GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler recorded 18 kills and hit at an impressive and career-high .720 clip as the Mavericks hit .506 as a team in a 3-set rout over visiting Western Colorado University on Thursday night in Brownson Arena.
 
The nation's 11^th-ranked Mavericks improved to 13-1 overall with the 25-8, 25-17, 25-13 victory.
 
Western fell to 2-11 overall with their tenth straight loss.
 
CMU has now won 21 straight matches in the rivalry after sweeping the Mountaineers in Gunnison just 13 nights earlier.
 
Thursday's match was the first of a 3-day, 3-match Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Regional Pod and does not count in the conference standings.  Western will take on Westminster on Friday before the Mavericks close out the pod on Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock against the Griffins.
 
The Mavericks' team hitting percentage is their second highest single-match total in known history behind only a .544 mark last August against Northern State.
 
Leffler needed just 25 swings to record her kill total and did not commit a single error.  She also had three blocks.
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList orchestrated the attack, recording 38 of CMU's 45 assists while adding eight digs and a pair of kills.  Aesha Alrashed was also one of her main targets as the sophomore middle hitter recorded a career-high nine kills.  She also led all players with four blocks and hit .368.
 
Outside hitter Riley Daugherty also chipped in six kills on .357 hitting while Emma Shaddix converted half of her 10 swings for kills without an error.
 
The Mountaineers failed to record a block and hit .101 as a team.  They never had a lead in any of the three sets.
 
The Mavericks doubled up the Mountaineers in total kills, 48-24.  They also had a 41-27 advantage in digs and recorded six service aces, tripling the Mountaineers' total of two.   CMU finished with five blocks and were guilty of only five hitting errors throughout the night.
 
The Mavs jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening set and never looked back, putting down 14 kills without an error en-route to a .609 first-set hitting percentage.
 
The Mavs then hit .515 in the second, extending a slight 8-6 lead to 16-9 advantage.  The Mavs then later led 24-13 before four straight Mountaineer points trimmed the final 8-point margin of victory.
 
The Mavs continued the domination in the third set, jumping out to a 10-1 lead en-route to the victory.  CMU hit .414 with 15 kills and three errors in the final set.