DENVER— The nation's 11^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University volleyball team recorded its' 20^th win of the campaign and defeated the 12^th-ranked Regis University Rangers in the state's capital city for the first time since 2009 in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Power Pod neutral-site match-up on Friday evening here at MSU Denver's Auraria Events Center.
 
The Mavericks doubled the Rangers' in the hitting percentage category, .312 to .156 in the 25-23, 25-17, 25-23 straight-set sweep and improved to 20-2 overall with their second win over the Rangers, now 16-5, in a fortnight.  CMU had defeated the Rangers in four sets in Grand Junction on Oct. 14 and snapped a 10-match slide against the Rangers within the city limits at the Regis Fieldhouse and here the MSU Denver court.
 
The Mavs have now reached the 20-win mark in three consecutive seasons after going 15-1 during the 2021 spring season.  Head Coach Dave Fleming has now registered 20 or more wins in eight different seasons during his 19-year CMU tenure.
 
In Friday's victory, CMU outside hitter Sydney Leffler finished the match with 17 kills on .417 hitting while middle hitter Savannah Spitzer recorded 10 kills on .381 hitting while adding five blocks. 
 
The Mavs out-blocked the Rangers, who lead the RMAC in that statistic throughout the season, 10-6.
 
Meanwhile, Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded her tenth double-double of the season with 40 assists and 10 digs while libero Allison Waller chipped in a match-high 14 digs.
 
Outside hitter Riley Daugherty also chipped in nine kills and six digs while Emma Shaddix added seven kills on .333 hitting while recording two blocks from the right side.
 
Klaudia Sowizral was the only Ranger in double figures for kills with 10.
 
The Mavs' defense was strong throughout the night, holding the Rangers below .200 in attack percentage in all three sets, quite a feat considering the Rangers lead the RMAC at .278 coming in.
 
The tide turned early on as the Mavericks trailed 17-10 in the opening set before going on a massive 10-0 run with Waller behind the service line.  Shaddix and Spitzer had two kills a piece and combined for a block on RU's Halle Theis in that run.
 
Leading 20-17, the Mavs did watch the Rangers come back to tie the score at two before two Spitzer kills surrounding a Daugherty termination gave the Mavs a 23-20 lead. 
 
The Rangers then scored the next two points on a Maverick service error and a Sowizral kill and fought off one set point at 24-22 on another Sowizral kill before the Ranger graduate student committed a hitting error to give the Mavs the set.
 
After hitting .355 in the opening set, the Mavericks continued to roll in the second as they hit .357 with just two hitting errors.
 
The Mavs took 7-4 and 10-6 leads in the frame before the Rangers clawed back to within 12-11.  However, CMU went on to score six of the next seven points to build an 18-12 lead on a VanDeList solo block before cruising to the 8-point set win.
 
The Rangers roared back early in the third and took a 4-0 lead and still led 10-8 before another strong 8-1 Maverick run that featured three consecutive and four total Leffler kills put the Mavs in front 16-11.
 
The Rangers then went on a 6-0 run of their own that included two Elie King service aces to take a 17-16 lead.
 
They then extended the lead slightly to 20-18 on a Theis kill before Spitzer had back-to-back kills coming out of a timeout to tie the set at 20.  She and Daugherty then blocked the Rangers' Amelia Davis before Theis and Davis recorded kills to give the Rangers a 22-21 lead.
 
However, the Mavs went on to score four of the match's final five points, including on two Leffler match-ending kills to record the important victory.  Leffler had ten kills in the third set alone.
 
Although the win did not count in the RMAC standings, it was certainly large in the selection and seeding process for the NCAA Division II South Central Regional tournament, now just more than a month away. 
 
The Mavs will face another tough task on Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock when they take on the pod-host MSU Denver Roadrunners, ranked seventh nationally.  The Roadrunners (15-5) have lost two straight matches and were swept by Regis in the pod-opener on Friday.