GOLDEN, Colo.— Junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler continued to put up big numbers, leading the nation's 21st-ranked Colorado Mesa University volleyball team to two more wins and their first 4-0 fall season start in nine years on Saturday here at the Colorado School of Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
Leffler recorded 36 kills on the day, putting down 19 while hitting .412 in a come-from-behind 5-set (21-25, 25-12, 25-15, 22-25, 15-10) win over Findlay before putting down 17 more in a 3-set (25-23, 25-22, 25-16) sweep of Augustana later in the afternoon. 
 
The Eaton, Colorado native was then named as the MVP of the Oredigger Volleyball Classic Presented by Courtyard and Residence Inn by Marriott while teammates Sabrina VanDeList and Emma Shaddix joined her on the all-tournament team.  Leffler led the tournament with 74 kills, 16 more than any other player, and averaged 5.29 per set.  She also hit .382 throughout the weekend as the Mavericks won the unofficial tournament title as the only one of the eight teams in the field to go 4-0, marking the first time in 11 tournaments appearances since 2008 that they have done so.
 
CMU's 4-0 start is also their first since rattling off 15 straight wins in the 2021 spring season and is their first 4-0 fall season start since 2014, when they swept through the West Texas Lady Buff Classic en-route to a 29-4 overall season.
 
VanDeList put up 50 assists and nine digs in the win over Findlay as the Mavericks hit .355 as a team in that match.  She then added another 38 assists, nine digs and three blocks against Augustana as the Mavericks tallied a weekend-high nine blocks as a team against the Vikings, who went 0-4.
 
Meanwhile, Shaddix had 17 kills on .571 hitting against the Findlay Oilers in what ended up being the de-facto tournament title match as the Oilers (3-1) bounced back to sweep tournament-host Colorado School of Mines, which was also swept by San Francisco State on Saturday.  The Mavs had swept the Gators on Friday night.
 
Findlay Recap
 
The Mavs dropped the opening set but began clicking in the second and third sets, hitting .438 and .577 as a team in those respective frames.  Out-scoring, the Oilers by a combined 50-27 in those two sets, the Mavs then watched the Oilers go on a 7-1 run to break open a 15-9 lead in the fourth.
 
CMU would pull within three on several occasions and got back within two at 21-19 and within one at 23-22 before an Alana Pohlman kill and Alissa Rhodes ace allowed the Oilers to send the match to a fifth set.
 
The fifth set was tied at 3 in the early going before a Rhodes service error followed by two Allison Waller service aces in a span of three points allowed the Mavs to take a 7-3 lead.  The Oilers, who were guilty of four service aces in the fifth set, never fully recovered as the Mavs maintained the lead throughout the rest of the set, finishing it off on back-to-back Shaddix kills.
 
Riley Daugherty also added 13 kills, seven digs and three service aces in the win while Waller tallied 18 digs to lead the team while also chipping in three additional aces  Jordan Woods added 14 more digs.
 
Augustana Recap
 
In the win over the Vikings, Leffler and Daugherty pounded a combined 28 kills with Daugherty chipping in 11.  Fifth-year senior Savannah Spitzer also added six in both Saturday matches while true freshman Kaela Neie and Nicole Martin each put down five against the Vikings.  Martin and Spitzer also had four blocks while Neie added three after coming on to replace Shaddix on the right side early in the first set.
 
That set was quite a battle and featured ten ties and six lead changes, the last of which came late as Neie recorded back-to-back kills to turn a 23-22 Maverick deficit into a 24-23 lead.  Daugherty then finished the set off with a kill when Augustana's Piper Asche was called for a blocking error.
 
The Mavs were also able to pull out a tight second set as Leffler recorded two straight kills before Nicole Martin finished off a 3-0 set-winning run.  Leffler had eight kills in the second set alone.
 
The Mavs then used the momentum and quickly raced to a commanding 8-1 third-set lead, partially thanks to a pair of Leffler service aces.  The Vikings would only pull within six the rest of the way as another 4-0 run with back-to-back Leffler kills helped the Mavs pull ahead, 18-9.  They then cruised to close out the set by the same 9-point final margin of victory.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return home to host an early season-tournament for the first time in 11 years, playing four matches in three days starting Thursday night against Cal Poly Humboldt.  The Mavs will also take on Fresno Pacific, Sioux Falls and Dallas Baptist during the DoubleTree by Hilton Maverick Fall Classic that will run through Saturday in Brownson Arena.