMU also got out to a strong start in the fourth set, taking an early 7-1 lead. 
 
The Mavs led by as many as seven at 16-9 but did allow the Skyhawks to pull within a single point at both 19-18 and 20-19 before a Spitzer kill and FLC hitting error, one of the 11 the Skyhawks would make in the final set, helped the Mavs increase the lead back to three at 22-19.
 
Hunt and Wedhorn then blocked Alexis Hobie after a timeout to go up 23-19.
 
However, the Skyhawks scored the next two points to cut the deficit to 23-21.
 
Wedhorn then put down her final kill before teaming with Curl for a match-ending block to leave her 2-year home on a high note.
 
She and the Mavericks will return to her adopted home next weekend as the Mavs will look to extend their winning streak to ten against Chadron State next Friday (Oct. 28) at 6 p.m.  The Mavs will also take on Mines in their Senior Day match next Saturday (Oct. 29) at 4 p.m.