DENVER – Once again, No. 1 MSU Denver found a way to thrive in five.
 
Even if it did take seven match points to hold off gritty 24^th-ranked Regis in a classic match Friday night at the Auraria Event Center.
 
Just another day at the office for a Roadrunners team that continues to come up big in the most critical moments.
 
"We try to make pressure fun," outside hitter Rylee Hladky said. "Because you're going to be put in pressure situations no matter who you're playing. It's a beautiful thing.
 
"There's pressure in life everywhere, so to learn to thrive in that is enjoyable. It seems high-risk now, but in the whole scheme of things, it's just a game."
 
But what a game it was.
 
After winning the first set relatively easily, MSU Denver hit less than .000 (16 kills, 21 errors) while dropping the next two sets, including a rather unsightly 25-13 defeat in the third.
 
"We talk about being in the game for the long run," Hladky said. "It stinks to drop a set. But the beauty of volleyball is you start at 0-0 again. Reset, and that's that."
 
Said coach Jenny Glenn: "We changed our lineup, moved some people around, and I think that gave us the spark that we needed. It was just a different look that they hadn't scouted. I thought everyone did a good job of just rolling with those changes and getting some flow back on our side of the net.
 
"You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. I'm happy with how we responded."
 
So MSU Denver rallied to win the fourth and take it to a fifth for an astounding eighth time this season. The Roadrunners are a stunning 6-2 in those matches, including five straight wins in matches that have gone to the ultimate set.
 
"Tonight was a crazy night," outside hitter Kaylee Corsentino said. "We obviously didn't want to take it to that, but I think we did an amazing job of battling.
 
"We have experience playing in five sets. And I think we handled it really well. We want to be the first to five and go from there. We were behind that a little bit, though."
 
A little behind, indeed. Down 11-6 in the fifth is not a fun place to be.
 
Unless you are MSU Denver, apparently.
 
And unless you are Hladky, specifically.
 
Because the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's leader in kills and points was just getting rolling.
 
After hitting -.022 (12 kills, 13 errors on 46 attacks) through four sets, she merely hit .600 (six kills, no errors, 10 attacks) in the fifth.
 
"Sometimes you have off times, and that's OK," Hladky said. "You just have to continue to have confidence in yourself. And I have confidence in my teammates, too. I might be off, but there are 18 other people on this team who can do their job."
 
Said Glenn: "The kid is competitive, and she wanted to win. When things aren't going well, you can overthink things. Once we got to the fifth set, our backs were against the wall and it was perform or lose, and that's when she rose up."
 
OK, so let's get to the dramatic finish.
 
A Regis service error and an attack error opened the door, turing that 11-6 deficit to 11-8.
 
"We just honestly wanted to take one point at a time," Corsentino said. "You can't get ahead of yourself in that situation. One serve, one pass, one swing."
 
Then Ashlyn Cianciulli served her fourth ace to make it 11-9. A Hladky kill made it 11-10 and a setting error tied it at 11.
 
The teams were tied again at 12, 13 and 14, with Hladky providing two kills and Corsentino another.
 
Regis fought off match points at 14-13, 15-14 and 16-15, and then the Rangers held their sole match point at 17-16 after scoring two straight.
 
MSU Denver though, scored two straight for an 18-17 lead and its fourth match point, got a solo block from Ember Canty for a fifth match point at 19-18 and made it six match points on a kill by Hladky to lead 20-19. Match point No. 7 came at 21-20 after a Hladky kill, and the Roadrunners finally ended the 141-minute marathon on Maddy Williams' kill.
 
That's 25-21, 19-25, 13-25, 25-21, 22-20 if you're scoring at home.
 
Hladky finished with a match-high 18 kills, though she hit .089 – the team was held to .087 for its lowest figure since hitting .051 in the 2018 RMAC Tournament Championship match. Regis had a stunning 18 blocks, match the most against the Roadrunners since Nebraska-Kearney had 18.5 against them on Sept. 16, 2006.
 
"That's a team that played really well against us," Glenn said of Regis. "They were really hard to score on. They were very feisty and extended rallies. They played tough defense, served us tough and made it uncomfortable for us.
 
"But we battled through it and found a way to win it in the end."
 
MSU Denver improved to 20-2 overall and 14-0 in the RMAC with its 18^th straight win. They've won 18 straight regular-season RMAC matches dating to last season and have won 17 straight home matches dating to last season.
 
Alexis Benda added 12 kills and Corsentino had nine while hitting .294 for the Roadrunners.
 
Cianciulli had team bests of 18 digs and had four of the Roadrunners' 10 service aces. Amela Qershia set 24 assists, while Canty, Avaline Lai and Mikayla McClinton all had five block assists.
 
But that 6-2 record in five-set matches is a stat that continues to stand out.
 
"We've been in it a lot this year," Glenn said. "It doesn't scare us. We know how it's won. Even though we didn't fully execute it the way we want, when it came down to crunch time we did, and this group has a lot of confidence in those moments."