DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks hit .402 as a team and tallied 11 service aces in a dominant 25-13, 25-8, 25-17 road sweep of Regis University on Saturday evening here in the Regis Field House. Five different hitters recorded between seven and nine kills for the Mavericks, who recorded 43 kills to more than double the Rangers' total of 21.
The Mavs improved to 19-5 overall and picked up their tenth Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory to remain in a tie for second place with the Colorado School of Mines, which came from a set down to win 3-2 at South Dakota Mines earlier in the day. Both the Mavs and Orediggers are now 10-2 in RMAC play and just a match behind 11-1 MSU Denver entering the final weekend of conference play.
UCCS dropped a 5-set decision at home to Fort Lewis to drop to fourth in the conference standings at 9-3.
The Rangers were held to a .043 attack percentage and fell 4-22 overall and to 2-11 in RMAC action while committing 17 hitting errors.
Junior opposite hitter
Ashlee Macias led all Maverick hitters with nine kills in Saturday's win. She also tallied a season-high five service aces and added nine digs.
Meanwhile, sophomore opposite
Henley Madsen recorded eight kills and four blocks.
Jaycee Windorski,
Addie Ritterbush and
Molly Whalen all finished with seven kills as Windorski hit .667 while Ritterbush hit at a .538 clip. Whalen hit .333 from the outside.
Setters
Ashlyn Tafoya and
Hallie Hewlett orchestrated the attack and combined for 28 of CMU's 37 assists. Tafoya had 17 assists and six digs while Hewlett recorded 11 assists and seven digs while putting down three kills and recording a pair of aces.
Defensively,
Trinity Burchett got the start in the defensive specialist position and recorded 11 digs while libero
Maya Grant had six assists, five digs and an ace.
Aesha Alrashed had a match-high five blocks for the Mavs as well.
The Mavericks hit .333 in the opening set and jumped out to an 8-1 lead behind three of Windorski's four opening-set kills. The junior middle blocker then served on six straight points in the middle of the set as the Mavs gradually extended the lead to as many as 14 points.
The Mavs then hit .407 with 12 kills, five aces and four of their eight blocks in the even more dominant second set. They went on a 7-0 run that featured two of Macias' aces to seize control and an 11-4 lead. Hewlett then added an ace in a later 6-0 Maverick run before Burchett served on five straight rallies to end the set as Hewlett, Macias and Madsen all registered kills.
Early in the third set, Macias recorded four consecutive kills in a 7-1 run that put the Mavs ahead 9-5.
Later in the set, the Mavs led 17-11 before the Rangers went on a 5-1 run to close within 18-16.
However, the Mavs called timeout and quickly scored four straight points thanks to two kills from Whalen, another from Ritterbush followed by a Windorski ace to go ahead 22-16 moments before closing out the match on a 3-0 run that included a Whalen kill, a Hewlett service ace and a match-clinching block by Madsen and Alrashed.
The Mavs hit .444 with 18 kills and just two errors in the final set.
The encounter was the Mavs' final road match of the regular season, which they will cap next weekend at home facing Black Hills State on Friday night and South Dakota Mines on Saturday afternoon.
