GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Despite playing far from their best, the nation's tenth-ranked and tournament's second-seeded Colorado Mesa University Mavericks avenged one of just three losses while ending visiting Colorado Christian University's season for the third consecutive year in the quarterfinal round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball tournament on Tuesday night in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavs, now 24-3 overall, advanced to the semifinal round for the fourth consecutive season and for the fifth time in six years with the 25-21, 25-23, 25-23 straight-set sweep and ended the seventh-seeded Cougars' season at 12-15.
 
The Mavs were uncharacteristically guilty of 25 hitting errors in Tuesday's win, ten of which were the result of Cougar blocks, but pulled out the match late in each of the sets, which featured 27 total tie scores and 17 combined lead changes.  Thanks to the hitting errors, the Mavericks were out-hit .144 to .136, but took advantage of 11 Cougar service errors while playing a more than respectable defensive match.
 
After recording a career-high 26 kills while surpassing the 1,000 career kill milestone in a 5-set loss to the Cougars on Oct. 21 in Lakewood, Maverick junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler recorded a match-high 15 kills in Tuesday's playoff win, regularly pulling out the Mavericks from some tough spots.
 
Meanwhile, setter Sabrina VanDeList tallied her seventh straight double-double with 30 assists and ten digs.  Libero Allison Waller also finished with a match-high 17 digs while defensive specialist Jordan Woods recorded ten more to help the Mavs finish with a 52-42 advantage in that category.
 
CMU also finished with a 41-36 advantage in total kills as Riley Daugherty chipped in nine.  However, the Cougars clogged the normally reliable Maverick middle, holding redshirt senior Savannah Spitzer to just six kills, the same number right side Emma Shaddix had.
 
However, the Cougars' miscues, which included the commission of 19 hitting errors of their own, helped CMU overcome a 10-7 blocking disadvantage, which also included a rare triple block assist.
 
Neither team built a large lead in the first set although the Mavericks were able to go on a 6-1 run to take a 20-15 lead on a Daugherty kill.  The Cougars would pull back within 22-20 on a Maverick hitting error before a VanDeList dump put CMU in front 23-20.
 
CCU middle hitter Renee Phillips responded with a kill but committed an ensuing service error as the Mavs were able to claim the first set on an Aesha Alrashed kill.
 
The Mavericks then surged to a 15-7 lead in the second set but gave up an 8-1 run, only briefly interrupted by a Cougar service error as the visitors pulled within 16-15. They Cougars later tied the set at 19 on a block and went on to take 21-20 and 22-21 leads on Suzanna Conner kills.
 
However, a Conner service error followed by two consecutive hitting errors, the first of which came thanks to one of Alrashed's team-high four blocks for CMU, helped the Mavs go up 24-22.
 
After Alrashed was blocked by Jones on an overpass attack attempt, the Cougars committed yet another service error, one of five in the second set, to give the Mavs a 2-0 overall lead.
 
The third set was also quite a battle and featured 11 ties and eight lead changes.
 
The Cougars were able to take a 9-5 lead before the Mavers battled back to take a 14-13 lead on a 5-1 run after a controversial call and video challenge went the Cougars' way, firing up Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming and the partisan Brownson Arena crowd, who responded to his call for intensity.
 
The Cougars would shake off the Maverick run and eventually went back ahead 18-16 before three kills from Daugherty and Leffler put the Mavs back ahead, 19-18.
 
The Cougars would go on to take a 21-20 lead on a service ace and Phillips kill before a key Leffler kill tied the set at 21.
 
The Mavs then went up 22-21 on a Spitzer ace before the Cougars tied it with an Alli Douglass kill.
 
However, they again fell victim to a service error before Shaddix put down a kill to give the Mavs two match points at 24-22.  They were then able to convert the second as Leffler banged a cross-court smash off a Cougar defender to clinch the victory.
 
CMU will now head to Denver to face the nation's 11^th-ranked and tournament's third-seeded Regis University Rangers for the third time this season on Friday at a yet to be announced time.  That tournament semifinal match will be played at MSU Denver's Auraria Events Center as the top-seeded Roadrunners swept No. 8 seed Westminster to earn hosting rights.  Regis also swept sixth-seeded Chadron State at home on Tuesday.
 
MSU Denver will play No. 4 seed South Dakota Minesa in the other semifinal after the Hardrockers squeaked past fifth-seeded CSU Pueblo in what was the Hardrockers' first-ever RMAC Tournament home match.  They won the third set of that thriller, 32-30 and took the decisive fifth set, 15-12.
 
CMU had defeated South Dakota Mines in four sets to close out the regular season at home last Saturday and combined with Tuesday's win, were able to finish the home portion of the campaign with a 13-1 record.  The Mavs have lost just one home match in each of the last five seasons.
 
They have also now defeated the Cougars for the tenth time in the last 11 total matches and knocked them out of the RMAC Tournament in the quarterfinal round for the third time. 

CCU's last win over the Mavericks in Brownson Arena came way back in 2013, when they ended the Mavs' season in the RMAC quarterfinals.