DENVER – For the first time in 415 days, the MSU Denver volleyball team took the court for a match.
 
And, for the most part, it looked like it had only been a couple of weeks ago.
 
The Roadrunners hit .340, recorded six service aces and had eight total blocks in cruising to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-18) victory over Fort Lewis in the season opener for both teams.
 
"For the first day out in a year, I thought it was a pretty good match," outside hitter Kayla White said. "We wanted to focus on our game, and I think you could kind of tell. We came out tip-toeing because we haven't played in so long, but I think we found our rhythm. I was proud of our group for doing that. We just started taking big swings and it came out in our favor."
 
White had 10 kills on .500 hitting, added 12 digs for her 16^th career double-double, and had two services aces and three block assists in an all-around performance.
 
"She made some really good decisions," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "Our offense isn't fully in rhythm right now, and she didn't make errors that she shouldn't have made. If the ball was there, she took big swings, and if it wasn't she put the ball in a difficult spot for the opponent."
 
Indeed, despite the strong overall numbers, there were some rough stretches at the beginning of each of the first two sets as well as at the end of the third set as the Roadrunners got playing time for players in their first career collegiate match.
 
"We're focusing on being a more efficient team, so it's good to hear those numbers," Glenn said. "We could have been more efficient on some of the intricacies of the game – how high we dug the ball, where we dug the ball, where we put the ball in our offense, where we put the ball passing. Those are the things that are going to make our offense look even crisper, even if our numbers are still pretty good."
 
Avaline Lai added 10 kills on .400 hitting with three block assists, Rylee Hladky had a match-high 11 kills, Ember Canty had seven kills on .700 hitting with five blocks (four solo) and Jessa Megenhardt served three aces for the Roadrunners, scheduled to play No. 19 Colorado School of Mines in a key early-season RMAC showdown at 5 p.m. Sunday.
 
"It's been a long time since we played a match against an opponent, so when you're playing against yourself in practice all the time, you get the rhythm of that type of match and you're not having to adjust very much," Glenn said. "When you put someone else on the other side of the net, it's easier to get away from your style of volleyball. And that's what happened at times.
 
"Fort Lewis was incredibly feisty on the defensive side, kept balls off the floor and extended rallies. So we had to do some different things to score."
 
Said White: It's about upgrading each year, We've had so much time off that as a team we've built up our IQ. Since we haven't been on the court, we've been studying the game. We know which shots to do, which shots not to do. It's a matter of putting the pieces together."