GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Playing with their highest fall season national ranking in nine years, the ninth-ranked Colorado Mesa University Mavericks dispatched of visiting Chadron State College in straight sets, 25-16, 25-12 and 25-15 in Tuesday night Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball action in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavs continued their domination of the Eagles winning for the 29^th straight time in the rivalry and hit .363 as a team in Tuesday's victory that continued the Mavs' best start in program history.  CMU improved to 19-1 overall and to 9-1 in RMAC play while the Eagles, who last beat the Mavericks in 1995, were held to just 24 kills and a .041 team attack percentage while falling to 11-8 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
 
The Mavs have now won eight consecutive matches and needed just one hour and 11 minutes to record their latest win, which was their 11^th 3-0 sweep of the campaign.
 
The Mavs finished with 45 total kills in Tuesday's win as outside hitter Sydney Leffler and middle Savannah Spitzer combined for 30 as both hit well above .400. 
 
Reigning RMAC Setter of the Week Sabrina VanDeList recorded 38 assists and moved into the No. 3 spot of program history for career helpers while libero Allison Waller led all players with 14 digs.  Riley Daugherty was also in double figures for digs as the Mavs had a 49-32 advantage in that category.
 
VanDeList now has 3,465 career assists and moved past Tara King (3,436) in that statistical category on Tuesday night.
 
The Mavs also blocked and served well, recording an 8-6 blocking advantage while earning six service aces while committing just two service errors, which had been a bit of a problem in recent matches.
 
Leffler recorded a match-high 16 kills in the 3-set sweep and hit .448 as she moved within site of the 1,000 career kill milestone.  The RMAC 2023 season kills leader (310) is now just 22 shy of becoming the first Maverick to reach the milestone since MacKenzie Edwards in 2018 and went over the 300-kill mark for the third straight season in Tuesday's victory.
 
Meanwhile, Spitzer, who entered the night with 750 career kills, added 14 more on .435 hitting in Tuesday's win.  She also chipped in four blocks as did Emma Shaddix.  VanDeList and Aesha Alrashed added three each.
 
The Mavericks went on long service runs in each set and hit .281, .406 and .407 in the sets.  The Eagles were guilty of 20 hitting errors and were held below .060 in each of the three sets, recording just eight kills in each frame.
 
The Eagles did have an 11-7 lead in the first set before the Mavs roared back to tie the set at 13 thanks to back-to-back Spitzer service aces.  The Eagles then went up 15-13 before the Mavs scored the next ten points with VanDeList at the service line to go up 23-15 en-route to the set win, finished off by a Alrashed and Shaddix block.
 
The Mavs would gain a slight 10-9 lead in the second set before out-scoring the Eagles 15-3 the rest of the set, including a 9-0 run with Riley Daugherty at the service line.
 
Leffler and Spitzer had six kills each in the frame while VanDeList recorded 14 assists.
 
The Mavs then used a 5-0 run on VanDeList serves featuring two Alrashed blocks to go up 9-4 in the third set.  They later extended the lead to as many as 12 at 20-8 before letting off the gas slightly.

However, the cushion was more than enough as Leffler recorded kills on each of the final two rallies, ending the match fittingly on a smash after an Eagle overpass.  She and Spitzer both had five kills in the third set.
 
The Mavs will look to reach the 20-win mark for the third consecutive season on Saturday when they begin a 3-weekend stretch away from home with a 5 p.m. encounter at Colorado Christian.
 
The Mavs, now 10-1 at home this season, will play their next four matches away from home before closing out the regular season on Nov. 10 and 11 with home matches leading into the following weekend's RMAC Tournament.