GOLDEN, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University veteran Sydney Leffler put down 21 kills and hit at an impressive .515 clip while transfers Riley Daugherty and Emma Shaddix combined for another 22 kills in their Maverick debuts to lead the Mavs to a 3-set sweep of Pittsburg State University in both teams' season-opener on Friday afternoon here at the Colorado School of Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
The Mavericks hit .402 as a team in the 25-20, 25-21, 25-14 victory over the Gorillas as redshirt junior setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded 41 assists while coming up with seven digs.
 
Meanwhile, sophomore Allison Waller recorded a match and career-high 13 digs while registering eight more assists in the libero uniform for the first time in her career in place of 2-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Year Kerstin Layman, who graduated following the 2022 season.
 
The match was the first of four for both teams at the Oredigger Volleyball Classic Presented by Courtyard and Residence Inn by Marriott, which runs through Saturday evening.  The Mavs will next play San Francisco State at 6 p.m. while Pitt State will look to bounce back against the host Orediggers, ranked 22^nd nationally at the same time.
 
Leffler, a 2-time All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference outside hitter, put down seven kills in each of the three sets as she and Daugherty, a 2-time Second Team All-MIAA pick while at Newman University in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas, provided much of the punch on the outside for the Maverick offense.  Daugherty finished with 12 kills on .267 hitting.
 
Meanwhile, Shaddix had nine of her ten kills in the second and third sets combined, finishing the match with an impressive .450 attack percentage from the right side.  The Jupiter, Florida native is a graduate transfer from Florida Southern College.
 
The Mavs built a 16-12 lead in the opening set but then fell behind 18-17 before Daugherty, Leffler and Spitzer combined for four kills in a 5-0 spurt that allowed the Mavs to regain control of the set and a 22-18 lead.
 
Two Gorilla service errors and another Leffler kill after a VanDeList dig and Waller bump set, allowed CMU to take the opening set.
 
The Mavs used another big 8-0 run that featured four Leffler kills with Daugherty at the service line to build an 11-5 lead in the second.
 
They later increased the lead to 18-8 before the Gorillas came roaring back to pull within four points at 19-15 and later within three at 22-19.  However, they ran out of points as Leffler and Shaddix managed kills in the closing stages to help the Mavs take a 2-0 overall lead.
 
The Mavs then hit at a blistering .640 clip in the third and final set as Leffler, Daugherty and Shaddix combined for 15 of the Mavs' 18 third-set kills.  Spitzer added the other three  as CMU never trailed going on a 5-0 run with Daugherty at the line to build an 11-6 lead before stretching the lead to the final 11-point margin of victory throughout the rest of the set.
 
Spitzer added seven more kills in the victory as the Mavs finished with a 53-38 advantage.  They Mavs also had a 39-33 edge in digs as VanDeList recorded seven to finish second on the team behind Waller.