After two weeks of split weekends, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team came back around and took over the weekend with two straight wins. The Mavericks defeated UCCS with a clean three-game sweep. The game against #1 Colorado School of Mines was a hard-fought battle, with CMU winning in the fifth and final set to secure a 3-2 victory.
UCCS had a difficult game against CMU, who dominated in every category and only had one set where the Mountain Lions challenged the score. The first was 25-21 and the next two were both under 20 points for UCCS. The Mavericks killed the competition with 46 total, 17 more than UCCS had. Five more assists and CMU would’ve doubled the opposition’s while digs were 10 more and blocks were doubled. The court was obviously slanted in favor of the Mavericks and the score reflected the stats.
Kasie Gilfert was the star for the day, netting 20 kills while the cleanup crew of Camille Smith and Katie Scherr had 11 and 10 of their own. Deep down in the mine saw Taylor Woods finding pay dirt with 18 digs on the day. Following her was Ara Norwood with 12 and MacKenzie Edwards with six. Norwood wasn’t only mining, for she nearly tripled the second-place leader in assists, Samantha Ritter. 27 with Norwood, 10 with Ritter and third was Woods with four.
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CMU handed CSM their fourth loss of the year, and it was a well-deserved win for the Mavericks. Not a single of the five sets were won by more than nine points, keeping the score in the single digits between the two. 60 percent of the match was won by two points, coming down to the wire in all three of the middle sets. In the end, the Mavericks won the first, fourth and fifth sets, ending the game with a 15-6 triumph. In the statistics department, the Mavericks were behind on digs and assists, only pulling ahead in kills, aces and total points, exemplifying the tight race against CSM for the title.
Gilfert was once again at the top of the board in kills and had the same crew, save for Edwards taking third from Scherr. Gilfert achieved 24, Smith had 14 and Edwards got 13 out of the total 74 kills on the day. Norwood took the cake in assists with a total of 30. Behind her was once again Ritter and Woods with 24 and five respectively. The opposing team’s Drew Stokes raked in a whopping 58 assists, only one less than the three leaders from CMU combined and in large part resulting in the 63-66 assist statistical loss. The total digs on the day were also lost by three to the other team with the game ending at 68-71. Woods and Ritter tied for first with 16 each and Edwards followed with 11 on the day. CSM played very well and even totaled more than the Mavericks, proving why they are at the top of the RMAC leaderboard, but CMU still managed to overcome the top team and prove that they aren’t safe from loss either.
The Mavericks moved to 19-6 on the season with a 14-3 RMAC conference record. CMU is only one game behind of Mines and Dixie State for first place in the RMAC.
The back to back win is great for the team that had been on and off for wins in the past two weekends. Heading into their final game of the season against Western State Colorado University will be the final check before the Quarterfinals on November 6 at Brownson Arena. Consistency will be key, as it has the entire season, for the team to stay strong and make a powerful showing in the coming weeks.