COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Northern Colorado natives Sydney Leffler and Allison Waller were named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week while they and their Colorado Mesa University volleyball teammates remained tenth in the latest AVCA/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which was also announced minutes before the conference honors on Monday afternoon.
 
Leffler, a junior outside hitter from Eaton, recorded 41 kills and 44.5 total points to lead all RMAC players last week while extending her RMAC lead in both categories.  Meanwhile, Waller a sophomore libero from Loveland, led all RMAC players with 44 digs as the Mavericks recorded 3-1 road wins at CSU Pueblo and Adams State on Friday and Saturday, respectively, while raising their overall record to 16-1 in what is their best 17-match start in program history.
 
Both Leffler and Waller played their club volleyball for NORCO and went to Eaton and Berthoud High Schools, respectively.
 
Leffler has now won two RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honors this season and has been recognized four times in her career.  Waller has now won a league-leading three of this year's six defensive awards.
 
As a team, the Mavs have now won ten of 18 possible RMAC weekly awards as Sabrina VanDeList has recorded three RMAC Setter of the Week wins while Savannah Spitzer was named as the offensive honoree in back-to-back weeks on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 after Leffler earned the initial honor as part of a Sept. 4 awards sweep.  Waller was also part of a Sept. 18 sweep with Spitzer and VanDeList.
 
Leffler recorded 17 kills in Friday's win and then put down a career-high 24 in Saturday afternoon's win at Adams State.  She averaged 5.13 kills and 5.56 total points throughout the weekend as she also recorded seven digs, three blocks and a service ace.
 
Waller averaged 5.50 digs per set over the weekend, tallying 17 in Friday's win over CSU Pueblo before tallying a career-high 27 in Saturday's match at Adams State.  She also had 11 assists in the two victories, combined.
 
In the national poll, the Mavs remained in the No. 10 spot with 705 points in the polling of 47 AVCA member coaches from around the country. 
 
The rest of the top 10 was also only minorly changed with MSU Denver and Southwest Minnesota State each moving up a spot at the expense of St. Cloud State, which dropped two spots to eighth after falling to Southwest Minnesota State in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference match last week.
 
The NSIC has four of the top eight teams in the country with Wayne State and Concordia St.-Paul continuing to hold down the top two spots.  Both teams have just one loss, coming to each other.  Tampa, still undefeated (14-0), is ranked third and received the other two first place votes while Missouri-St. Louis, also undefeated (17-0), remained in the No. 4 spot. 
 
Defending National Champion West Texas A&M is still ranked fifth while Nebraska-Kearney remained ninth.
 
Regis, CMU's Saturday afternoon opponent, also moved up a spot to a season-best 11^th, switching spots with now 12^th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth.