DENVER – After a promising start, the MSU Denver volleyball team couldn't knock off the top team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
Colorado School of Mines rallied Friday night for a 3-1 victory at the Auraria Event Center.
 
"We came ready to go in the first set, but then we let down, they changed some things, and got after us," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We allowed them to be in system for the rest of the match. That's a team that you can't let be in system, because when they are in system they are an exceptional offensive team.
 
"We failed to be aggressive and allowed ourselves to be out of system, and that's where you saw the runs happen. That's what killed us, ultimately."
 
Mines (19-3 overall, 13-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) hit .440 in the second set to start the rally that ultimately produced the 23-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-20 victory.
 
"The first set was awesome," outside hitter Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View) said. "We came out ready to battle. We executed our scouting report well. We stayed aggressive. They're a very good team, though, and in the second set they kicked our tails a little bit. We always say you can't win in one set, and you can't lose in one set. They're a good team, but how are we going to bounce back? We came out for the third set, but I don't think we showed up enough."
 
Mines thwarted the Roadrunners' bid to grab a virtual share of first place in the league with two weeks left in the regular season. With a win, MSU Denver (14-7, 10-3) would have thrown the RMAC into a virtual four-way tie for first as four teams would have had two league losses. Instead the Roadrunners slipped behind 11-3 Regis for fifth place in the league.
 
"This took us out of that (first-place) opportunity," Glenn said. "So our focus now is UCCS tomorrow."
 
Duryea had a match-high 14 kills, and Santaisha Sturges (Parker, Colo./Regis Jesuit) had 12 for MSU Denver, which had a six-match winning streak come to an end.
 
Mines had four players with at least 10 kills while hitting .266 for the match.
 
"Overall I thought we fell apart in the passing lanes, which is a strength of ours, and we got soft from the service line, which is another strength of ours," Duryea said. "We fell apart in some areas which created some chaos for us, and we got offensively dominant in one area, when we've been working so hard to fire from all areas. We just got really passive, and you can't beat a team like that when you're passive – they're solid and they're at the top of our conference for a reason."
 
The first-set win extended the Roadrunners' streak to 18 straight set victories, but they couldn't maintain it.
 
"We've just got to play more than one good set of volleyball against a good team," Glenn said.
 
MSU Denver will be wary of a letdown Saturday against the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, which is only 11-11 overall but is tied for sixth in the RMAC at 9-5.
 
"We have a quick turnaround tomorrow against a good team, and then we go to Regis (for a non-conference match) on Tuesday," Duryea said. "It's not going to get any easier from here on out. Overall, we're in a good place skill-wise. From here it's just who is going to rise up and be more determined to win the match. This hurts. This game mattered a lot. So tomorrow we have to come back and improve in the areas where we fell apart."