GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Hot of a win over No. 5 MSU Denver on Friday night, the nation's 24^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team spotted undefeated University of Colorado Colorado Springs a two-set lead before rallying to force a fifth set, that ultimately went the Mountain Lions' way on Saturday afternoon here in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mountain Lions, receiving votes in the national poll for the first time since 2021 and off to their best start in program history, improved to 11-0 overall and 3-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with the 25-23, 25-22, 14-25, 24-26, 15-9 win while the Mavericks slipped to 7-4 overall and to 3-1 in RMAC play while seeing their 11-match home-court winning streak that dated back to Sept. 14, 2024 snapped.
 
The Mountain Lions also snapped an 8-match slide in the rivalry with CMU that had dated back to 2016.
 
Former Maverick Nicole Martin led her hometown Mountain Lions with 16 kills and eight blocks as UCCS finished with a 13-8 edge in total blocks helping them erase a 65-58 Maverick edge in kills.
 
Outside hitter Payton Tompkins also recorded a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs.
 
Redshirt sophomore Emma Luce countered for the Mavericks, registering a career-high 15 kills and eight digs as one of four Maverick hitters in double figures.
 
Coco Barnett also had 13 on .407 hitting from her opposite hitter position while freshman counterpart Henley Madsen added 11.
 
CMU senior outside hitter Sadie Scoville also added 13 kills but had nine of CMU's 27 hitting errors, which ultimately were too much for the Mavericks to overcome.
 
The Mavs were guilty of 16 of those in the opening two sets but cleaned up their play in the third and fourth sets recording team attack percentages of .367 and .414 in the winning sets to help the Mavs finish with a 24-point (.225-.201) advantage in the final statistics.
 
The Mavs also had a 75-69 total edge in digs as senior libero Allison Waller led all players with 19 digs while Scoville and freshman setter Ashlyn Tafoya both recorded their fourth double-doubles of the campaign.  Tafoya had 23 assists and 13 digs while Scoville added 12 digs to supplement her offensive game.
 
UCCS libero Mackenzie Ransom, who went over the 1,000 career dig milestone on Friday at Westminster, co-led the Mountain Lions with 17 digs.  Setter Maylen Mitrovich also had a 21-assist, 17-dig double-double in the win.
 
After dropping the first two frames by just five combined points, the Mavericks dominated the third, using three service aces from freshman Sienna Thatcher to extend a 14-10 lead all the way to 12 points at 22-10 before finishing off the 11-point margin on a Madsen and Aesha Alrashed block.
 
The Mavs were then able to fight back from an early 8-3 fourth set deficit to take a 21-19 lead on a 4-0 run with Macy Wood behind the service line.  UCCS then scored the next three points to go up 22-21 before a Madsen kill and Maverick block put the Mavs ahead 24-23.
 
UCCS did fight off the ensuing set point but committed two hitting errors, the second the result of a Madsen solo block as the match went to a fifth set.
 
Martin then served the Mountain Lions into a 7-3 lead with a 5-0 run in the fifth set, a spurt the Mavs could never recover from as the Mountain Lions recorded two blocks while CMU hit zero with six attack errors in the final frame.
 
CMU will look to return to winning ways on Tuesday evening when the Mavs continue a 4-match homestand with a RMAC Regional Pod encounter with Western Colorado, which enters a Saturday night road match at Chadron State with a 1-10 (0-3 RMAC) record.
 
Tuesday's match, which will not count in the RMAC standings, will begin at 6 p.m.