The Mavericks fell short in the semifinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament.
After beating the Cougars of Colorado Christian University in the Quarterfinals, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Volleyball travelled to Denver, Colo. to face off against the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Orediggers in the semifinals.
The Mavericks got off to a rocky start as the Orediggers offense came out strong and went on many runs to throw off CMU’s momentum.
After a service error by April Jergensen, CSM went on an eight point run highlighted by Lindsey Jin. Jin had three straight kills to open the run and closed it out with another kill. Jin had five kills by the end of the first set.
It took CMU a minute to find their groove and adapt to the Orediggers’ quick pace of game. The quick pace that they were able to set caused the Mavericks to have eight errors in the first set.
CMU was not able to come back and lost the first set 11-25.
The second set was a battle as freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler slammed down a kill to put her team up 2-0. After a kill to get the Orediggers on the block. She finished the set with five kills and would eventually help the Mavericks win set number two.
Coming off the bench, redshirt sophomore right side hitter Maranda Theleus had four kills in the set, becoming the secret weapon the Mavericks needed. Theleus closed out the set with two back to back kills off a pass from redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman.
Layman was all over the court trying to keep the match alive for the Mavericks through all five sets. She ended the match with 25 digs and four assists.
The third set back in favor of CSM. Rose Stuewe and Jin were in the driver’s seat as they combined for nine kills in the third set. Hicken helped out her with three kills that were all set up with the slide set from Drew Stokes.
Despite having nine errors in the fourth set, the Mavericks were able to force a deciding set five.
Jergensen was dominant at the service line as she was able to cause three attack errors right off of the bat followed by a kill from Julia Eiken. Redshirt junior right side hitter Ashton Reece stepped up and had three kills through the first 14 points.
After Eiken made the score 10-9, the Mavericks went on a run that put them up seven points. In that run, Leffler had three kills and the Orediggers offense had two attack errors.
The Mavericks would stay up by seven points through a majority of the match. But CSM would not go down without battling back. Combined with some CMU attack errors the Orediggers were able to climb back to get into striking distance.
Even though they came within three points, Leffler closed out the set with a bang for the Mavericks and got another kill.
The fifth set was all in the Orediggers hands as they only allowed the Mavericks to score once in the first 12 points. During that stretch, Stuewe had four kills. Stokes had a kill to help herself out as well.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Sierra Hunt had the Mavericks point with her first kill of the match.
The Mavericks tried to battle back but CSM closed it out with a kill by Hicken to secure their spot in the RMAC Championship game.
Leffler led the team in kills with 15 while redshirt junior middle blocker Tye Wedhorn led the team in blocks with three. Redshirt freshman setter Sabrina VanDeList continued to set a good pace for her team with 43 assists.
Her counterpart in Stokes on the other side of the net had 55 assists as Stuewe led her team in kills with 20.
The team concluded their season with a 21-6 record. They went 15-3 in conference play during the regular season with only one loss at home. Leffler was named RMAC freshman of the year while Layman was named defensive player of the year.
CMU will await to see if they get a chance to compete in the NCAA South Central Regionals that begin on Dec.2.
