GOLDEN, Colo.— Sierra Hunt, Sydney Leffler and Nicole Martin combined for 37 kills while setter Sabrina VanDeList doled out 45 assists to lead the nation's 17^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Mavericks to a 3-set (25-17, 25-23, 25-20) sweep of Gannon University in both team's season-opener on Friday at the Oredigger Volleyball Classic.
 
The tournament will run through Saturday evening here at the Colorado School of Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
The Mavericks hit a solid .288 as a team while recording 51 kills, more than double the Golden Knights' total of 25, throughout the match of NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago.
 
Gannon, which went 27-5 in 2023, was the top seed and host of last year's NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional and was receiving votes in this year's AVCA/TARAFLEX Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
CMU, coming off three successive NCAA Tournament appearances, looked the part on Friday as Hunt recorded a match-high 14 kills while hitting .524 in her first indoor match in nearly two years.  The Aurora, Colorado native missed the 2022 NCAA Tournament and all of the 2023 season due to injury and was moved to the right side hitter position for Friday's match after earning AVCA Honorable Mention All-America honors as an outside hitter in 2022.
 
Meanwhile, Leffler, the 2023 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year and AVCA First Team All-American put down 13 kills and three blocks in Friday's win from her outside hitter position.
 
Martin, a sophomore, started in the middle and tallied ten kills while hitting .600 with just one hitting error.  She also co-led the Mavericks with three blocks.
 
VanDeList, a returning AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and the 2023 RMAC Setter of the Year, also had three blocks while recording eight digs and orchestrating the potent and balanced Maverick attack.
 
Libero Allison Waller, the 2023 RMAC Defensive Player of the Year, also contributed with a match-high 11 digs and three service aces.  The Mavs had nine aces as a team and held the Golden Knights to just four.
 
The Mavs hit .408 in the opening set and went on a 5-0 run after training 9-8 to take a 13-9 lead.  Leffler had back-to-back kills in that run while VanDeList added an ace.  Meanwhile, Hunt recorded six kills in the opening set as the Mavericks gradually built and extended their lead while winning the set by eight points.
 
The second set proved to be more difficult as the Mavericks trailed 11-8 before Waller had two of her aces in an 8-0 spurt that gave the Mavericks a 16-11 lead.
 
The Knights would fight back to within a single point at 23-22 before a kill by Stormi Tadlock put the Mavs up 24-22.  Gannon would fight off one of the two set points to close the gap to 24-23 before a Leffler kill ended the set.
 
Waller also had another strong serving stint in the third set as the Mavericks took a 12-9 lead after trailing 9-8.  They were able to maintain a small advantage throughout the set as Martin and Tadlock put down kills from the middle to finish off the match on both sides of a Maverick service error.
 
Tadlock, a senior newcomer to the Maverick indoor roster out of Drury University, finished the match with six kills in her CMU debut while freshman Rhyan Mason and redshirt freshman Emma Luce both saw their first collegiate action as well.
 
Journey Blevins led the Knights with 11 kills and hit .318.  They also had 11 blocks as Ali Sorenson and Lauren Atwell both recorded five.
 
The Mavericks will continue the tournament on Friday evening at 6 p.m. taking on fifth-ranked Concordia St.-Paul, winners of nine NCAA Division II National Championships.