GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team dropped the first set for the first time in 27 matches this season but was able to rally for a gritty 4-set (23-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-21) Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament win over visiting Westminster University on Tuesday night here in Brownson Arena.
 
With their quarterfinal win, the second-seeded Mavericks have now reached the RMAC Tournament semifinals for the fifth consecutive year while improving to 23-4 overall.  They will now face sixth-seeded Colorado Christian University on Friday in Denver after the Cougars (18-9) pulled a mild 4-set upset over No. 3 seed South Dakota Mines in another quarterfinal in Rapid City, South Dakota.
 
The Westminster Griffins finished the season with a 11-15 record, their second best since 2013, and were playing in just their second RMAC Tournament since joining the conference in 2015.
 
The Mavericks had dropped their regular season finale at South Dakota Mines on Saturday and may have had a bit of a hangover from the long road trip of the season as the visiting Griffins rallied from 11-5 down to win the opening set by scoring four of the final five points.
 
CMU committed ten total hitting errors and were blocked by the Griffins four times in that opening frame but were able to roar back to take the second set behind an improved .214 attack percentage after hitting just .103 in the first set.
 
The Griffins, guilty of nine hitting errors in the second set, were able to regain their footing taking a 9-6 third-set lead after Josie Gerritsen registered three consecutive service aces.  The Griffins then went up 10-6 on a Claire Cook kill before a thunderous Nicole Martin response in front of the 10-foot line stopped the Griffins' run.
 
Hahni Johnson then checked in for the Mavericks and served the Mavericks to a 9-0 run that proved to be the difference in the set and the match.  Johnson also had three of her season-high four service aces in that stretch, which was only briefly interrupted by a service error.  Maverick senior outside hitter Syndey Leffler then resumed what ended up being a 14-1 Maverick run with one of her match-high 16 kills.
 
The Mavericks led 20-11 at that point after another strong serving stretch by defensive specialist Jordan Woods and were able to close out the third set hitting .429 as a team.
 
The Mavs then rode that momentum to a 7-0 and 10-2 leads early in the fourth set.
 
However, the Griffins did not go away and pulled within 14-10 lead before the Mavs were able to stretch the lead back out to six points at 18-12, 19-13 and 20-14.  They still led 23-17 moments later before the Griffins cut the 6-point deficit in half to close within 24-21 forcing a Maverick timeout.
 
However, the Griffins' ensuing serve sailed long ending the match and their season.
 
The Mavericks finished the night with 52 team kills as Leffler led the way while hitting .278.  She also had ten digs to register her ninth double-double of the season.
 
Meanwhile, redshirt junior right side Sierra Hunt put down 15 kills on .370 hitting and added four blocks while senior middle blocker Stormi Tadlock registered nine kills, seven of which came in the first set alone.  Tadlock also matched a season-high with six blocks.
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList tallied 38 assists, nine digs, three blocks and an ace while CMU junior libero Allison Waller finished the match with 13 digs, helping the Mavericks to a 54-37 advantage in that category.
 
CMU finished the night with a .217 attack percentage and had seven service aces.
 
The Griffins also had seven aces but were guilty of 15 service errors.
 
The visitors had 38 total kills as outside hitter Claire Cook led the team with ten while Mailei Myers recorded nine on .333 hitting from the middle.  Alpine White also had eight kills and three aces while Gerritsen and Leila Cornejo both finished with 18 assists while splitting time at the setter position.
 
CMU had also swept WU in their final regular season home match last Tuesday and won all three matches between the teams this season.  The Mavericks have now won 20 straight matches over the Griffins since 2015.
 
The Mavs also finish the 2024 season with12-1 home-court record and have lost just five matches in the 5-year career of VanDeList and Johnson, who have won 105 total indoor matches as Mavericks.
 
The Mavericks' semifinal match against Colorado Christian will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday inside MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center following an earlier 5 p.m. semifinal between the top-seeded and host Roadrunners and the No. 4 seed Regis Rangers, who claimed a 4-set win over No. 5 seed CSU Pueblo on Tuesday night.
 
MSU Denver swept visiting No. 8 seed Western Colorado in the other Tuesday night quarterfinal.
 
More information about the remainder of the tournament can be found on rmacsports.org.