DENVER – 13 kills, 10 blocks. Alyssa Kelling's stat line Friday night against Fort Lewis, or Mikayla McClinton's stat line Saturday night against Adams State?

Trick question, because the answer is both.

Kelling – MSU Denver's lone senior – set the tone with a dominant performance to start Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with a sweep over Fort Lewis on Friday. Fellow middle blocker McClinton followed her elder stateswoman with a nearly identical showing on Hispanic Heritage Night at the Auraria Event Center Saturday, helping the "Correcaminos" (7-3, 2-0 RMAC) to a 3-1 win over the Grizzlies (4-7, 0-2 RMAC).

McClinton, a freshman, has proved ready for the college game through MSU Denver's first 10 matches, wasting no time setting herself apart as a key contributor for the Correcaminos. Her 13 kills and 10 blocks Saturday evening were both single-match bests in her young collegiate career.

"That was one of our goals, was to get Mikayla (McClinton) more involved," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said following the win. "She just keeps getting better. She's not playing like a freshman anymore. She's definitely mature in her position. Each week we're adding something more to her plate and she's handling it really well."

Just like to her coach, class status is just a word to McClinton.

"I come into the game confident and know that just because I'm a freshman doesn't mean that I'm not capable of the things that the upperclassmen are doing, that I'm just as capable and that there's a reason why I'm on the court," McClinton said.  

That doesn't mean she can't learn from her older teammates, though, and McClinton has a great role model in Kelling.

"(The upperclassmen) take care of us freshmen really well and especially (Alyssa) Kelling; she's a middle too so she's making sure she's teaching me to correct whatever I'm doing," McClinton said.

Kelling was a great teacher on Friday, and McClinton seemed to be paying close attention to the lesson as she emulated her teammate's stat line nearly perfectly on Saturday. In the hitting percentage category, however, McClinton's .579 mark against Adams State edged Kelling's .565 clip from Friday's match against Fort Lewis – but who's counting?

The Correcaminos are, but only to two – the number added to the win column after a perfect home weekend to start RMAC play. Now 7-3 overall, MSU Denver will play its first away games of the RMAC season next weekend but won't have to travel far to do so. The Red & Blue are set to square off with 18th-ranked crosstown rival Regis at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, before a 3 p.m. match at Colorado Christian the following day.

MSU Denver will look to keep its offense clicking next weekend after a .309 team hitting performance on Saturday that included double-digit kills from five players – McClinton (13), Kelling (12), Kayla White (12), Alexis Benda (12) and Rylee Hladky (11). That feat hadn't been accomplished by an MSU Denver team in nearly five years, as the program last had five players reach double-digits in the kills category on Oct. 11, 2014 vs. Black Hills State.

The attacker must be fed before the kill, of course, so it's no surprise that junior setter Jessa Megenhardt dished a career-high 37 assists in Saturday's match. Platoon partner Joli Sadler added 21 of her own.

And the setter must receive the ball before feeding it, of course, so White ensured MSU Denver's two setters were well prepared to feed with a career-high 21 digs on Saturday. It was White's second match of 2019 with at least 20 digs.

While McClinton shone brightly in just her 10^th collegiate match, it was a total team effort that secured MSU Denver's third consecutive victory as the Correcaminos fended off a pesky Adams State squad. It appeared the match would conclude in three frames, but the Grizzlies stole the third set by a 28-26 count to force a fourth and final frame.

All in all, it was a successful Hispanic Heritage Night at el Centro de Eventos Auraria, where MSU Denver tennis player Alejandro Martinez-Morilla provided the public address in Spanish for the entire evening.

Ya sea en inglés o español, todos podemos estar de acuerdo que la major manera celebrar es con una victoria.