jdredmon@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

Looking to build from last season’s disappointing result, the volleyball team opened its season at the annual Oredigger Classic, with a 3-1 record coming out of the competitive tournament on Saturday. Last year at Oredigger, the Mavs went 1-3 en route to a 11-17 overall record on the season, the first of coach Dave Fleming’s successful career at CMU. However, if the team’s play showed anything this weekend, it’s that this season will very likely hold much different results.

“It’s a different mentality this year,” Fleming said. “Coming off of 11-17 last year, we were worried about a loser hangover, but overall we were real impressed. The new kids, in particular, have really upped their game, which is nice to see after they’ve showed that in practice.”

The first day of games in Golden saw the Mavs split their two matches. In the first game against St. Joseph’s College, the Mavs showed great composure after slipping by in the first two sets by a combined margin of eight and then dropping the third 25-22 before easily winning their fourth set 25-10 to clinch the match and notch the first win of the season. They then would drop the second match to No. 12 Wayne State 3-0.

Missouri Southern State University sophomore transfer Casey Ball recorded a team-high 24 kills in the first match followed by 10 in the second and senior Megan Rush led all players in digs in both matches on the day with 21 and 25 respectively.

“The team defense is a lot better,” Fleming said. “Megan Rush is the leader of our defense and she played really well, and when she plays well, the team plays well.”

After splitting their first two matches of the tournament on Friday, the Mavs swept both University of the Incarnate Word and Dallas Baptist University by a score of 3-0 each. Jordyn Moody was the standout of the day, tallying 62 assists in the two games. Once again, Megan Rush had another 20+ dig game with 21 against Dallas Baptist. The Mavs also were able to outhit their opponents .191 to .123 on the day, showing that consistency was definitely not a factor this week.

“If we (play the game) right, we’ll be really competitive with everybody,” Fleming said. “And you always want to play at a high level.”