San Angelo, Texas- The Metropolitan State University of Denver volleyball team (26-4, 18-0 RMAC) defeated Colorado Mesa University (18-10, 12-6 RMAC) on Thursday, December 1 in the first round of the NCAA DII Tournament South Central Region.
 
In the opening set, the two teams battled out to an early 5-5 start. The No. 7 seed Mavericks pulled out to an 18-12 after that point, causing head coach Jenny Glenn to call two timeouts. While MSU Denver fought back after the second timeout, five service errors proved too costly, with CMU taking the first set 25-22. Junior Ryan Hoerdemann (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe H.S.) led the Roadrunners with four kills.
 
The No. 2 seeded Roadrunners found themselves in another hole in the second set, trailing 15-12 before calling yet another timeout. This time, they were able to take advantage, storming back with an 8-2 run to take a 20-17 lead and force a Mavs timeout. That was not enough to stop the Roadrunners who went onto take the second set 25-20 and even the match 1-1. Senior Brandi Torr (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva H.S.) led MSU Denver with 18 assists and the team was ahead in blocks 6-2.
 
Like they did the two sets prior, the Roadrunners found themselves having to dig out of another hole. The Mavericks jumped out to an 18-12 forcing another MSU Denver timeout. Colorado Mesa continued their attack to take a 2-1 lead winning the third set 25-16. Through three sets, CMU held the advantage in hitting percentage .226% to MSU Denver's .180%
 
Despite a better start to the fourth set for MSU Denver, Colorado Mesa and the Roadrunners changed leads up to 21-21. The Roadrunners showed their grit and outlasted CMU to force a deciding fifth set.
 
The Roadrunners proved why they dominated the RMAC regular season taking the fifth set 15-9 to complete an incredible comeback and advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament despite 14 service errors in the match. 
 
Senior Michaela Smith (Littleton, Colo./Regis Jesuit H.S.) finished with 13 kills while Torr had 44 assists to keep their Roadrunner careers alive.
 
The Roadrunners will face the third-seeded Tarleton State Texans tomorrow, December 2 at 5 p.m. CT in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.