DENVER – No. 4 MSU Denver, a week removed from its attention-grabbing win over preseason No. 1 Nebraska-Kearney and just two days after right-side hitter
Avaline Lai was named the Division II National Player of the Week, is back in action Saturday as it plays host to CSU-Pueblo and Colorado Christian.
"It should be a fun day," MSU Denver coach
Jenny Glenn said. "We're back playing RMAC teams again and back in the gym after a great match last weekend. I think we're all excited to get back on the court again."
The Roadrunners face CSU-Pueblo at 11 a.m. and Colorado Christian at 5 p.m.
In between, CSU-Pueblo and Colorado Christian square off against one another at 2 p.m.
All matches will be played at the Auraria Event Center.
Lai had 20 kills on .529 hitting against the Lopers, with only two errors in 34 attacks. She is the first player to have at least 20 kills while hitting better than .404 against the storied Nebraska-Kearney program since at least 2014.
"It's great for Ava, and by extension it's great for our team to get that recognition," Glenn said. "We've worked hard to diversify our shots and our play calls, and that makes everyone really hard to defend. If you stop one shot, then there are multiple others we can go to."
The Roadrunners are 6-0 for the first time since 2011.
CSU-Pueblo, receiving votes in the national poll, is 2-1 while not playing an official RMAC game. The ThunderWolves opened the season with a five-set win over preseason No. 5 Regis on Jan. 24.
ThunderWolves middle blocker Payton Stack was named the Division II National Player of the Week after getting 10 kills and nine blocks against Regis and then nine kills and six blocks in a four-set loss later in the day to current No. 5 Colorado Mesa.
"CSU-Pueblo is a solid team in all areas of the game," Glenn said. "We'll have to have a plan to defend them, but at the end of the day we want to play MSU Denver volleyball and make others adjust to us."
Colorado Christian is 0-2, but the losses have come to No. 8 Colorado School of Mines (at the time unranked) and to Colorado Mesa.
"It's always fun to play a crosstown rival, and they'll play a different style of volleyball, so we'll need to change gears quickly to play them," Glenn said.
