The Mavericks returned home to continue conference play and defeated both Adams State University (ASU) and New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU).
The Colorado Mesa University (CMU) shut things down at home going 2-0 on the weekend and winning six sets straight.
On Friday night against ASU, the Mavericks got it done as a team as they were solid on all fronts of the game.
For Head Coach Dave Fleming, he was glad to see that his team was aggressive early in the game and that every aspect of Mavericks volleyball came together on the court.
“ I think they did a really good job. I think that we were throwing punches earlier, boxing those first 20 points kind of figuring out what they were going to bring and then we really stepped up our game defensively and serving. We started attacking on serving and then blocking, even when we weren’t getting stuff blocks we were getting good touches. I think that in that regard it put a lot of pressure on them and started forcing them to hit the ball out of bounds,” Fleming said.
The Grizzlies had to attack the game harder, ending in 25 errors at the end of the night. Redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman continued to be a big factor in CMU’s defense from the back row. The Mavericks out blocked the Grizzlies 7-5 and had 40 digs to ASU’s 24.
“For me it was really important to stay balanced because they did have some hard swings but a lot of it was off speed and cut shots. So I had to make sure I was stopped so I could pursue every angle,” Layman said.
Redshirt junior middle blocker Tye Wedhorn started the weekend with four blocks and six kills. She did not stop there as she continued to dominate on the court as she had three blocks with eight kills against NMHU.
The Mavericks right side dominated the court on Saturday as redshirt junior right side hitter Ashton Reese came off of the bench with 14 kills. There was nothing that the Cowgirls could do to stop Reese as she was able to hit the ball cross court, above and around the blocks to get to the ball on the hardwood.
“ We were going for it and not holding back. There were no timid thoughts, we were just going for it,” Reese said.
Serving was also something that CMU capitalized on both Friday and Saturday night. VanDeList led the team in aces on both nights as she had five in total.
VanDeList had the only service aces Saturday night as she was able to continue to dominate behind the line as well as continuing to be an accent to the Mavericks offense. The setter added five more service aces to her season total of 19 so far.
On the offensive end, VanDeList continues to do a good job of setting up her hitters either on the left or right side of her. She now has 393 assists on the season after she had 66 during this weekend’s games.
CMU outside hitters redshirt junior Holly Schmidt and freshman Sydney Leffler continued to have strong seasons as well. Schmidt combined for 18 kills and 11 digs on the weekend.
Leffler continued her strong freshman campaign as her 16 kills brought her total to 129 on the season.
The Mavericks will head back out on the road next weekend as they head to Denver, Colo. to take on Metro State University-Denver. This will be the second team that the teams have met already this season. The last time these two met was CMU’s 2021 home opener where they fell to the Roadrunners 1-3.
The Roadrunners have moved up in the standings since then and now are ranked number three in the nation in Division Two volleyball.
The game will begin at 7 p.m. on Oct. 1 at the Auraria Event Center.
