GOLDEN, Colo. – It has been a wild ride for the Metropolitan State University of Denver volleyball team throughout the last week, as the Roadrunners registered two huge wins in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament to reach the tourney title match against No. 3 seed Colorado Mesa. No. 4 seed MSU Denver carried a tremendous amount of momentum and a new sense of confidence into Lockridge Arena in Golden, Colo., on Saturday evening, hoping to exit the venue with a conference championship.

Unfortunately, Friday night's magical five-set comeback victory over No. 1 seed and tournament host Colorado School of Mines may have taken just a bit too much gas out of the tank for MSU Denver (21-9). Despite a close first set, the Roadrunners fell in three (23-25, 13-25, 18-25) in the title match to Colorado Mesa (23-6), the only team in the RMAC against which MSU Denver has failed to chalk up a win during the 2018 season.

"We lost to a very good Colorado Mesa team tonight," MSU Denver head coach Jenny Glenn said following the tough loss. "We defended well but our offense struggled to score and other important areas of our game broke down. This has been a challenging and highly emotional week and unfortunately we weren't able to finish it out."

The offensive struggle was real on Saturday, as the Roadrunners hit just .042 – their lowest mark of the season. The Mavericks managed just one more kill than the Roadrunners, 34-33, but took advantage of 28 MSU Denver attack errors on their way to the 2018 RMAC Tournament title.

The first set had all the makings of a conference title match. With the two sides knotted at 23 late in the set, a kill from Maverick Kasie Gilfert and a subsequent attack error from the Roadrunners gave Colorado Mesa a slim 25-23 set victory. The momentum swung even further in the Mavericks' direction from there, as they claimed an easy 25-13 victory in the second set thanks in part to four service aces.

A second consecutive five-set comeback win wasn't in store for MSU Denver on Saturday, as No. 3 seed Mesa closed things out with a 25-18 third-set victory.

Senior Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View) led the Roadrunners with nine kills and was named to the 2018 RMAC All-Tournament Team along with fellow senior Santaisha Sturges (Parker, Colo./Regis Jesuit) following Saturday's match. Sophomore Lyric Hebert (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley) led the squad with 20 digs, her 10^th match with at least that many in 2018. Junior Alyssa Kelling (Merton, Wis./Arrowhead) chipped in four blocks and four kills, while fellow middle blocker Stephanie Laraway (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood) had six kills. Sturges had five kills and six digs. Sophomore Jessa Megenhardt (Berthoud, Colo./Berthoud) recorded 15 assists.

Despite the unfortunate result, Glenn is staying positive.

"I am very proud of the efforts of this group throughout the week," she said. "We have grown tremendously even though that did not show tonight. We will await the decision of the selection committee to determine our postseason berth."

The NCAA Division II selection committee will announce its qualifiers for the 2018 national tournament on Sunday night at 8 p.m. MT. When the announcement is made, you can view an interactive tournament bracket on NCAA.com. Stay tuned to @MSUDenverSports and @MSUDenverVB on Twitter as well as RoadrunnersAthletics.com to find out about MSU Denver's postseason destiny.