DENVER – Alyssa Kelling is in the place where ability, opportunity and experience have all intersected.
 
As a result, MSU Denver's senior middle blocker was on top of her game this past weekend. She needed just three sets to compile career highs of 13 kills and 10 blocks (two solos) in a Friday win over Fort Lewis, then followed that up with 12 kills and four blocks in a four-set win over Adams State.
 
Heading into Friday's key 5 p.m. road match at 12^th-ranked Regis, as well as Saturday's 3 p.m. match at Colorado Christian, Kelling has been honored as MSU Denver's Student-Athlete of the Week.
 
Kelling, an All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference second-team selection last year, hit .479 with just two errors on 48 attacks last weekend. She hit a season-best .565 against Fort Lewis.
 
"We've changed how we run our middles a little bit to try to make her more involved more often," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Jenny Glenn said.
 
And, as far as her defensive prowess is concerned, Kelling has developed a sense of knowing what to expect.
 
"Her volleyball IQ has increased significantly over the years and that's part of being a fifth-year senior," Glenn said. "And she's a very intelligent person who has a very good ability to stay focused over the course of time.
 
"She's so experienced that she knows what's coming. She'll remember what that rotation did last time. She has the ability to handle a lot of information and then go and execute. She's probably one of our best at being able to execute a scouting report."
 
Outside hitter Kayla White praised Kelling's ability to understand what is happening on the other side of the net and pass it along to teammates.
 
"She's like, 'Oh, they're going to run a shoot 1-9 out of this,' or 'in this rotation they dump,'" White said.
 
Kelling said a number of factors lead into have a strong sense of what's coming.
 
"I have faced all these teams before, and I do have a tendency to be able to remember things pretty easily," she said. "So once we go over the scouting report, I know what I'm specifically looking for. And then you can also figure out tendencies during the course of a match. You get a feel for what the other team wants to run or what each player likes to do. So you pick up on those and make changes as you go."
 
It's almost like the Roadrunners have a coach on the floor, which makes sense because Kelling has been around Glenn and assistant coaches Matt Deming and Amy Watanabe over the years more than she has with many of her teammates.
 
"Since I've been with Jenny for four years now, we understand what the other is looking for, so she'll just say one word and I know what I need to change," Kelling said. "You do build a relationship over the years, whether it's with Matt and Amy or Jenny. We all kind of have our inside jokes about things that happened on bus rides over the years, stuff like that."
 
Glenn, who took over as head coach during Kelling's redshirt freshman season, calls Kelling the team's cornerstone.
 
"She bridges that gap (between the coaching staff and the players) nicely," Glenn said. "She's very mature, and she always has been. Fifth-year seniors just have a different level of understanding of what it takes to win, because they've been there and done that. They've succeeded and failed. They've seen different teams function different ways. She really understands. And if they are back for a fifth year, they usually really love the sport and are determined to make it their best year. And she's determined.
 
"She's a super-reliable, loyal and dependable person. So you couldn't ask for someone better to be leading the charge."
 
Kelling made it from Merton, Wis., to downtown Denver after former coach Debbie Hendricks recruited her out of a club volleyball national tournament in Florida.
 
"I fell in love with Denver and the atmosphere, how active everyone was," Kelling said. "I loved the team and the coaches. It seemed like a great fit."
 
Kelling missed her senior high school season due to injury, and she still felt some lingering pain as a true freshman and so she sat out as a redshirt.
 
Then, as a redshirt freshman, an injury to Vasati Fiatoa opened the door for playing time for Kelling and she responded by ranking second in the RMAC in blocks with 1.29 per set, which is the best-ever by a Roadrunners freshman and the 12^th-best average by anyone in program history.
 
The following year, with Fiatoa back and Stephanie Laraway returning and holding down the other middle blocker position, the Roadrunners tried to find room for Kelling at the right-side hitter position. But her effectiveness and playing time were limited.
 
"It's a testament to her character," Glenn said. "When Vasati came back, we tried to move Alyssa to the right side because she was the most versatile of the middles. We trained her there, but ended up not using her much, so she ended up with minimal playing time.
 
"She stuck it out through some tougher times, going from being a starter on a Sweet 16 team to not playing as much. Through it all, I can't speak enough about her character."
 
Back home in the middle last season, Kelling ranked fourth in the RMAC with 1.04 blocks per set. So far this year, she ranked seventh in the RMC at 1.08 blocks per set while also ranking third with a .364 hitting percentage.
 
As Kelling's hitting percentage indicates, the impact in the middle of Kelling and freshman Mikayla McClinton (who is on pace to challenge Kelling's freshman record of 1.29 blocks per set) shows up more than just on the offensive side of the net.
 
"Your ability to set the middles is dependent on so many factors," Glenn said. "With a pin attacker you can just chuck it out there. Our ability to ball control, the precision with our first contact, the setter's range, all those pieces factor into how well we can use her.
 
"It's coming. We've been working on it, and I think we have a lot more confidence in that than we did even two weeks ago."
 
It's helped the Roadrunners (7-3 overall, 2-0 RMAC) transition smoothly despite the loss of All-American outside hitters Santaisha Sturges and Taylor Duryea as well as Laraway, an All-RMAC performer.
 
"This team is just different," Kelling said. "We definitely lost some key players, and people are coming into their own and filling roles in their own way. It's not the exact mold of what those players were, but they have their own style. They are bringing different tools and characteristics."
 
Regis is 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the RMAC, with its only losses coming in the Colorado Premier to No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul (Minn.) and No. 6 Lewis (Ill.). The Rangers swept Colorado Christian (4-7, 0-3) on Tuesday.
 
"Regis is playing really well," Glenn said. "Those seniors who have been starting since their freshman year are highly motivated.
 
"It's always fun to play Regis. They're a cross-town rival, and we never have to motivate the girls to play that match, not that we really ever do for any match. This is what we need right now. Our next few matches are going to be good, tough matches."