Mavericks rebound after night one loss to rally off three wins in a row during a four match home-stand.
The Colorado Mesa University (CMU) women’s volleyball team returned home for a weekend to host a rematch against Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) and Colorado Christian University (CCU).
The Mavericks fell to the No. 2 ranked CMU Denver Roadrunners on the first night by a deficit of two points, 25-23, 27-25, 26-24, in all three sets. Just two weeks earlier, the Roadrunners swept CMU in Denver, and improved to 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the RMAC following Friday night’s matchup.
Graduate student Erin Curl had quite the night against MSU Denver with an astounding 15 kills and 5 blocks.
“In practice, I’ve just been focusing on being aggressive and finding ways to score for my team,” Curl said. “Especially as a grad student, I want my team to be able to trust me in those moments when the game is 23-23. I just want them to have confidence in me and be able to execute in those moments.”
Curl had her second best kill total of the season with a 5.19 hitting average; Despite the RMAC’s top-rated defense holding CMU to a .124 hitting percentage on the night.
“None of those matches were close if it wasn’t for Erin. She played great Friday night,” head coach Dave Flemming said.
Leading the back row, redshirt senior Kerstin Layman had 15 digs on the night while redshirt sophomore Sabrina VanDeList recorded 25 assists and 11 digs.
“I think a big part of it is complimenting the blockers and front row because I can’t get a dig if the blocks are not there,” Layman said.
In terms of kills, blocks, and total points, CMU proved to be neck and neck with MSU Denver during the rematch in Brownson Arena. With eight kills and three blocks of her own, redshirt sophomore Sierra Hunt knew that the Mavericks had something to prove after being swept in Denver 15 days prior.
“Last time when we played them, as a consensus we knew we didn’t play Maverick Volleyball. So, this time playing against them, we just figured that we had nothing to lose, and we just wanted to come out and prove that we are a good team,” Hunt said.
Less than 24 hours later, the Mavericks hit a mental reset and returned to Brownson arena to face the Colorado Christain University (CCU) Cougars. Head Coach Fleming entered his 500th match of his 18-year career with the Mavericks and claimed his 330th victory after CMU swept CCU Saturday evening, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 in the RMAC matchup.
CMU faced the challenge of playing on back to back nights.
“I took an hour and then I started to focus on Colorado Christian. I got their video from Friday night and started to break that down. You look at their strengths and weaknesses, and our team did a nice job of adjusting,” Fleming said.
Offensively, Sydney Leffler recorded ten kills and VanDeList added to her season stats with another 30 assists against the Cougars. After adjusting to CCU’s dominating blocks, Hunt found the floor with nine kills of her own on the night.
“Metro was a tough loss but coming into today, we knew that we just had to reset and flush that game out,” Hunt said.
Late into the first set, CMU trailed 11-17 before the Mavericks went on an 8-1 scoring run with back-to-back kills by Curl and consecutive kills by Leffler and Spitzer. After an attack error by CCU, Hunt got her first kill of the night to give Mesa their first lead in the set, 22-21. The Maverick’s coaching staff called a timeout during match point and a block from Hunt and redshirt senior Tye Wedhorn solidified the win, 25-22 in the first set.
Right away into the second set, the Mavericks went on a dominating 10-1 scoring run with VanDeList and freshman Allison Waller leading the way. CCU then went on a 13-4 to tie the game at 14. Curl, Leffler, and Hunt all contributed to the win in the second set while a final service error by CCU put Mesa on top, 25-22.
Curl found the floor with a big kill to fuel Mesa’s momentum in the opening of the third set. Additional attacks by Leffler, Spitzer, Wedhorn, and Hunt contributed to Mesa’s three set sweep. The final set was tied nine times total, and at 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 before a big Leffler kill and a Hunt/Spitzer closed the night, 25-23.
“The biggest thing was just getting some rest, but also realizing both teams are traveling. All teams are tired. It’s not an excuse. You just have to mentally prepare yourself and figure out whatever it takes to get that energy. Even if you don’t have it, you look to your teammates to support you and get after it no matter what,” Curl said.
The Mavericks, ranked 20th in the nation, improved to 9-4 overall and 4-2 in RMAC competition after sweeping CCU three sets to none. CMU finished with 38 kills on the night and used the 11 service errors by the Cougars to claim their ninth sweep of the year.
“I think with this group we just have to focus on one day at a time and get better every time we step in the gym. If we do that, the results will take care of themselves. This program’s about competing for championships so that’s always the end goal,” Fleming said.
The team carried their momentum from the night before and swept Fort Lewis College (Ft. Lewis) 3-0. The Mavericks dominated about every faucet of the game, earning 50 kills and hitting .435 as a team compared to the Skyhawks 20 kills and 0.08 hitting percentage.
Hunt continued to lead the Mavericks offensively as she led the team with 12 kills. Wedhorn and Curl also each added 9 kills and two blocks during the effort.
The Mavericks went back-and-forth during the first set before solidly taking the lead and never relenting on route to a 25-15 set.
The second set was slightly closer as Ft. Lewis took a 8-7 lead at one point. However, a key kill by Leffler put the team up by six points which carried into the final, 25-19.
Ft. Lewis took another early lead at the start of the third set, 6-0, but CMU quickly retaliated and held the lead through the rest of the set. They won convincingly 25-10.
CMU then took on Western Colorado University to conclude the weekend. The Mountaineers stunned the Mavericks during the first set. Their lead started 9-6 but grew to 10 points during a 18-25 Western set one win.
The Mavericks went on to rally three straight wins, however, to close out the night. The closest remaining set was set three which CMU still won by eight points.
CMU will not have another home match until Oct. 14 against the 7-9 University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
