DENVER – For the first time in 17 years, the MSU Denver volleyball team has knocked off the No. 1 team in the country, the defending national champions from Tampa (Fla.)
 
"This is great," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "Obviously that's a team with championship experience, so for our crew to come out and kind of outlast them was great growth for us."
 
The 3-1 victory serves as at least some measure of vindication after an encouraging weekend of volleyball in which the Roadrunners played four top-15 teams and took two of them to five sets before falling.
 
Such is life in the wild and wonderful Colorado Premier Challenge, the 12-team event which this year featured eight of the top 15 teams in the country, nine ranked teams, and boasted a field in which all 12 teams are receiving votes for the national rankings.

"I think we have really realized what our potential is," sophomore outside hitter Avaline Lai said. "We have a higher expectation for ourselves coming out of this tournament. It was awesome to see what we're capable of doing."

The tournament served as a preview for the Divison II National Championships, in which the top eight teams in the country will come to the Auraria Event Center to compete for the national title from Dec. 12 through Dec. 14. 
 
MSU Denver started slowly before regrouping and dominating against the Spartans in a 20-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-12 win at the Auraria Event Center. It was MSU Denver's first win over the No. 1 team in the country since a 3-1 victory against West Texas A&M on Sept. 6, 2002.
 
Earlier Saturday in a five-set defeat, MSU Denver fell to 13^th-ranked Barry (Fla.) as the Bucs won 25-20, 17-25, 20-25, 25-21, 15-12. In both of the Roadrunners' five-set losses in the tournament, they scored more points than their opponent.
 
Granted, Tampa wasn't at full strength in the teams' tournament finale. The Spartans have a couple of players out with injuries and finished the tournament 0-4, so they wouldn't have been No. 1 any more come Monday prior to losing to the Roadrunners.
 
But MSU Denver was also playing short-handed, and going up against an inspired championship-level team after suffering three disheartening losses isn't easy.
 
"That's the defending national champions," Glenn said. "They know how to perform under pressure, and that's a dangerous situation to be in. I was pleased we found a way to win when it wasn't easy. It took a lot of guts to come out and play that way.
 
"There are no rationalizations or excuses. Quite honestly, we've had somebody injured almost every week, and this group is getting really good at adapting and overcoming, which is one of our mottos. That didn't faze us. We were able to pivot and stay strong with a good lineup out there and with everybody engaged."
 
What it also took was strong performances from the service line and at the net.
 
The Roadrunners (5-3) had a 10-0 advantage in service aces against the Spartans and built a 12-1 margin in blocks – with the Spartans' lone denial coming long after the eventual outcome had become apparent.
 
"Serve and block, those are your first two lines of defense," Glenn said. "Serving tough to get them out of system, and then blocking the ball before it gets to the back row. I thought we played a great defensive match. It took some adjusting at the beginning – they ran their middles really fast. But we dialed some things in and played some solid defense."
 
While Kayla White once again paced the offense with 15 kills, Lai had 10 kills on .529 hitting with seven block assists, and freshman middle blocker Mikayla McClinton had another career best of eight block assists for the second time in four matches.
 
For the tournament, Lai ranked fourth with a .375 hitting percentage (50 kills, 11 errors, 104 attacks), White was fifth with 3.4 kills per set (she had a total of 61 kills), Joli Sadler ranked second with 0.50 service aces per set (she led the tournament with nine), and McClinton was sixth with 1.28 blocks per set.
 
When Lai and McClinton were in the front row rotation, the duo terrorized opposing hitters much of the weekend.
 
"Defensively we really wanted to go after them," Lai said of Tampa. "They were a good hitting team and they were really creative with their shots. But we all just tried to go after each player that we had. I think we did a great job defensively, and the back row did a great job reading around the block and helping us out."
 
Meanwhile, White, Benda and setters Sadler and Jessa Megenhardt each had two service aces.
 
"That's one of the big things about our team," Megenhardt said. "We're going to be a tough-serving team, we're going to get teams out of system, and we're going to get our aces. That's just who we are."
 
After dropping the opening set, MSU Denver hit .430 the rest of the way, including a whopping .591 in the fourth set.

"What I liked it that we started a little flat, but we finally took the reins and decided that we were going to win," Glenn said. "After three tough matches … you never want to go 0-4 in a tournament. We found a way."
 
Against Barry, Lai and White each hammered a career-high 19 kills, with Lai hitting .364. Benda had 15 kills and 15 digs. McClinton and fellow middle blocker Alyssa Kelling combined for 12 kills on .393 hitting.
 
But another frustrating loss set up a potentially unenviable situation with the wounded champion waiting in the wings.

But MSU Denver overcame.
 
"Honestly, we just wanted to go out and get a win," Megenhardt said. "We played tough this weekend, and we didn't even know that was the No. 1 team. We just said we were going to go out and beat them.
 
"They hadn't gotten any wins, and we hadn't gotten any wins. It was whoever wanted it more."