GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After sweeping Western State Colorado University on the road Friday night, the Metropolitan State University of Denver volleyball team (8-6, 4-2 RMAC) found itself on the wrong side of another sweep Saturday evening at Colorado Mesa. The Mavericks (11-4, 6-1 RMAC) found their groove early in the match and never looked back, downing the Roadrunners in three sets (18-25, 20-25, 18-25) at Brownson Arena in Grand Junction.

It was MSU Denver's first loss to Colorado Mesa in its last seven matches against the conference foe.  

"(Colorado) Mesa played very well tonight," MSU Denver head coach Jenny Glenn said following the loss. "They were aggressive in every aspect of their game and we did not respond well."

The Mavericks hit an impressive .270 during the match, while the Roadrunners couldn't break .100 at .098. CMU's Mackenzie Edwards posted a match-high 13 kills on .333 hitting, while MSU Denver senior Santaisha Sturges (Parker, Colo./Regis Jesuit) was the only Roadrunner in double-digits with 10.

A couple new faces made an impact for the Roadrunners in Saturday night's match. Setter Mikaela Kubiak (Kalamazoo, Mich./Portage Central), who saw the first action of her career Friday night at Western State, played in two sets Saturday evening and recorded a career-high 12 assists. Meanwhile, freshman middle blocker Avaline Lai (Boulder, Colo./Fairview) again provided instant offense off the bench, tying a career-high with seven kills while hitting a career-best .636 thanks to an error-free performance.

Falling to 8-6 (4-2 RMAC) with the loss, the Roadrunners will put Saturday's match in the rearview mirror as they return home for two matches next weekend.
"Tonight was a tough loss but we will get back in the gym on Monday and get better," Glenn said.

MSU Denver welcomes South Dakota Mines to the Auraria Event Center on Friday at 7 p.m. MT for Faculty & Staff Appreciation Night. Black Hills State comes to town for a match at 5 p.m. the following day.

Follow @MSUDenverSports and @MSUDenverVB on Twitter for Roadrunners volleyball news.

Set-by-Set Breakdown

Set One: Colorado Mesa quickly built an 8-3 lead, forcing MSU Denver to take a timeout. The Mavericks' lead ballooned to 12-4, but the Roadrunners cut it to 14-10 to stay in the set. Mesa responded with three straight points to effectively put the set out of reach, eventually taking the frame 25-16 thanks in part to a .344 hitting percentage in the set.

Set Two: MSU Denver hung tough in the second frame as the two teams traded points for most of the set. With the set gridlocked at 19, Colorado Mesa inched away with two straight kills before an error cut the Mavericks lead to one at 21-20. From there, Mesa took advantage of a bad set and three straight Roadrunners errors to hold MSU Denver scoreless for the remainder of the frame.

Set Three: Trading points once again early, the two squads were knotted at six before two straight Mackenzie Edwards kills helped CMU build a 10-6 lead. MSU Denver never got within less than three points after that, as the Mavericks pulled away for the sweep with a 25-18 set victory.