GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team capped the regular season with a 25-17, 26-24, 25-20 Senior Day win over visiting South Dakota Mines and will enter next week's Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament on a 5-match winning streak.
The Mavericks, now 21-5 overall, went 12-2 in conference play and will finish no lower than in a second place tie in the conference standings. They will be either the No. 1, 2 or 3 seed in the tournament and will host a quarterfinal round match-up on Tuesday at 7 p.m., possibly facing the Hardrockers again.
The Hardrockers finished the regular season with a 19-7 overall mark and went 9-5 in RMAC play. They will be the No. 5 seed if Colorado Christin loses at Western Colorado but will drop to the No. 6 seed if the Cougars win in Gunnison on Saturday night.
The Mavs will also be doing a bit of scoreboard watching and hoping for an upset.
MSU Denver, leads the conference standings at 12-1 and can clinch an outright conference title and the No. 1 seed with a win at last place New Mexico Highlands on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, the Colorado School of Mines is 11-2 and is hosting 14
th place Regis on Saturday evening and would lock up the No. 2 seed with a win and potentially the No. 1 seed if MSU Denver lost.
The Mavericks could win a share of the RMAC title with a MSU Denver loss and the No. 1 seed if both the Roadrunners and Orediggers were upset.
The Mavs played one of their best matches of the season against a quality opponent on Saturday, recording a .302 attack percentage while posting massive 50-34 and 60-43 advantage in kills and digs, respectively.
Outside hitters
Ashlee Macias and
Molly Whalen led the offensive effort with 12 kills apiece.
Addie Ritterbush also put down nine on .375 hitting from the opposite while middle blockers
Macy Wood and
Jaycee Windorski added 11 more. Wood, one of six players honored before the match, had seven kills on .600 hitting while adding five blocks. Windorski also had four kill, five kills and hit .571.
Defensively, freshman libero
Maya Grant tallied 22 digs, the most for any Maverick in a 3-set match since 2022.
Setter
Ashlyn Tafoya also registered 26 assists and five digs while
Hallie Hewlett added 16 assists and five digs.
The Hardrockers received 14 kills from Lexi Glendinning but were held to a .144 team hitting percentage.
The Mavs came out firing and hit .417 in the first set and used a 5-0 run to take a 12-8 lead and control of the set.
The Hardrockers would pull within three on two separate occasions, including at 17-14 before the Mavs went on to go on multiple 2-for-1 exchanges to win the set, clinched by a Wood and
Henley Madsen block.
The second set was quite a battle and featured 12 ties and four lead changes.
The Mavs took control and a 15-12 lead on three straight blocks before the Hardrockers battled back to take a 20-19 lead on a service ace.
However, CMU rallied to gup up 23-22 and also had 24-23 and 25-24 leads before Ritterbush finished off the set with a kill.
The third set also started off tight before the Mavs went on a 5-0 run that featured a Tafoya aces as well as successive kills by Windorski, Ritterbush and Macias to take a 9-5 lead.
The Mavs never trailed again and finished the final set with 16 kills, four blocks and a pair of aces to clinch their third straight 3-0 sweep.
Stay tuned to
www.cmumavericks.com and rmacsports.org for additional information about the RMAC Tournament.
