The 19 ranked women’s volleyball team is on a tear right now as they have won nine straight over Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) opponents after dropping a match against Metro State University-Denver on Sept. 23.
The team has a chance to close out the month with an undefeated record if they can continue this dominant stretch. They would also jump to second place in the conference standings.
The Mavericks are no stranger to dominant RMAC play. Last season, the team never lost a conference game to any opponent below the three seed.
The team opened this month with a home win over western slope rival Western Colorado University three sets to one. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sierra Hunt and redshirt senior middle blocker Tye Wedhorn led the team with 11 and 10 kills respectively. The nine-time RMAC Redshirt sophomore Setter of the Week Sabrina VanDeList dished out 34 assists which matched a season-best at the time.
The Mavericks then made a long weekend trip to South Dakota to play Black Hills State University and South Dakota Mines on Oct. 7 and 8.
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) accumulated their sixth sweep over an RMAC opponent against the Yellow Jackets. Graduate student Erin Curl recorded a team-leading 11 kills while Wedhorn hit a season-best .818 hitting percentage. None of the sets were particularly close as CMU won 25-16, 25-9 and 25-12.
The Mavericks started slow the next day but rallied 3 straight set wins to beat Hardrockers 3-1. The team recorded 28 hitting errors which allowed South Dakota Mines to stay close behind the whole way. Curl did a bit of everything as she again led the in kills with 17, tallied two blocks and also orchestrated two service aces.
The Mavericks then played another set of weekend games but this time at home.
CMU swept the then 8-11 University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Oct. 14. The team came back from an 18-13 deficit and never looked back on route to their most recent sweep. Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Leffler recorded a match high 13 kills while hitting a .417 hitting percentage. Redshirt senior Kerstin Layman provided valuable defense and offense with 18 digs and three service aces.
The team then played Colorado State University Pueblo the next day. CMU got off to another slow start as they hit 23 errors and dropped the first set 26-24. However, the ThunderWolves had no answer for the Maverick’s talent. Leffler again shined with a career-best 22 kills. Curl and VanDeList both recorded double-doubles on the day. This was a key win as it pushed the Mavericks to third place in the RMAC standings.
CMU was on the road again the next weekend.
The team traveled to Gunnison, Colo. to square off against the Mountaineers one more time. CMU again beat Western Colorado University 3-1 dropping their record to 2-18. Four Maverick players recorded double digit kills in an offensive master-class: redshirt junior middle blocker Savannah Spitzer and Hunt with 16, Leffler with 14 and Wedhorn with 10. Spitzer stood out especially as she also added on 6 blocks and hit .696 with no errors.
Lastly, the team journeyed further south to Durango, Colo. to play the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks. The Mavericks continued their trend of a slow first match during back-to-back gamedays, dropping the first set 19-25. However, the 8-12 Skyhawks could not replicate their success and dropped three straight matches to CMU.
Wedhorn put down 12 kills and six blocks against her former team. Leffler led the day with 16 kills and three blocks while Hunt added 14 kills and a block of her own.
VanDeList put her name in the record books when she became the fourth ever Maverick to pass the 100 service ace milestone. The setter was also awarded another RMAC Setter of the Week after her weekend efforts, her third of this season. She is also currently second in the RMAC with 813 assists this season.
The Mavericks will play Chadron State College on Friday at home and then get a chance to jump up to second in the RMAC standings when they play the number 22 ranked Colorado School of Mines on Saturday Oct. 29.
This last match is especially significant, because it is senior night, and CMU looks to get over the hump of not being able to beat the top two conference seeded MSU-D or Colorado School of Mines for the past two seasons.
