GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's tenth-ranked Colorado Mesa University Mavericks extended their winning streak to seven and their best start in program-history to 18-1 with their most important win of the season to date, taking down the nation's 11^th-ranked Regis University Rangers in four sets of intense Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball on Saturday afternoon in Brownson Arena.
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded a season-high 51 assists and her second double-double in 24 hours with 12 digs as she out-dueled reigning AVCA/Gamechanger NCAA Division II National RMAC Player of the Week Mara LeGrand, who had 35 assists and 13 digs for the Rangers (13-4, 6-1 RMAC).
 
The Rangers also saw their 10-match winning streak snapped by the Mavs, who out-hit the Rangers by nearly 100 points, .220-.126 throughout the match.
 
VanDeList spread the ball nicely as four different Mavericks finished in double-figures for kills, including conference leader Sydney Leffler, who recorded a match-high 16 from her outside hitter position.
 
The Mavs also had five players in double-figures for digs as redshirt junior defensive and serving specialist Hahni Johnson tallied a career-high 19.  Redshirt freshman outside hitter Erin Brown also chipped in a career-high 12 after coming in off the bench for back-row duties in the third set.
 
Savannah Spitzer also had a fine afternoon in the middle, recording 15 kills on .429 hitting while adding three blocks. 
 
Meanwhile, outside hitter Riley Daugherty recorded her second consecutive Saturday double-double with 12 kills and season-high 14 digs.  Right side hitter Emma Shaddix also chipped in ten kills for the second consecutive outing, hitting .333 while recording three blocks, including a solo.
 
Maverick libero Allison Waller also contributed 16 digs as the Mavs' finished with an 80-64 advantage in that category.
 
The Mavs also tallied a +20 kill ratio with 61 as only one Ranger— Klaudia Sowizral— reached double figures.  She had ten and hit .185.
 
The Rangers did stay in the match with 14 blocks, twice as many as the Mavs, as Amelia Davis recorded seven while Nadine Burbrink finished with six as the pair continue to sit second and third in the RMAC blocking statistics.  LeGrand also had five but had just two kills on ten hitting efforts.
 
Both teams finished with seven service aces although the Mavs were guilty of nine service errors, five more than the Rangers.
 
All four sets were tight at various stages, most notably in the opening set, which featured seven ties and five lead changes.
 
The Mavs trailed 19-17 but called timeout and re-grouped as Spitzer recorded a kill before teaming with Daugherty for a block just two points later as the Mavs went on a 5-1 run, capped by another Spitzer kill, to take a 2-point lead of their own at 22-20.
 
Leffler was then blocked before Spitzer put down another kill to make the score 23-21 forcing the Ranger's second timeout.
 
Leffler then twice answered kills from Regis' Hannah Kepler and Sowizral to give the Mavs the early overall advantage with the 2-point set win.
 
Hitting .258 in the opening frame, the Mavs then went up to .295 in the second set as they built 4-1 and 7-3 leads while never trailing the set.
 
The Rangers would pull within 14-13 on a Kepler kill before back-to-back Spitzer kills followed by a VanDeList dump kill extended the Mavs' lead back to 17-13 while forcing the Rangers to call another timeout.
 
CMU then scored the next point to go up 18-13 and led by four or five points the rest of the set, clinching it thanks to two late-set kills from Leffler and another two from Shaddix.
 
The Rangers would be the team to gain the early lead in the third set, going up 10-6 on a LeGrand/Burbrink block before the Mavs would eventually battle back to within 14-13 thanks to a 4-0 run, book-ended by Shaddix and Daugherty kills.
 
However, the Rangers went on a 3-0 run of their won coming out of a timeout before eventually taking a 24-20 lead and closing out the set on a Davis kill.
 
Hoping to avoid a dreaded fifth set, the Mavericks then clamped down defensively, recording 17 digs and three blocks while holding the Rangers to .061 fourth-set hitting.  Brown had six of those digs while Daugherty recorded five kills in the frame.
 
Sophomore middle Aesha Alrashed also provided a boost with four of her six total kills on five swings in the final frame as VanDeList more than doubled LeGrand (13-6) in fourth set-assists.
 
The Rangers did lead the set 9-6 before the Mavs came raring back to tie the set at 9, 10 and 11 before a 4-0 run that included a Spitzer kill, a Daugherty service ace and Leffler solo block put the Mavs in control, 15-11.
 
The Rangers did come out of a timeout to score the next two points but would get no closer as the Mavs went up 20-15 on a quick-tempo Airshed kill.
 
After the Rangers closed to within 20-17 on Sowizral and Kepler kills, Daugherty took over with three successive kills before the Mavs went on to go up 24-17 on a Spitzer and Shaddix block.  Shaddix then finished the match off just two rallies later.
 
The Mavs are now 9-1 at home this season and will close out a 3-match home-stand, their only one of the month of October, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Chadron State.
 
They will then play at Colorado Christian next Saturday (Oct. 21) before facing the Rangers again on Oct. 27 during a RMAC Power Pod match at MSU Denver's Auraria Events Center, which will not count in the RMAC standings after Regis and MSU Denver will open the pod on Oct. 26.
 
The Mavs will also face MSU Denver, ranked sixth in the current national poll, on Oct. 28 before MSU Denver and Regis will play their conference match on Saturday, Nov. 4 in the Regis Fieldhouse.