GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's second-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners won all three sets by the slimmest of margins to squeak out a 25-23, 27-25, 26-24 win over host and 20^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University in a key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball match on Friday night in Brownson Arena.
 
The Roadrunners had also won a 3-set match just 15 days earlier in Denver and have now swept the regular season series for the second straight year while improving to 12-1 overall and to 5-0 in RMAC play with what was their 26th consecutive conference win over the past three seasons.
 
The Mavericks, led by 15 kills and five blocks from graduate right side hitter Erin Curl, fell to 8-4 overall and to 3-2 in the RMAC. 
 
All four of the Mavs' losses have come against teams currently ranked in the top eight of the American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division II Poll.
 
Curl's kill total was her second best of the season and came on .519 hitting.  However, the rest of the Mavericks all hit below .200 as the RMAC's top-rated defense held CMU to a .124 team hitting percentage.
 
MSU Denver hit .181 as all-America outside hitter Rylee Hladky finished with a 13-kill, 11-dig double- double.  Maddie Lindsay also came off the bench to record nine kills on .421 hitting while Kelsey Gordon had eight kills on .278 hitting.
 
Redshirt sophomore Sierra Hunt provided the most support for Curl and the Mavs, finishing with eight kills and three blocks.  Tye Wedhorn was third on the team with five kills while fellow middle Savannah Spitzer had a season-high six blocks, helping the Mavericks to a 10-7 advantage over the Roadrunners, who led all of Division II coming into the night for blocking.
 
Kerstin Layman had 15 digs to lead the Maverick back row while Sabrina VanDeList recorded her second consecutive and fifth double-double of the season with 25 assists and 11 digs.
 
The match was very much decided in the late going of all three sets.
 
The Mavericks had large early leads in the first two and then turned the table in the third, rallying from as many as eight points down at 15-7 to force a second straight "overtime" frame in the third.
 
The Mavs were still down 16-10 and then roared to score nine of the next ten points to pull within one while forcing the Roadrunners to use both of their timeouts.
 
CMU then eventually tied the set at 21 and later took a 24-23 lead on kills by Curl and Sydney Leffler before the Roadrunners won the final three points of the match to clinch the win.
 
In the first, the Mavs jumped out to a 7-3 lead and increased the lead slightly to 17-12 before the Roadrunners went on a 7-1 run to take their first lead of the set at 19-18.
 
The two teams continued to battle to a 23-23 tie before Riley Anderson and Hladky put down kills to claim the set.
 
The Mavericks also jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set but watches that advantage evaporate quickly as the Roadrunners went on a 5-0 run to pull within 11-10 before going ahead 14-13 on a Hladky service ace, the visitors' only one of the night.
 
The Mavs would surge ahead 20-16 with Maddi Foutz at the service line before the Roadrunners came back to tie the set at 22 and 23 before going up 24-23 on a Lindsay kill.
 
Curl and Lindsay then traded points before a Roadrunner mishit after a free ball allowed the Mavs to remain alive at 25-25.
 
However, Lindsay put down a pair of kills to win the second set en-route to the overall victory.
 
The Mavericks will have yet another opportunity to bounce back quickly as they will host a hot Colorado Christian (9-5, 4-1 RMAC) club that dominated Westminster, 3-0 in Salt Lake City on Friday.  The Cougars have now seven of their last eight matches.
 
CMU, which swept a neutral-court non-conference affair over the Cougars on Aug. 27 in Golden, has swept their next opponent after each of their four losses this season within 24 hours of the setback.