DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team was unable to defeat Regis University for the third time this season and fell out of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament with a 25-16, 25-17, 25-20 loss to the Rangers in the semifinal round on Friday night at MSU Denver's Auraria Events Center.
 
The nation's tenth-ranked Mavericks, who were the No. 2 seed in the tournament, fell to 24-4 overall while the nation's 11^th-ranked Rangers, the third seed in the tournament, improved to 22-6 while setting up Saturday afternoon's title match against the seventh-ranked and top-seeded host Roadrunners, who dispatched No. 4 seed in similar 3-0 fashion earlier in the evening.
 
The Mavericks suffered their first 3-0 loss of the entire season, which was also their first since Sept. 23, 2002 against then second-ranked MSU Denver.  They will now await Monday's NCAA Division II Tournament Selection Show, which will air at 5:30 p.m. MST on NCAA.com to see where they will travel and who they will play in the South Central Regional portion of the tournament.  The Mavs were ranked third in this week's regional rankings, one spot ahead of the Rangers, who they had swept here on Oct. 27 after defeating them at home in four sets on Oct. 14.
 
Eight teams from the region will be selected.
 
CMU has now lost four consecutive RMAC semifinals, including the last two to the Rangers.
 
On Friday, the Rangers finished with a 13-1 blocking advantage while receiving a balanced offensive attack.  Nadine Burbrink tallied 11 kills and six blocks while Amelia Davis recorded seven blocks to pace the winners.
 
CMU's Syndey Leffler, the RMAC Player of the Year, recorded a match-high 13 kills while RMAC Setter of the Year Sabrina VanDeLIst tallied 28 assists and nine digs, falling just one dig shy of what would have been her eighth consecutive double-double.  RMAC Defensive Player of the Year Allison Waller had 13 digs for the Mavs while Hahni Johnson and Jordan Woods added 12 apiece.
 
However, the Rangers held the Mavericks to season-lows for both kills (34) and attack percentage (.071) throughout the night.  The Mavs were also guilty of 24 hitting errors, 11 of them unforced, and were unable to record a service ace for the second time this season, both of which have come against the Rangers.
 
The Rangers committed 12 hitting errors and had 43 total kills while hitting .254 as a team as Klaudia Sowizral recorded nine kills while Halle Theis put down eight to support Burbrink.
 
Savannah Spitzer was second on the Maverick squad for kills with seven.