DENVER— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team came from two sets down and pulled a reverse sweep over the defending NCAA Division II National Champion MSU Denver Roadrunners on Friday night here in the Auraria Event Center.
The Mavericks were also the only team to defeat the Roadrunners in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play last season and are now 9-2 overall and winners of seven straight in 2026. The Roadrunners, tied for 19
th in the current AVCA-Taraflex NCAA Division II poll, fell to 6-5 on the campaign and fell out of a share of the RMAC lead that CMU holds alongside South Dakota Mines, which pulled out a 5-set win over CSU Pueblo on Friday.
The Mavs have now gone 2-0 against nationally-ranked foes this season after having knocked off No. 7 Nebraska-Kearney in the season-opener on Aug. 27 in Dallas, Texas.
On Friday, the Mavs blew a 24-17 first set lead and lost that frame, 27-25, before dropping the second, 25-19. After committing a combined 16 hitting errors in those two sets, the Mavs then cleaned up their play and committed just six more throughout the final three sets while hitting a combined .387 while winning the final three frames by 25-19, 25-20 and 15-7 margins.
Junior outside hitter
Ashlee Macias led the Maverick attack with 15 kills and recorded 12 digs to register her fourth double-double of the season. She also added four of the Mavs' ten service aces.
Meanwhile, fellow outside
Molly Whalen came off the bench to record 12 kills while
Henley Madsen added 11 from the opposite side.
The Mavericks, also shined defensively as
Jaycee Windorski registered nine of CMU's season-high 15 blocks, their highest total in more than five years.
Libero
Maya Grant had 13 digs to pace the Mavs in that category while setters
Hallie Hewlett (23) and
Ashlyn Tafoya (20) combined for 43 assists.
The Mavericks also took advantage of 20 Roadrunner service errors throughout the night and held the hosts to just six aces.
MSU Denver's Brooke Gennerman did finish with a career-high 26 kills on .373 hitting from the other side of the net. Hayden Liebsack also added 14 kills for the Roadrunners, but was guilty of six of the aforementioned service errors.
Down 2-0 overall, the Mavs were also down 10-8 early in the third set but went on a 5-0 run, sparked by a
Kaitlyn Hall kill and tandem block with
Aesha Alrashed, to take a 13-10 lead and seize control of the frame.
The Roadrunners then fell behind 17-13 but rallied to within one point at 17-16.
However, the Mavs came out of a timeout on a 4-1 run and finished the set on a Macias aces and Whalen kill to remain very much alive.
The Mavs also faced a small 12-10 deficit in the mid-way stage of the fourth set but later went on a 9-1 spurt that featured two Windorski blocks, two Madsen kills and some strong serving from
Addison Wright to take a 19-13 lead. That run proved to be enough for the Mavs to level the match at two sets apiece as Hall put down two of her four fourth-set and seven overall kills in the final three rallies of the set.
Hitting .400 as a team in that fourth set, the Mavericks then continued their momentum and raced out to 3-0 and 5-1 leads in the decisive fifth set, forcing the Roadrunners to call a timeout.
The hosts then apparently went down 10-3 thanks to another Maverick run but benefited from a video replay challenge, which reversed the score to 9-4. The champions then scored another point and had apparently stopped the Maverick momentum before Macias and Madsen answered with kills to give the Mavs an 11-5 advantage.
The Mavs then went up 12-5 on a Roadrunner hitting error and later extended their lead to 13-7 on a MSUD service error.
Macias and Hall then put down match-clinching kills after Hewlett forced the Roadrunners out of system with some tough serving.
The Mavs finished the fifth set hitting .583 with eight kills and just one error while holding Gennerman to just one kill in the final set.
The Mavs will look to continue their winning ways on Saturday afternoon when they head down I-25 to play at UCCS (6-5, 2-1 RMAC) at 3 o'clock in the Mountain Lions' Gallogly Events Center.
