CHADRON, Neb.— On the night before Halloween that provided scares around the conference, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball rallied from a 2-1 overall deficit to claim a 5-set Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference road win over Chadron State College in the Eagles' Chicoine Center.
Maverick junior outside hitter
Ashlee Macias did her best in the role of Ghostbuster late in the nearly 3-hour affair, recording ten of her match-high 17 kills in the fourth and fifth sets as the Mavs were able to pull out the 25-17, 20-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-13 thriller while improving to 18-5 overall and to 9-2 in RMAC play.
The two hour and 49 minute match was the Mavs' longest of the season and was the Mavs' fourth 5-setter of the campaign.
The victory allowed the Mavs, now 3-1 in the fifth set, to remain just one match behind MSU Denver in the RMAC standings after the Roadrunners (10-1 RMAC) survived their own scare, pulling out a 5-set home win over Fort Lewis, who is eighth in the conference standings and 5-6 in the RMAC.
UCCS also withstood a challenge from ninth place Western Colorado in five sets to remain part of a 3-way tie for second in the RMAC standings alongside the Mavs and the streaking Colorado School of Mines Orediggers, who claimed their 13th straight 3-set sweep in Spearfish, South Dakota at Black Hills State.
Meanwhile, Chadron fell to 10-14 overall and to 3-9 in the RMAC as the Eagles saw their feint RMAC Tournament qualification hopes nearly full extinguished by the Mavericks, who have now won 32 straight matches in the long-time rivalry over the same number of seasons since the Eagles last tasted victory in 1995.
CMU, UCCS and Mines all clinched spots in the tournament with their Friday night victories. Idle South Dakota Mines, winners of seven straight, also clinched a spot thanks to the other results and is a match behind the Mavs, Mountain Lions and Orediggers at 8-3 heading into a key Saturday home encounter against the Colorado School of Mines.
Meanwhile, MSU Denver and UCCS will switch opponents while the Mavericks will play their final road match of the regular season on Saturday evening in Denver, facing the Regis University Rangers, (4-21, 2-10 RMAC) who pulled what was just their fourth win of the season against Westminster in five sets on Friday night.
In Friday's victory, Macias was held to seven kills and was hitting zero after committing seven hitting errors through three sets, but put down four kills on 11 swings to hit .364 in the fourth set before taking over the match in the decisive fifth.
The Maverick kills leader out of El Paso, Texas, put down six kills with just one error in the fifth set to hit .714 in that frame. She also recorded 14 digs to register her fifth double-double of the campaign.
The fifth set was tied on ten separate occasions and featured four lead changes before Macias gave the Mavs a 13-12 lead with what proved to be her final kill. She then served the next two rallies as
Addie Ritterbush put the Mavs up 14-12 with the last of her 12 kills.
The Eagles' Mataya Ward then answered with a kill to cut the gap to 14-13 before Maverick senior middle blocker
Macy Wood finished off the victory.
The Mavs finished with 67 kills and hit .233 as a team, finishing with ten more kills than the Eagles, who received 14 from Gibson Beckler and 12 from Kaylee Kirkwood. Ward also chipped in 11.
Meanwhile, the Mavs had a 79-72 advantage in digs as freshman libero
Maya Grant recorded a season-high 27 to out-duel her Eagle counterpart Josie Loosvelt, who had 17.
Maverick setter
Hallie Hewlett also recorded a season-high 31 assists while chipping in seven digs.
Macias also recorded three of the Mavs' ten service aces.
However, CMU was also guilty of ten service errors and committed 26 hitting errors as the Eagles doubled up the Mavs in blocking, 10-5.
Wood was involved in four of those for the Mavs while Kirkwood, Sydney Strode and Sarah Meservey, who ranks second in the RMAC and seventh nationally, all had five block assists for the Eagles, who hit .195 throughout the night.
The Mavericks led much of the first set and hit .233 in the opening stanza while taking advantage of nine Eagle hitting errors and the hosts' corresponding .071 hitting effort.
The Mavericks then took an early 7-4 lead in the second set before the Eagles flew back with a 6-1 run to go ahead 13-10 while never looking back to even the match at a set apiece.
The Eagles hit .424 with 15 kills and just one error in the second set after committing nine hitting errors in the opening frame.
They then continued to control the match, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before later taking a 15-8 advantage with a 5-0 run that featured a Maverick service error, a Meservey and Beckler block, kills from Meservey and Kirkwood and a Jillian Donovan service ace.
The Eagles then extended the lead to 18-10 before the Mavs were able to close to within 19-16 thanks to a 6-1 spurt.
CMU later closed to within 21-20 on a Grant service ace and to within 24-23 on a
Molly Whalen kill but could not quite get over the hump as the Eagles pulled out the third set on a Shelby Harding kill.
Using their late-set momentum, the Mavericks were then able to jump out to an early 3-0 lead in the fourth set and never trailed although the Eagles were able to come from 14-9 down to the team set at 16 and again at 17 and 18 although the Mavs had answers each time.
The Mavs would take the lead for good with a 3-0 run that featured a Whalen kill, a Hewlett aces and an Eagle hitting error to go ahead 21-18 before Macias put down two kills in the waning moments of the fourth frame to help force the fifth.
Neither team was able to lead the fifth set by more than a single point until Macias put down consecutive kills to give the Mavs an 11-9 lead.
The Eagles then tied the set at 11 on a Maverick hitting error and Loosvelt ace before Madsen and Ward exchanged kills to force a 12-12 tie before the aforementioned Macias and Ritterbush kills helped the Mavs pull out the win.
