GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The No. 14 Colorado Mesa volleyball team had to rally from one set down Friday to remain undefeated with a 3-1 victory over Fresno Pacific University in the DoubleTree by Hilton Fall Classic at Brownson Arena.
The 6-0 Mavericks got a double-double from junior outside hitter Riley Daugherty, who recorded a season-high 16 kills and added 10 digs to help CMU claim a 19-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-16 victory in their second match of the tournament. Mesa plays the University of Sioux Falls in Friday night's match and wraps up the weekend Saturday night against Dallas Baptist University.
Setter Sabrina VanDeList had a double-double of her own with 49 assists and 14 digs and added a pair of aces. Libero Jordan Woods led CMU's defense with a career-high 19 digs.
The Sunbirds raced to a 6-3 lead in the opening set and never let the Mavericks get the upper hand. CMU did fight off four set points to cut the deficit to 24-19 before Corinne Acosta recorded one of her team-high 11 kills.
A more settled defense in the second set resulted in the Mavericks tying the match, holding Fresno Pacific to a .190 hitting percentage, well off the .406 the Sunbirds hit in the opening set.
The improved defense also led to the Mavericks being more aggressive on the attack, led by four kills from Daugherty and three from Kaela Neie. Mesa had only three attack errors and had a .323 hitting percentage in the second set, and that shot to .400 in the momentum-shifting third set.
Down 9-7 in the third after a kill by Daugherty, the Mavericks thought they had won a point at the net, with Savannah Spitzer slamming an overpass back over the net, but she was called for touching the net.
After Fresno Pacific made it 11-7 on a block, Daugherty, Spitzer and Sydney Leffler, the reigning AVCA/GameChanger NCAA Division II National Player of the Week, recorded back-to-back-to-back kills. Two more kills by Leffler tied it at 12-12 and Spitzer came up with an ace to give the Mavericks the lead for good. Leffler finished with 14 kills, giving her 105 in the first six matches, an average of 17.5 per match.
Spitzer had five of her 12 kills in the third set, and in the fourth, VanDeList set the hot hitter, who was Daugherty. She recorded seven kills in 10 swings, with no errors, in the set. Fresno Pacific rallied from an early 6-3 deficit to take a brief 13-12 lead, but the Mavericks came right back behind Daugherty and Spitzer, and Neie served an ace for a 23-15 lead.
Daughtery got it to match point with a kill and Leffler and Spitzer teamed up for a block to put it away.
For the match, the Mavericks hit .318, with the Sunbirds hitting .216. Daugherty finished with only two attack errors for a .483 efficiency and Spitzer hit .429. With Spitzer leading the way with five block assists, CMU had eight total team blocks — Leffler had the team's lone solo block, with CMU's front line teaming up for 14 assisted blocks.
