DENVER— The nation's 12^th-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners held on to win a tight first set, 26-24, and then took the second and third by identical 25-19 scores as they avenged an earlier conference loss with a 3-0 win over the visiting Colorado Mesa University Mavericks on Thursday night here in the Auraria Event Center.
 
The Roadrunners improved to 18-3 overall with their ninth straight win while the Mavs suffered their third straight loss for the first time since the end of the 2017 season to fall to 12-8.
 
The match did not count in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings and was the opening of an RMAC Power Pod that also includes South Dakota Mines, who the Mavs will face on Friday night at 6 p.m. on the Roadrunners' home floor.
 
The Mavericks had won the last two match-ups between the teams, taking a 4-set home win back on Sept. 26 in Grand Junction when the Roadrunners were ranked fifth in the country.  The Mavs had also stunned then the top-ranked Roadrunners in last year's RMAC Power Pod in the state capital.
 
The Roadrunners finished Thursday night's match with a 53-35 advantage in total kills as senior outside hitter Annika Helf led all players with 12 kills while adding 11 digs for a double-double.  Alyssa Boyte also added 11 kills on .529 hitting from the middle while Brooke Gennerman came off the bench to record ten kills.
 
The Mavericks also had a balanced attack as Henley Madsen and Sadie Scoville both put down eight kills while Aesha Alrashed added seven while recording a match-high six blocks.
 
CMU finished the night with ten blocks to double up the Roadrunners also MSU Denver countered with a 51-35 advantage in total digs.
 
Roadrunner setter Karyna Werley had 23 assists and 10 digs while GabriElle Brewer added 21 assists.
 
Maverick freshman setter Ashlyn Tafoya had 21 assists while Addie Swanson had seven assists and seven digs.
 
The Roadrunners held the lead through much of the first set and had a 20-15 advantage before the Mavs fought back to within 22-21 on three straight Alrashed kills.  The Roadrunners then went up 24-21 after a timeout before a Alrashed kill and solo block triggered a 3-0 run that tied the set.
 
However, the Mavs committed a service followed by an attacking error handing the set to the Roadrunners.
 
The hosts then jumped out to a 10-5 and 17-9 leads in the second set before the Mavs put up quite a fight in the first half of the third battling to ten different ties.
 
However, the Roadrunners scored five of the next seven points to take a 19-16 lead and seize control.  They also held 21-19 and then finished the match off on a 4-0 run that featured consecutive Helf kills following a Boyte and Helf block.