DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks took a 17-7 first set lead but watched the top-seeded and nation's tenth-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners rally for a 26-24 win before posting 25-17 and 25-19 victories in the second and third sets, respectively, of Thursday evening's NCAA Division II Tournament opener for both teams.

The Roadrunners' 3-0 overall victory was their 18^th straight win and allowed them to improve to 27-3 while moving into the second round of the South Central Regional that will continue through Saturday here at the Auraria Event Center.
 
The Mavericks, seeded eighth in the regional, were making their fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance but saw their season come to an end with a 17-11 record.
 
The campaign was their first under the direction of Head Coach Austin Albers.
 
Maverick senior outside hitter Sadie Scoville, who played for Albers in four straight years, and freshman setter Ashlyn Tafoya both registered double-doubles to lead the Maverick effort on Thursday.  Scoville finished with 12 kills and 11 digs and finishes the campaign with 13 double-doubles.
 
Scoville was a 4-time All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference pick in her overall career, which included three seasons at CSU Pueblo before joining up with Albers at CMU this year.
 
Tafoya had 17 assists and 11 digs and finished her season with 11 double-doubles.
 
MSU Denver's Annika Helf led the Roadrunners with 13 kills and added 12 digs for a double-double as well.  She hit .480 as the Roadrunners hit .327 as a team.  Combo setter/hitter Karyna Werley had 19 assists, 10 digs and eight kills while hitting .571.  Middle blocker Alyssa Boyte also recorded nine kills on .533 hitting while adding four blocks to help the Roadrunners.
 
Maverick sophomore outside hitter Karsen Breeding had seven kills to aid the cause while redshirt junior middle blocker Aesha Alrashed put down six on .308 hitting.  Alrashed also had two blocks to finish the season with 108, CMU's sixth highest total in the rally-scoring era (2001-Present).
 
CMU senior libero Allison Waller finished with six digs and wraps up her career with 1,293, sixth most in the rally-scoring era.
 
The Mavs came out on fire in Thursday's match and were hitting above .500 while building their lead.  They ended the first set hitting .244 although the Roadrunners, who hit .237, used a pair of 4-point runs around a single Maverick point at the end of the set to claim the win on a Werley kill.
 
The Roadrunners then hit .379 in the second set and .378 in the third, cruising to victories in both.
 
They Roadrunners will now take on No. 20 and fourth-seeded West Texas A&M in the second semifinal on Friday night after No. 3 seed Angelo State plays No. 7 seed Colorado School of Mines in the first semifinal.