GOLDEN, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team hit a school-record .544 as a team, putting down 50 kills in a dominant 3-set (25-15, 25-15, 25-9) sweep of Northern State University on Friday afternoon in the Colorado School of Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
The match was the first of the 2022 season and the first of the Oredigger Volleyball Classic for both teams, who were amongst the others receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Top 25 Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
The Mavericks had three players with double-figure kill totals, who all hit at a .550 or higher clip.  Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sierra Hunt registered 13 kills and hit .550 while graduate transfer right side Erin Curl put down 11 kills while hitting .625 in her Maverick debut. 

Returning AVCA Honorable Mention All-American Tye Wedhorn had ten kills on .750 hitting while fellow middle blocker Savannah Spitzer put down seven kills without an error to hit .778 on nine attempts.
 
Sydney Leffler, the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year, also finished with nine kills as redshirt sophomore Sabrina VanDeList spread 39 assists while adding four service aces.  She also finished second to redshirt senior libero Kerstin Layman for digs with seven.  Layman had 17 as the Mavericks held the Wolves to 25 kills and a .131 attack percentage.  Layman also had two aces.
 
The Mavs were guilty of just seven hitting errors, six of which were result of Wolves' blocks, throughout the match and easily broke the 30-year-old school record for single-match hitting percentage.  The former mark of .491 had been set in 1992 against Western State.
 
The Mavs hit .500 in the opening set as Hunt put down five kills while Wedhorn, Leffler and Spitzer had three each.
 
CMU led 7-6 but then went on a 7-3 spurt to build a 14-9 lead while never looking back.
 
In the second, the Mavs used an early 6-0 run with Layman at the service line to jump out to an 8-3 lead.
 
They later extended what was a 11-8 lead to 18-10 and closed out the second set on back-to-back kills by Wedhorn, who had five in the set.  Hunt had six in that frame.
 
In the third, the Mavs got out to a huge 13-2 lead thanks to long service runs by freshman Allison Waller and Layman after Van DeList had tallied consecutive aces early on.
 
The Mavs hit .467 in the second set and finished the match, hitting .696 in the third after putting down 17 kills while being blocked just once.
 
CMU will continue the opening day of the season at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening against No. 19 UT Tyler, the team that ended the Mavs' 2021 season in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament last fall.
 
The Patriots swept Colorado Christian earlier Friday.