SAN ANGELO, Texas— A strong overall 2024 Colorado Mesa University volleyball season and the brilliant careers of the Maverick seniors came to an abrupt end on Friday afternoon here at Angelo State University's Junell Center as the Mavericks dropped their NCAA Tournament opener to Dallas Baptist University for the second straight year.  
 
The Patriots swept the three sets by 25-20, 25-23 and 25-16 margins as the Mavericks lost for the third time in the last four matches while suffering their only two 3-0 sweeps of the entire season in the last two.
 
The South Central Region's fifth-seeded and nation's 19^th-ranked Mavericks fell to 23-6 while the fourth-seeded Patriots improved to 20-9 while advancing to the Saturday night's regional semifinal round. 
 
DBU, receiving votes in the latest AVCA Division II/TARAFLEX Top 25 Coaches Poll, also ended CMU's 2023 season in last year's South Central Regional in Canyon, Texas.  The Mavs had knocked out the Patriots in the opening round of the 2022 affair.
 
The Mavs were making their fourth straight and 12^th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament and surpassed the 20-win mark in all four of those campaigns after going 15-1 to win the 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Spring Season title.
 
On one bright spot, Maverick redshirt senior setter Sabrina VanDeList eclipsed the 5,000 career assist milestone.  She tallied 22 assists in Friday's match and finishes her career as the best setter in CMU history with 5,012 assists.  She also finishes as the Mavs' top server in program history with 183 service aces and tallied nine more digs to end her career with 1,203.  She had 50 career double-doubles and was just one dig shy of a 51^st on Friday.
 
Her go-to-hitter for the past four years in senior outside Sydney Leffler led the Mavs with nine kills in Friday's match and ends her career with 1,516, the fourth highest total in program history.  Leffler also matched a career-high with three service aces in Friday's match.
 
Fifth-year redshirt junior right side Sierra Hunt also added eight kills and four blocks as the Mavs did have a solid net defensive effort with nine blocks, two more than the Patriots.  Hunt, who missed all of 2023 due to injury, is eligible to return for a sixth year in 2025 but participated in CMU's Senior Day festivities last month and will graduate later this academic year.
 
If she does not return, the 2022 Honorable Mention All-American outside hitter, will finish with 870 career kills.
 
Senior Jordan Woods made her second straight start at libero in place of injured Allison Waller on Friday and recorded a team-high 11 digs, equaling her season-high.  She registered 695 digs in her 4-year Maverick career.
 
Fifth-year Maverick senior defensive specialist Hahni Johnson also had five digs, finishing her career with 422 digs.  She and VanDeList helped the Mavs win 105 matches in their careers as the best senior class in the program's Division II history.

Maverick senior middle Stormi Tadlock, who had one season with the Mavs after transferring from Drury University, finished Friday's match with three kills and three blocks, ending the season with 164 kills and a team-high 79 blocks and her overall collegiate career with 713 kills and 284 blocks.
 
The Mavericks were held to a season-low 30 kills and a .078 team attack percentage in Friday's match after committing 14 unforced and 21 total hitting errors.  They also committed 11 service miscues.

DBU hit .163 as a team, putting down 33 kills.  Delaney Fuller finished with 15 while also recording a match-high 17 digs for the victorious Patriots.
 
Hunt supported Leffler with eight kills while redshirt freshman Emma Luce finished with a season-high seven.
 
The Mavs were able to get out to strong starts in the first and second sets, taking a 6-2 lead out of the chute before the Patriots roared back with a 10-3 run of their own to take a 12-9 lead.  Two more 3-0 Patriot spurts later in the set then gave DBU a 21-15 lead, which proved to be enough as the Mavs committed five of their service errors in the opening frame.
 
The Mavs also lead 4-0, 6-1 and 12-7 in the second set before a 6-0 run put the Patriots in front, 13-12.  After a service error of their own, they then went on another 4-0 spurt to build a 17-13 lead.
 
The Mavs then fought back with a 6-0 run that featured two Hunt kills, a Tadlock/Hunt block and a Leffler ace to take a 19-17 lead.  They also went on another 4-0 spurt to break open a 19-19 tie into a 23-19 lead but surrendered the final six points of the set to go down 2-0 overall.
 
The Patriots then continued to roll, winning the first four and seven of the first eight points of the third set while cruising to the third set and match win.