DENVER – Throughout what has been almost unequivocally the best season in the history of MSU Denver volleyball, one thing has been abundantly clear.
 
If you want to beat the Roadrunners, you had to bring your 'A' game.
 
Somewhere in the third set Saturday night, the West Texas A&M Lady Buffs found theirs.
 
The Lady Buffs, after struggling to slow the Roadrunners' offense while dropping the first two sets, kicked it to another level behind the incredible play of outside hitter Torrey Miller and middle blocker Kayla Elliott and stormed back for a 3-2 victory that ended MSU Denver's season in the Division II South Central regional final.
 
"I thought we did a really good job in the first two sets," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We had them on their heels. Our gameplan was working pretty well, and then they lit a fire towards the end of the third set. Their left side (Miller) and middle had a different gear, and we didn't quite find a different gear on our side of the net."
 
MSU Denver hit .467 – as a team! – in the first set, with 14 kills and no errors in 30 attacks. The Roadrunners were still hitting .360 as a team through two sets and were still hitting .288 through three.
 
Tied 20-20 in the third, MSU Denver was five points away from closing out the match and earning the program's long-awaited first-ever trip to the national quarterfinals as a Division II team.
 
Instead, the Lady Buffs scored five in a row to force a fourth set.
 
"We were a few points away from finishing it in three, but unfortunately it didn't go that way," Glenn said.
 
West Texas A&M (25-4) – and is there a better regional No. 7 team in the country? – wound up outscoring MSU Denver down the stretch 45-26, including 25-18 in the fourth and 15-8 in the fifth.
 
"They made some good adjustments, switched a couple of players around and responded," Glenn said. "And we didn't necessarily have an answer for a couple of the problems they were creating."
 
Miller ripped an incredible 33 kills on .529 hitting (six errors, 51 attacks). Elliott had just 10 kills, but also had seven block assists and three consecutive service aces early in the fourth set as the Lady Buffs were able to sustain momentum. She had three of her blocks in the fifth set.
 
"They were extremely efficient out of system," Glenn said. "They took many balls where they were 20 or 30 feet off the net, put it back in system and took a rip at us. I thought that was the difference in the match."
 
MSU Denver, which won five straight five-set matches and six overall this season, couldn't rekindle that final-frame magic one last time. All four to the Roadrunners' losses this season came in five sets.
 
In a post-match meeting, the team put the season in perspective.
 
"This group has sacrificed a lot, and it really deserves to move forward, but unfortunately that's not going to happen," Glenn said. "This senior class was my first recruiting class when I got here, and they've worked really hard to build the culture that we have. As a coach, the proudest thing you could have is to sit in the locker room after the match and hear their memories of this program and who it has helped them become.
 
"In so many ways, after that conversation, even though we lost the match, we didn't lose. They're walking out of here winners because of the experience we had, and what we've accomplished this season has been historic for this program."
 
The Roadrunners established themselves as a national-title contender on the second weekend of the season, when the won the Colorado Premier Challenge for the first time since 2003. They rose to the No. 1 national ranking for the first time in program history, staying there for five weeks, while going 18-0 in conference play and putting together a 24-match win streak and extending a school-record home winning streak to 21 matches.
 
"The history that we made is incredible," said Alexis Benda, the All-RMAC first team outside hitter who was unable to play due to injury in the season's final 10 matches. "It's something you always talk about, but this year we did a lot of doing instead of just talking."
 
Said senior defensive specialist Caiden Rexius: "This group was unlike any other team I've ever been a part of. It was truly something special, and it will be forever."
 
Rylee Hladky, the Roadrunners' multiple-award winning outside hitter, led the way with 18 kills on .341 hitting Saturday, while Avaline Lai had 11 kills and hit .304 and Riley Anderson had 10 kills. Those three were joined on the regional all-tournament team by middle blocker Mikayla McClinton, who had six kills on .400 hitting (she didn't have a hitting error all tournament) and added four blocks (one solo).
 
Amela Qershia set 30 assists, and Ashlyn Cianciulli had 20 digs.
 
But in the end, it wasn't quite enough to extend a special season that, regardless, will live on for decades.
 
"There's so much to look back on and be excited about," Rexius said. "It's easy to think about all the good things that happened, but my mind goes back to just the team, everything that we went through, how much fun it was and how we handled being No. 1 in the nation, the events that went with that and the support we got. There are so many memories from this season that will live forever."
 
Said Glenn: "This year is hard to put into words. Your head is always in the moment and in what's coming next. And to have it come to an abrupt end, all of a sudden you start processing everything that this group has accomplished. I'm a competitor and I hate to lose, and this loss should hurt the most, but I'm so proud of what this group has done."