by Andrew Kiser
A sports letdown occurs after a team beats a tough, evenly matched opponent, but then ultimately falls in the next game to a lesser team with a lesser record.
This happened to the CMU volleyball team last Friday night when the team lost to the 5-13 Black Hills State Yellowjackets.
The week before the team knocked off number 18 Colorado Mines and the Mavs were ranked in the top 25 for the first time this season. But their first game back after being ranked number 24 in the country ended with the team’s fourth loss of the season
However, the team rebounded the next night by defeating the South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers in three sets.
“I think the loss definitely showed us that we need to take each game like we are starting over,” outside hitter Allison Smith said. “And after that lost we realized we had to get over that and moved on to play Mines today and just take care of that. And the next game we play on Tuesday we will do the same thing.”
The first match began with the Mavs dropping the first set to the Yellowjackets, 25-17. The Mavs came back in the next two sets winning both, 25-20 and 25-18.
The Yellowjackets won the fourth set, 25-16. The Mavs had more errors, 13, than kills, 10, in the set.
Black Hills State then put the game away in the fifth and final set, 15-11. The Yellowjackets committed no errors in the final set and had a match-high hitting percentage, .320.
CMU’s Mackenzie Edwards finished the game with 17 kills and Gabriela Dias added 13. The Mavs ended the match with more points than the Yellowjackets, 69-67.
The next day the team faced off against the Hardrockers. The first set began with the Mavs losing the first three points.
The Mavs were able to keep up with the Hardrockers, but when Mines took an 11-8 lead the Mavs called a timeout. After the timeout the Mavs won seven out of the next eight points. The team did not look back and won the set, 25-20.
“I think our energy in the beginning of the game was lacking a little bit,” Smith said. “But then we started to get energy and had fun. That’s when we started to get a lot of points and comeback in the set.”
The second set looked like the game would be tied at halftime after Mines were two points away from winning the set at 23-15. But the Mavs rattled off nine straight points to pull ahead, 24-23. Five of those nine points came from Hardrockers’ errors.
Then for the next few points, both teams fought off set point. The Hardrockers battled off twice before they had a chance to win the set when the score was 26-25. But a service error by Mines’ Anna Breidt tied the match again.
The Mavs won the next point again by a Mines error, but the team was unable to put the set away and was tied 27 all. But after a back and forth second set, CMU was able to put away the Hardrockers by kills from Smith and Edwards.
The third and final set was not as close as the Mavs jumped on the Hardrockers early with a 7-2 lead. CMU was ahead double digit points for most of the set before they won the third set, 25-10. The Mavs had zero errors in the third set, while in the second set the team had nine.
“We started clicking together as a team,” Smith said. “We realized how good we played together, when we all are playing for each other and not playing individually. I think we enjoyed it, we have a fun time playing with each other.”
Dias led the team in kills and blocks with 10 and seven. While Edwards and Smith added nine kills each. Ali Svorinic finished with 30 assists.
With the win and lost over the weekend the Mavs are 16-4 on the season and 10-2 in conference.
The Mavs next home game is against Western State Colorado on 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at Brownson Arena. Then the team travels to Salt Lake City, Utah to play against Westminster College on Friday, Oct. 28.
