DENVER – Kayla White came back, sort of, while playing in parts of three matches over the past couple weeks.
But she came all the way back Friday night.
Metropolitan State University of Denver's sophomore outside hitter posted career highs of 11 kills, five service aces and four blocks in a 3-1 (25-22, 29-31, 25-22, 25-22) Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory over Colorado Christian at the Auraria Event Center.
"I was ready to hit the court, because I missed it so much," White said. "I was ready to play for my team and to be out there with them."
White had appeared in just four sets while recovering from injury early this season. She hadn't recorded a kill. But on Friday she hit .250 while also recording a season-high 10 digs (she'd had five all season previously).
"She had a great night, brought a lot of fire to the floor," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We have three right-sides we can win with. That's a good problem to have."
The Roadrunners (7-4 overall, 3-0 RMAC) also have plenty of Taylor Duryea and Santaisha Sturges, too. Duryea had 17 kills and a career-high 18 digs. Sturges had 16 kills and tied a career-high with three aces.
Stephanie Laraway hit .412 with nine kills.
After MSU Denver won the opening set, Colorado Christian responded by winning a marathon second set in which each team fought off three set points.
"We were just in compete mode," Sturges said. "We had some slip-ups, but we were working through it. Honestly, it was fun volleyball. Even though we lost it, it was still really fun."
The Roadrunners bounced back to hit .395 in the third set and .286 in the fourth to head into Saturday's showdown with 21st-ranked Regis (7-5, 3-1) unbeaten in RMAC play.
MSU Denver will also be celebrating 50 years of volleyball at the school in the 5 p.m. match.
The Roadrunners had a season-high 12 services aces Friday, though they also had 11 service errors.
"We are an aggressive serving team," Glenn said. "So when you look at those ace numbers, you also see a lot of error numbers. I thought tonight we missed some serves at some times when I would've thought we'd just put it on them, but we're still learning when to get after it and when to just put it on them."
Colorado Christian continues to play in tough luck -- four of its losses have come to top 10 teams and its three league losses have come to the teams picked to finish 1-2-3. The Cougars were picked fourth.
"That's a good team," Glenn said. "They are feisty defensively. They did some things tactically that took us a while to respond to."
