After losing consecutive games and only winning one set against Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian last weekend, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) volleyball team bounced back in a spectacular fashion. CMU went on to sweep both games on the weekend.
The Mavericks have struggled this season when it comes to dominating sets and winning games that should be easy wins. Earlier in the season, the Mavericks were only four points away from sweeping Fort Lewis College in three games, but ended up losing the entire match 3-2. The night before the same thing almost happened, as CMU barely escaped with a win against Adams State when they won the first two sets, but still took five sets to defeat the Grizzlies.
This past weekend was not the case as the Mavericks would take on Black Hills State (BHS) and South Dakota School of Mines (SDM) in two crucial Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) matchups.
Last season the Mavericks were outplayed by Black Hills State in their 3-2 defeat last fall. This time around, the tides turned completely in favor of the Mavericks as it only took three sets to defeat the Yellow Jackets.
Mackenzie Edwards dominated the Yellow Jackets on Friday as the outside hitter racked up 23 kills and 15 digs in the 3-0 win against Black Hills State.
Edwards put up nine more kills against SDM to give her 298 total kills on the season. She is currently averaging 4.44 points per set which leads the team.
The Mavericks repeated their success of Friday night and carried it into Saturday as they swept the Hardrockers in three easy sets. CMU put up 41 kills as a team against SDM as six different players scored five or more kills.
SDM did not score more than 20 points in any of the three games and CMU completely dominated the Hardrockers as they scored nine aces against on Saturday.
Samantha Ritter had 28 assists on Saturday which brings her season total to 761.
Taylor Woods racked up 13 digs on Saturday, accumulating her total to 362, which is currently second most in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and Woods averages 4.89 digs per game, which is also second in the RMAC.
The Mavericks would eventually go on to sweep the Hardrockers 3-0 to complete the weekend sweep and improve their record to 14-6. CMU has won six out of their nine games which, believe it or not, is one of the worst stretches of games the Mavericks has had all season.
CMU has lost only two games at home and has not lost a game at home in about a month. The majority of the regular season games will be on the road as the next four of the remaining six games will take place away from Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks will travel to Western State to take on the Mountaineers on Oct. 24. CMU defeated the Mountaineers in three sets earlier in the season back on Sept. 12.
