GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The No. 14 Colorado Mesa University volleyball team swept three tight sets to improve to 7-0 overall while handing their coach 19th-year head coach Dave Fleming his 350^th career win in a 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 victory over visiting University of Sioux Falls on Friday night in Brownson Arena.
 
The victory, keyed by a balanced offensive attack, also allowed the Mavericks to remain as the only unbeaten team in the 2023 DoubleTree by Hilton Maverick Fall Classic heading into the tournament's final day.
 
Now 3-0 over the last two days, the Mavericks received a match-high 14 kills from junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler and another 13 from redshirt senior middle hitter Savannah Spitzer, who also added three service aces.  Redshirt junior setter Sabrina VanDeList orchestrated the attack, registering her third double-double of the tournament with 40 assists and 16 digs.
 
Sophomore Aesha Alrashed also had a fine nine with a career-high eight kills on .333 hitting while adding two blocks.  Riley Daugherty also added nine kills in the win, which pushed Fleming's career record to 350-173 (.669).
 
The Mavericks' 7-0 start marks the first time since 2005, Fleming's first season, that they have won their first seven fall matches.  CMU did win 15 straight to start the COVID-delayed 2021 spring season.
 
In Friday's win, the Mavericks were out-hit .236 to .230 by the Cougars (2-4) from the notoriously tough Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and were also able to overcome 12 Cougar blocks thanks to some solid play in the late stages of each set.
 
The first set was tied on eight separate occasions and featured five lead changes, the last of which came during a 5-0 Maverick run that included two of Leffler's five first-set kills.  That spurt put the Mavericks in front, 18-15.
 
The Mavs maintained the cushion the rest of the way although the Cougars did close to within one at 19-18 and again at 22-21 on a Jordan Kuper service aces.
 
However, two Spitzer kills and a Cougar hitting error allowed the Mavs to win three of the final four points and take the set.
 
The second set was just as tight and was tied on 12 occasions, including at 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 before Leffler and Spitzer kills followed by a setting error gave the Mavs a 21-18 lead.
 
The Cougars answered back to tie the score at 21 on back-to-back Spitzer hitting errors before a fine dump kill by VanDeList, who had four on just six attempts, gave the Mavs a 22-21 lead.
 
Leffler and Kuper, who finished with 13 kills for the visitors, then exchanged kills before Alrashed and Kuper did the same to make the score 24-23.
 
However, Leffler put the set away with her fifth kill of the set to finish it off.  CMU finished with an impressive 21 kills and hit .306 in the second set before escaping the third despite hitting just .105.
 
The Cougars recorded five blocks in that third set alone but also gave up five service aces to the Mavericks, maintained a small lead for much of the set.
 
They led by a maximum of five points at 20-15 and later took a 23-19 lead on a Kaela Neie kill.
 
The Cougars would slice that gap in half with a Kuper kill and block before Daugherty gave the Mavs three match points.
 
Kuper fought off the first with her final kill before Spitzer banged her 14^th kill of a Cougar block and just outside the sideline for the match-winner.
 
The Mavericks will close out the tournament on Saturday night against Dallas Baptist University in a re-match of last season's NCAA Tournament opening-round 5-set victory at 7:30 p.m.  That match will be the last of five to be played throughout the day, which begins at 9:30 a.m. when Sioux Falls will take on Cal Poly Humboldt.