DENVER – MSU Denver's youthful volleyball team keeps showing signs that it's ready for prime time.
 
That continued Friday night as the Roadrunners went into Regis Field House and knocked off the 12^th-ranked Rangers 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-14, 27-25) for their third win in six tries against ranked teams this season.
 
"We're doing some things really well, which is allowing us to find success early on," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "And we still have a lot of areas of the game where we have room to grow. Sometimes practice doesn't feel so great for us, but we've been able to flip the switch and compete in matches. I can't say enough how pleased I am with how we managed the ups and downs of the match tonight."
 
MSU Denver (8-3 overall, 3-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) dropped the first set, but then evened the match and came out on fire in the third set by racing out to a 10-0 lead.
 
"Joli Sadler went on a serving run, just served really aggressively," Glenn said. "We were able to ace (two) them quite a bit, and they had a lot of hitting errors (five) in that stretch."
 
Regis (9-3, 3-1) played the fourth set closer and fought off three match points before the Roadrunners finished it.
 
"I was really pleased with how composed we stayed through the course of the night," Glenn said. "We dropped the first set, and we were down by a significant amount in the fourth set. But we just chipped and clawed away."
 
Sophomore Avaline Lai led the Roadrunners with 14 kills while hitting .333 and adding three block assists. Junior Kayla White had 11 kills and 12 digs, while senior Alyssa Kelling had seven kills on .333 hitting and added six block assists.
 
MSU Denver unleashed an 11-ace serving attack (including three each from White, Sadler and junior Jessa Megenhardt), while surrendering just one ace. The Roadrunners held the high-powered Regis attack to just .168 hitting.
 
"I was very happy with how we served and passed," Glenn said. "That was the difference. We were in system more than they were. It wasn't always pretty, but we played feisty defense.
 
"Regis is a really good team, and to hold them under .200 hitting was a feat."
 
Now the Roadrunners will seek to complete a weekend sweep with a 3 p.m. match Saturday at Colorado Christian.
 
"We always talk about how there is a short window for either celebration or disappointment," Glenn said. "We can celebrate tonight, but then we move on to a tough match with CCU."