LAKEWOOD, Colo.— On a milestone eclipsing evening, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team fought back from two sets down and had three match points late in the fifth but were unable to close out the match as the nation's ninth-ranked Mavericks were stunned by the Colorado Christian University Cougars here in the CCU Event Center.
 
Maverick junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler put down a career and match-high 26 kills as she became the first Maverick in five years to eclipse the 1,000 career kill milestone.  Middle hitter Savannah Spitzer also recorded a career-high 22 kills while Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList had a season-high 58 assists to go over 3,500 for her career.
 
Leffler now has 1,004 career kills while VanDeList has 3,523 assists.  VanDeList also had two service aces moving into the No. 5 spot of CMU history in that category with 135 career aces.
 
However, the big numbers and milestones were not enough for the Mavs, who dropped a painful 25-23, 25-19, 20-25, 14-25, 20-18 decision, which could drop CMU outside of the top 10 of next week's national poll.  The loss was just the second of the season for the now 19-2 Mavericks, who had won eight straight coming in while enjoying their highest normal fall season ranking since 2014. 
 
CCU improved to 9-11 overall and to 5-5 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with the victory, their second in 24 hours.
 
Saturday's loss was doubly-painful as the Mavericks, now 9-2 in conference play, could have moved into sole possession of first place in the RMAC standings with a win as conference-leading and national No. 6 MSU Denver was also stunned at CSU Pueblo.  The Roadrunners are now 8-1 and saw their streak of 48 consecutive RMAC match wins snapped in four sets by the ThunderWolves.
 
Instead, the Mavs fell to third place behind the Roadrunners and national No. 12 Regis, which is also 8-1 in conference play after a 3-0 home win over Western Colorado.
 
CMU had defeated the Regis Rangers just a week ago at home, snapping what had been a 10-match Ranger winning streak.  CMU's only other loss came in four sets to MSU Denver last month.
 
The top three teams will all square off in a RMAC Power Pod next weekend in Denver although those matches will not count towards the conference standings. 
 
In Saturday's match, Leffler had nine kills in the opening set alone although the rest of the Mavericks were held to just six.  The Mavs trailed that set 17-10 but fought back to within a single point on three separate occasions at 22-21, 23-22 and 24-23 before Libby Goodman put down her seventh kill of the set to give the Cougars the early advantage.
 
The Cougars then won the second set after using a 7-1 run to open a 16-10 lead.  The Mavs did claw back within 21-18 but could get no closer.
 
Hitting just .214 and .143 in the first two sets, the Mavs then shook off the sluggish start to hit .455 and .500 in the third and fourth, respectively.  Leffler had seven kills in the third and three more in the fourth, reaching the 1,000 milestone on the first of back-to-back terminations, giving the Mavs a comfortable 17-9 lead in the fourth on her milestone kill.
 
Meanwhile, Spitzer put down nine fourth-set kills on just ten attempts as the Mavs hit .500 as a team to force the decisive fifth set.  She hit .364 in the match while Leffler hit .345.
 
That frame was also looking promising for the Mavs, who took 8-3, 9-4 and 10-5 leads before extending it to 12-6 on a Spitzer kill and Cougar attacking error.
 
However, the Cougars scored the next six points to tie the frame at 12, including a successful video play challenge that could have put the Mavs up 13-9 instead of 12-10.
 
CMU's Riley Daugherty and CCU's Abby Breeding then traded kills before VanDeList earned a dump kill to give the Mavs their first match point at 14-13.
 
Leffler was then guilty of a hitting error before putting down what would her final kill to give the Mavs another match-point at 15-14.  Setter Krista Traynor and the Cougars then tied the score at 15 before the Mavs' Emma Shaddix recorded a kill from the right side to put the Mavs up 16-15.
 
The Cougars then fought off a third match point before surviving a Maverick video review challenge to go up 17-16.
 
CMU freshman Nicole Martin, who had a career-high six kills on just seven swings after coming off the bench to start the third, fourth and fifth sets, and Spitzer then recorded kills on both ends of a Breeding smash as the Mavs were able to fight off two match points of their own at 17-16 and 18-17.
 
However, a Breeding kill and Renee Phillips block gave the Cougars the victory.
 
The Mavs finished with a 75-66 advantage in total kills and had the slightest of 64-63 advantages in total digs.  Allison Waller led CMU with 18 digs while VanDeList chipped in ten to record her ninth double-double of the season.
 
However, CCU had four players in double figures for kills, including Goodman who tallied 17.  Breeding also added 16 kills and 15 digs for the hosts.
 
The Cougars also had an 11-5 blocking edge as Lilly Woods recorded seven, including two solos.