GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Like a family road trip often time goes, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team got off to a slow start, but made a quick pit stop at the convenience store, changed drivers and moved down the road to quickly reach their destination in the form of a 25-21, 25-15, 25-14 sweep of visiting Westminster University on Saturday afternoon in Brownson Arena.
The victory was the Mavericks' seventh home win of the year and was their 11
th of the season overall as they now jointly hold the best overall record in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 11-3.
The visiting Griffins fell to 2-12 overall.
The Mavericks are now a perfect 7-0 at home this season and winners of nine straight at home since Oct. 21, 2025, when the Griffins took down CMU for the first and only time in what is now 15 trips to Brownson Arena.
CMU trailed 9-5 early in the opening set before e Maverick head coach
Austin Albers brought in outside hitter
Molly Whalen from the bench to drive the proverbial car. The freshman immediately took control of the wheel, putting down the first of her match-high 14 kills as the Mavs seized momentum while going on a 15-6 extended run to take a 20-16 lead.
After a slight swerve in the form of three straight Griffin kills that cut CMU's lead to 23-21, another Whalen kill and Griffin hitting error gave the Mavs the opening set, which saw Whalen put down seven kills on just ten attempts.
After hitting .143 in the opening set as a team, the Mavericks then cruised down the road in the second and third, moving along at rates that should have had the police pull the Maverick vehicle over for speeding past the Griffins.
CMU hit a whizzing .517 in the second set before cruising home to a .417 clip in the third while finishing the match with a .341 team attack percentage, well above their already high season-average of .287 that leads the RMAC and ranks the Mavs amongst the national leaders.
Sophomore opposite hitter
Addie Ritterbush, who hit .457 on the afternoon, finished the second set with eight kills and the match with nine while Whalen added three in the middle set.
Whalen then put down four more in a balanced third-set attack and finished the match without a single hitting error to hit a stellar .667 on 21 total swings.
Meanwhile, setters
Ashlyn Tafoya and
Hallie Hewlett played the role of the car D.J. quite well, doling out a combined 34 assists. Tafoya had 20 while recording three of the Mavs' nine service aces. She also had five digs. Hewlett added 14 assists and six digs.
Meanwhile, freshman libero
Maya Grant impersonated the family's young child in the back seat, recording eight digs while committing just one reception error on 17 attempts to pace CMU's defense.
Junior
Ashlee Macias also played key role, recorded five kills, four service aces and five digs.
Meanwhile,
Henley Madsen also added six kills and three blocks while
Macy Wood tallied a season-high four blocks to help the Mavs double up the Griffins, 8-4 in that statistic.
CMU also tripled up the Griffins in aces, 9-3 and finished with a 41-30 advantage in total kills while holding the Griffins to a .124 overall hitting percentage.
WU's Jocelyn Grieser did her best to slow down the Maverick momentum and finished with 11 kills on .364 hitting.
The Mavericks have now won nine of their last matches overall and will look to remain unbeaten at home next weekend when they host Western Colorado University on Friday night (Oct. 2) at 6 p.m. before hosting Fort Lewis College in a Saturday, Oct. 3 matinee at 3 p.m.
