GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Senior outside hitter Sadie Scoville led a balanced offensive attack with a dozen kills while senior libero Allison Waller recorded 20 digs in a much-needed Colorado Mesa University volleyball victory over visiting Chadron State College here inside Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks finished off the 25-12, 25-23, 26-24 victory with five straight points as they were able to fight off three Eagle third-set points while coming from 24-21 down in the final stanza.
 
With the win, the Mavs snapped a 4-match slide, their longest in eight seasons, and defeated the Eagles for the 31st straight time over the last 30 campaigns.
 
CMU also improved to 13-9 overall and 7-4 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference while dropping the Eagles to 5-18 overall and to 1-10 in the league.
 
The Mavs finished with a 44-40 edge in total kills and had a solid .240 attack percentage while committing just seven unforced hitting errors.  The Mavs also recorded nine blocks and four aces, all of which were in the opening set, while being guilty of just three service errors.
 
Sophomore Karsen Breeding chipped in eight kills to support Scoville on the outside while Coco Barnett got the start on the right and finished with seven kills on .312 hitting.  Middle blockers Macy Wood (6) and Aesha Alrashed (5) also combined for 11 kills and nine blocks as Alrashed recorded five, including rejections on the final two points alongside Scoville and Barnett, respectively.
 
Wood had four blocks and hit .556 offensively.
 
Maverick setters Addie Swanson and Ashlyn Tafoya also put up identical numbers with 17 assists and seven digs, apiece.
 
Freshman Addison Wright also got a start at the defensive specialist position and chipped in nine digs.
 
Kally Kirkwood had nine kills on .300 hitting to lead the Eagles while Mataya Ward, their leading attacker, added eight.  However, Ward also committed seven hitting errors and was held to a .033 attack percentage as the Eagles hit .140 as a team.
 
The Mavs hit at a blistering .423 in the dominant first set, using pair of 4-point runs to build an 11-6 lead.   They then went on to finish the set off with a pair of Tafoya aces in the last of four separate 3-point runs.

The second and third sets were much tighter and featured 22 combined ties and ten total lead changes.
 
The Mavs took 18-17 and 19-18 leads in the second on Alrashed kills before a Kirkwood kill and an exchange of service errors put the score at 20.  The Eagles then took a 21-20 lead before a Barnett kill leveled the score at 21.
 
The Eagles then committed back-to-back hitting errors as the Mavs were able to close out the set on a 5-2 run that also featured a Wood kill and another Eagle miscue.
 
Neither team could build more than a 2-point advantage in the third set before the Eagles went on a 4-0 run featuring a Ward kill, an Avery Lace ace and back-to-back blocks to take a 22-19 lead.
 
Emma Luce then entered the match for the first time for CMU coming out of a timeout and later put down a kill before teaming with Alrashed for a block to cut a 23-19 Eagle lead to two at 23-21.
 
The Eagles then scored the next point before a Scoville kill triggered the Mavs' match-clinching run that Luce served.
 
The Mavericks are now 6-2 at home this season and will look to continue the momentum on Saturday evening at 5 o'clock when the Mavericks will host Regis (3-20, 2-9 RMAC) in their Senior Night match.  Scoville, Waller and graduate transfer Charleston Tidwell, who has missed much of the season with an injury, will be recognized before the match.