DENVER – Ultimately it ended as expected.
 
No. 2 MSU Denver. No. 6 Colorado School of Mines.
 
Five sets.
 
With the No. 1 ranking in the country on the line.
 
MSU Denver came out firing and built an early 2-0 lead, but Colorado School of Mines rallied to force the fifth set.
 
And MSU Denver, playing in its seventh five-set match of the season, took control of the final frame and held on for a thrilling 25-17, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-11 victory Saturday night before an Auraria Event Center crowd of 674 in the biggest match at the arena for the Roadrunners in years.
 
"We feel a lot of confidence in fifth sets," Glenn said. "We train for the fifth set. Our team knows how it's won. It's a matter of executing it at that point. I was really proud of our defense in the fifth set and our aggressive serving in the fifth set. And we took big swings instead of being soft and giving them easy points."
 
Now, with the No. 1 spot seemingly due for a change – not only did top-ranked Washburn (Kan.) lose Friday to No. 9 Northwest Missouri State, but it also lost earlier in the season to Colorado School of Mines – MSU Denver appears on the precipice of earning the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking.
 
"It would be awesome to get that type of recognition, but we've still got matches ahead of us," right-side hitter Avaline Lai said. "We've got to take care of business with each team. Monday when we come to the gym, we'll still have things to work on. Getting the recognition would be amazing for the entire school, and I would love to see that on Monday (when the poll is released), but the season isn't over yet."
 
Said Glenn: "Rankings are awesome but what's the different between 2 and 1 at this point? It's just a lot of respect for what we've accomplished up to this point. We've been really consistent against ranked teams, and that's what I've been really proud of. (Potentially) changing one spot doesn't change anything. We know we still have worked to do, and we'll keep grinding."
 
MSU Denver, which won its 14^th straight match to improve to 16-2 overall and 10-0 for first in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, took control in the first two sets with its dominant serving.
 
"We always focus on being aggressive from the service line," middle blocker Mikayla McClinton said. "We know that we're a top serving team and we have the capability to break anyone down in the passing lanes."
 
Rylee Hladky had three of her five service aces in the first set, and McClinton had two of her four in the opening frame. MSU Denver finished with a 13-4 advantage in service aces.
 
"We thought we had some good matchups," Glenn said. "We have a lot of servers who are serving tough right now. With the high-powered offense they have, we knew we had to get them out of system. If we had served easy, it wasn't going to go our way. We backed off a few times, but we did a good job of responding after we did."
 
The serving pressure prevented Mines (16-2, 9-1) from getting its nation-leading offense untracked early.
 
"They're a really, really good passing team, very solid all around, very disciplined," Hladky said. "We thought serve-and-pass was going to be a battle, so we didn't expect to have that many (aces), not at all.
 
Mines finally got rolling, hitting .290 in the third set and .366 in the fourth to force the fifth set.
 
"They have a really, really good offense," Hladky said. "The best in the country. And we let them be in system, and when they're in system they're obviously very good."
 
But fifth sets are where MSU Denver has excelled this season, going 5-2 in marathon matches, including four straight wins. The two losses came only after the Roadrunners had two match points (though in one of the matches it came in the fourth set).
 
"At this point, it's our normal," Lai said. "Playing fifth sets, it's 'Let's limit our errors and go after it. We're not going to take passive swings and tip free balls. We're going to go out banging, taking big rips and serving the crap out of the ball."
 
Glenn had an ace up her sleeve, though. And while it was good for a service ace, inserting freshman setter Delaney Eckhardt into the match for the first time paid off. Eckhardt had made her season debut by playing briefly Friday against Chadron State.
 
"I looked at her, and asked if she was ready to go and she said, 'Yeah. Definitely,'" Lai said. "And I said, 'OK.' I had complete trust in her to step in and do her job. She crushed it."
 
Eckhardt kept the Orediggers at bay while serving the first five points for a 5-0 lead – with one service ace and four assists.
 
"She did a great job, in a tough situation, coming in and rattling off points," Glenn said. "That's not an easy situation to step into."
 
Ultimately it was Lai – who had seven kills on her first seven swings – who led the way with 18 kills on .484 hitting while adding two blocks. Hladky had 12 kills, five aces, six blocks and 16 digs. Kaylee Corsentino matched a career high with 11 kills and Alexis Benda added 10 kills.
 
Amela Qershia had 24 assists and Jessa Megenhardt had 21 assists as well as two service aces.
 
"I'm still shaking right now," Lai said, 15 minutes after the match. "It's a great win, a whole-team win. That's a good team that knows how to win on the other side of the net. I have chills still."