DENVER – For three weeks, the Metropolitan State University of Denver volleyball team was mired in fifth place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
The Roadrunners were distancing themselves from the bottom 11 teams in the league, but seemed incapable of gaining ground on the top four teams. The gulf between the top of the RMAC (all five teams still have overall winning percentages of .636 or better) and the bottom (all 11 teams are under .500 for the season) seemed too deep.
 
Then, after a mild upset here and a mild upset there, first place – first place! – is in sight for MSU Denver.
 
"As a team we're thinking, 'This is our chance,'" outside hitter Kayla White (Montgomery, Ala./Montgomery Academy) said. "We have a chance to prove we are a better team. That's going to come with our feistiness."
 
The Roadrunners (14-6 overall, 10-2 RMAC) aren't taking anything for granted, of course.
 
They know Friday's 7 p.m. home match at the Auraria Event Center against first-place Colorado School of Mines (18-3, 12-1) will be anything but easy. Same for Saturday's 5 p.m. home match with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (10-11, 8-5).
 
But MSU Denver isn't shrinking from the moment, either.
 
"We did talk about it, because I'm one who always says, 'Let's not hide from it,'" MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "Let's take it straight on. I don't want to have to be careful and think about what I say. This is where we're at, and that should motivate us.
 
"Since that rock-bottom moment at Mesa, where we felt like the sky was falling on us, to have the opportunity to still be in the hunt is exciting. When we talked about that as a team, there was a lot of excitement about it. There's motivation to continue to work hard and get better every day because we have that opportunity. This weekend is a big weekend and we all know that, so let's face it and be willing to take it head-on."
 
The Roadrunners lost at Colorado Mesa on Sept. 22, but haven't fallen in six matches since, making them the hottest team in the league. In fact, MSU Denver has won 17 straight sets. The Roadrunners have swept five consecutive opponents for the first time since starting the 2011 season with six sweeps in a row.
 
"That is something this group struggled with early on, dropping sets that we shouldn't have been dropping, getting down in matches and letting teams take it from us," Glenn said. "(But now) even when we've been down in some sets, we've stayed tough and fought back and haven't lost the set. That's been a big growth for us."
 
Still, MSU Denver hasn't always felt like it has played its best during the winning streak. That, too, is OK.
"At the end of the day, it's still like midseason," White said. "We're still putting it all together like any other team. We're finishing (sets), which is something we weren't doing at the beginning of the season. Whether we play well or not, we are finishing. I'm proud of our team, but there's always more room for improvement, and right now it's being consistently good."
 
Mines, previously ranked No. 21 in NCAA Division II, will no doubt be motivated after a loss last Friday to Colorado Christian that ultimately knocked the Orediggers out of the ratings. They bounced back to beat Regis on Saturday, dropping the Rangers (10-3) just below MSU Denver in the standings.
 
MSU Denver is still fourth, but is hoping to pin a second loss on Mines. Dixie State and Mesa are both 11-2 in the league, so even if both win their weekend matches, there could potentially be four two-loss teams tied for the league lead by late Saturday night. If so, MSU Denver would have won the head-to-head matchup with Mines and already has a win over Dixie State.
 
"We always say we want to be playing our best in October and November," outside hitter Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View) said. "And we're starting to put a lot of things together. We're confident about that. This is the time of year that is a battle. I know we're really excited for what this weekend brings and the pressure on us."