DENVER – The Metropolitan State University of Denver volleyball team flexed its collective muscle this weekend.
 
One night after the outside hitters dominated in a sweep of New Mexico Highlands, the middle hitters took center stage Saturday in another 3-0 win, this time 25-19, 25-21, 25-15 over Colorado State University-Pueblo.
 
"I thought we had a good matchup on the (outside) tonight, too," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We just didn't execute as well to take advantage of it.
 
"But our middles are a threat. We had good opportunities, and the way they were defending us I thought we could score out of the middle as well. And we did, which is always nice because it takes ball control to do that. To get the numbers we got in the middle is good.
 
"We have firepower at all three pins, so that's the beauty of it. Whatever the matchup is, we can take advantage of it."
 
Alyssa Kelling (Merton, Wis./Arrowhead) had eight kills and hit .500, and Stephanie Laraway (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood) matched a season-high with .538 hitting on seven kills.
 
It's a group effort for the middle-hitting duo, one of whom is always in the front row for the Roadrunners.
 
"We've played together for four years now, so we're in a position where we're always there to help each other," Laraway said. "She's always giving me shots and feedback when I'm on, and I'm doing the same for her. We're looking for where we can score."
 
Both Laraway, a senior, and Kelling, a fourth-year junior, spread the credit to passers and setters as well.
"Our passers did a really good job of putting us in system and letting our setters have multiple choices about who they wanted to set," Kelling said. "That created a lot of space for me and Steph in the middle, which was awesome."
 
Said Laraway: When the hitters have good nights, it's all because of the setters. They put us in situations where there are 1-on-1 blocks, or seams, and from there it makes the hitter's job easy. It starts with the pass, too."
 
MSU Denver hit .304 as a team, and got 19 assists from Jessa Megenhardt (Berthoud, Colo./Berthoud). Kelling had three blocks, and Laraway added two solo blocks. Mikaela Kubiak (Kalamazoo, Mich./Portage Central) set 15 assists and had two service aces, while Caiden Rexius (Eaton, Colo./Eaton) had 17 digs.
 
The outside hitters eventually got rolling, too, as Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View) finished with a match-high 12 kills on .360 hitting, while Kayla White (Montgomery, Ala./Montgomery Academy) had nine kills.
 
Duryea, who had seven kills in the final set, reached a career milestone on a second-set kill that gave her 1,000 for her career – she had 479 in two seasons at Dixie State, and now has 529 with MSU Denver.
 
She joins teammate Santaisha Sturges (Parker, Colo./Regis Jesuit) with more than 1,000 career kills – Sturges reached the plateau on Sept. 15.
 
"I don't really pay attention to that stuff," Duryea said. "After Tai got hers I wondered if I was close, but I didn't think about it more than that. I hoped I could get it, but I wasn't calculating it.
 
"It's a really cool accomplishment. I owe it to all my teammates from my old school and this school. It's so awesome to be able to do that with them."
 
Said Glenn: She's gotten a lot of kills, just for this season (241). For her and Tai to both do it, they are a 1-2 punch over there, which makes us really tough to defend. It's a good accomplishment, a good milestone, for any hitter in her career."
 
MSU Denver in general has been tough to defend lately.
 
The Roadrunners (14-6 overall, 10-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) have won six straight matches, a streak that includes a 17-set win streak. MSU Denver has swept five straight opponents for the first time since posting six consecutive sweeps to open the 2011 season.
 
"It feels good, and it lets our bodies rest a little more, knowing that we're done in three and don't have to go to five," Kelling said. "That's going to be huge going into tougher matches and into the postseason."
 
And, don't look now, but Friday upsets by Colorado Christian over 21^st-ranked Colorado School of Mines, and by Dixie State over Colorado Mesa, has jumbled the top of the RMAC standings.
 
The Roadrunners moved a half-game ahead of Regis, which dropped to 10-3 with a loss to Mines on Saturday, and has an opportunity to be one of four teams with a league-low two losses if it can knock off Mines on Friday.
 
"It's up for grabs still," Glenn said. "We're still in the hunt to win the conference, and that's a good motivator for us."
 
After the Mines match, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Auraria Event Center, the Roadrunners have a Saturday match against a solid team from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
 
"We're excited about next week," Duryea said. "It's a big week for us."