TAMPA, Fla.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball quickly bounced back from a tough defeat to the No. 1 ranked team in the country, dispatching the Tusculum Pioneers in three straight sets as the No. 24 Mavericks closed out their second straight winning tournament weekend on Saturday evening here at the Tampa Volleyball Classic.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Leffler put down  a season-high 17 kills in the victory as the Mavericks improved to 2-1 on the weekend and to 5-2 on the season with their fifth straight-set sweep of the young campaign.
 
Savannah Spitzer and Erin Curl also had strong 11-kill efforts as the Mavs recorded 51 kills as a team in the 25-15, 25-21, 25-20 victory over the Pioneers, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season. 
 
Spitzer hit at a .769 clip and recorded seven digs and three blocks.
 
Meanwhile, Sierra Hunt contributed another nine kills while Sabrina VanDeList recorded 38 assists. 
 
Kerstin Layman tallied nine digs and six assists from the libero spot as the Maverick defense held the Pioneers (0-4) to a .133 attack percentage.  The Mavericks hit at a .292 clip
 
After a slow start, the Mavericks went on a 10-0 run the first set, turning a 9-5 deficit into a 15-9 lead.    Leffler, who had nine kills in the opening frame alone, recorded six kills in that stretch.
 
Later, the Mavs held 17-12 lead after an exchange of serving errors and then went another 5-0 run, which featured three successive Pioneer hitting errors to help gain the early advantage.
 
The second set was much tighter, although the Mavericks held a small lead for most of it before extending it to 24-19 thanks to a 4-1 run in the later stages.  The Pioneers then scored the next two points before Curl finished off the season with a kill of her own.
 
Tusculum did not go away and took an early 13-9 lead in the third set, moments before Layman served the Mavs to a 7-0 spurt and into an 18-14 lead.  The Pioneers would get no closer than three the rest of the way as Tye Wedhorn put down the match-clinching kill for CMU.
 
The Mavericks will now return home to Colorado to begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play against MSU Denver, currently ranked fourth in the country, on Thursday night in the Roadrunners' Auraria Events Center. The Roadrunners are 7-1 overall and went 3-1 to place third in the Gold Bracket at the Colorado Premier Challenge this weekend.
 
The Mavs will then host Westminster in their first home match of the season on Friday at 6 p.m.