DENVER – Down a set on their home court, MSU Denver players huddled together during the break, searching for something.
 
Rest assured, they found it.
 
The fourth-ranked Roadrunners hit .419 in the second set, immediately changing the momentum of their match against No. 21 Regis around and starting themselves on the way to what turned into a relatively easy 3-1 (19-25, 25-16, 25-21, 25-19) victory at the Auraria Event Center.
 
"We were kind of tired of it," outside hitter Rylee Hladky said. "We've been pushed against the wall for the last few matches and it was working through it, as a team, finding that unity and finding our rhythm and flow again. I think once we turned it on, we were ourselves again. It was nice to find that."
 
What, exactly, did they find?
 
"Almost a grit," outside hitter Kayla White said. "It's cool when you're winning and it's easy. We're a team that loves to have fun, but can we have fun when it gets hard? I think we found that."
 
After that first set, in which Regis hit .345 and put down four blocks, visions of the disappointing loss at then-No. 4 Colorado Mesa on March 4 were lurking somewhere.
 
Coach Jenny Glenn turned to the team leaders to get the Roadrunners' sights set straight.
 
"We've carried kind of this passive mentality from our match last week even through last night's match (a sweep of Chadron State) and through that first set," Glenn said. "We were just waiting to kind of flip that switch. And we did. I'm proud of our leadership for saying, 'Enough is enough, let's change and play Roadrunner volleyball.'"
 
Hladky slammed a career-high 18 kills on .316 hitting, and White added a double-double of 10 kills and 18 digs. Avaline Lai had nine kills while hitting .318, and Alexis Benda and Mikayla McClinton each had six kills. For Benda that was a season high.
 
Ember Canty had five blocks (one solo) and Joli Sadler served two aces as the Roadrunners had their typical advantages in total blocks (10.0-5.0) and aces (5-2).
 
"After the first set, there was some deep reflection and it lit a fire under us," White said. "Because we don't want to lose like that on our home floor. It was a little gut check, and we came out and played harder."
 
Hladky surpassed her career-best of 16 kills with 17 in the first three sets.
 
"She swings high and we had a pretty good matchup from a blocking standpoint," Glenn said. "And she was choosing her shots wisely."
 
Regis, a national semifinalist last year that has replaced nearly all of its regular rotation, had won eight straight matches before Friday and fell to 8-3 on the season in the non-conference match.

MSU Denver improved to 10-1 overall.
 
The teams' last meeting was last season – in the fall of 2019 – when Regis won a five-set, first-round match in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"It's a little different when the team across the net is so different than it was," Glenn said. "But any time you can play and beat a team like Regis, it's a great night."
 
This match also featured some of the longest extended rallies of the season.
 
"Toward the end of the match, the whole team was huffing and puffing," Glenn said. "We've been having shorter rallies because our offense usually puts balls away pretty quickly. But they were extending rallies and playing incredibly scrappy, which forced us to get more scrappy. The rallies weren't always pretty, but it was fun to have them and to finish off a lot of them."
 
Said Hladky: "I think it was both teams being feisty and determined. It was hard. Those last few it was like, 'Oh, my goodness, we haven't done this in a minute.' It was fun to have that competitiveness and having both teams wanting it, extending rallies and playing hard."