GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— For the fourth time this season, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team quickly bounced back from defeat as CMU swept visiting Colorado Christian University, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 in a key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match on Saturday afternoon here at Brownson Arena.
 
The nation's 20^th-ranked Mavericks, paced by ten Sydney Leffler kills, six Tye Wedhorn blocks, 30 Sabrina VanDeList assists and 13 Kerstin Layman digs improved to 9-4 overall and to 4-2 in the RMAC standings while completing a season-sweep of the Cougars, who fell to 9-6 overall and to 4-2 in the league with just their second loss in the last nine matches.
 
The match was the 500^th for 18^th-year CMU Head Coach Dave Fleming, who leads all active RMAC coaches with 330 victories.
 
The final match statistics were fairly even in most categories, although the Mavericks finished with a 38-32 edge in total kills while taking full advantage of 11 Cougar service errors to claim the 3-set sweep, their ninth of the year.
 
The Mavs also had a slight .133-.121 advantage in team attack percentage and a 35-34 edge in digs.
 
Both teams had ten blocks while the Cougars tallied seven service aces compared to five from the Mavs.
 
Sierra Hunt was second behind Leffler, her fellow outside hitter, on the CMU side with nine kills after shaking off a ferocious Cougar blocking effort that tallied six blocks in the opening set alone.
 
The Mavericks trailed 17-11 in that set but went on an 8-1 run with Layman and Jordan Woods at the service line to climb back into it.  The Mavs then took their first lead of the set at 22-21 on a Hunt kill before another Hunt kill triggered the set-closing 3-0 run that was the difference.
 
The Mavericks then jumped well out in front of the visitors in the second set going ahead 10-1 behind some tough serving from freshman defensive specialist Allison Waller.  However, the Cougars valiantly clawed back into the set and tied it at 14 and again at 17, 19 and 20.
 
However, they could never get over the hump as a costly service error and Hunt kill put the Mavericks up 22-20.
 
The Cougars did score the next point out a timeout before a Savannah Spitzer kill and Hunt solo block of CCU's Lilly Woods helped the Mavs win the second set on yet another Cougar serving mistake into the net.
 
The Mavericks then jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the third set before the Cougars went on a 4-0 run of their own to pull within one.  However, another service error stopped the run and allowed the Mavericks to keep their lead, which they did until a 3-0 Cougar spurt put CCU ahead, 19-18.
 
The set was then tied at 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 as the teams exchanged points before a Leffler kill and Hunt/Spitzer block allowed the Mavericks to close out the win.
 
Maverick right side hitter Erin Curl finished the afternoon with eight kills and three blocks while hitting a team-best. 278.  Spitzer also had seven kills.
 
Libby Goodman had ten kills for the Cougars while Woods had six blocks.
 
CMU will remain at home next weekend hosting Fort Lewis on Friday (Sept. 30) at 6 p.m. before taking on Western Colorado next Saturday (Oct. 1) in a 3 p.m. matinee.