GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – It wasn't exactly the kind of dominant first-round performance you might expect, but No. 3 MSU Denver wasn't going to just Lai down.
Avaline Lai, that is. And actually, Lai put a lot of things down.
The Roadrunners, seeded second in the RMAC Tournament, fell behind seventh-seeded Colorado Christian by losing the opening set, but behind a near record-setting match from Lai wound up advancing with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-17) victory Thursday.
"She had a great match," MSU Denver coach
Jenny Glenn said. "She played really aggressively offensively. She had a good matchup over there, and she really took advantage of that matchup."
Lai, a right-side hitter, had 17 kills while hitting an astounding .800 (one error, 20 attacks). She was on track to break Crissy Canada's 28-year-old program record for hitting percentage in a match (minimum 10 attacks) of .875 until her final swing, an error that dropped her percentage from .895.
As it is, she matched the best single-game hitting percentage for a Roadrunner since at least 2001 for players with at least 12 kills – Ryan Hoerdemann hit .800 (12 kills, no errors, 15 attacks) against New Mexico Highlands on Oct. 16, 2015. Records older than 2002 require more thorough research.
Still, despite Lai's dominance, this one didn't come easily.
"I had said that we would have some uncomfortable moments this week, and that proved true today," Glenn said. "Everyone here is playing for their season, and Colorado Christian gave it their all. I'm impressed with how they played us today. It wasn't until the end of the fourth set that we started feeling a little comfortable."
MSU Denver (14-1) made 16 errors of various kinds in the first set, and the Cougars were more than ready to pounce on the opportunity.
"We started a little tighter than we would have expected, but CCU was very well-prepared and played extremely hard," Glenn said. "They were feisty and the made a lot of plays you wouldn't expect. They played an exceptional match. They are well-coached and they attacked in areas that made us uncomfortable."
Kayla White finished with a double-double of 14 kills and 11 digs, while
Rylee Hladky had 13 kills. Lai, White and Hladky were all named to the All-RMAC first team on Wednesday.
All-RMAC second team middle blockers
Ember Canty (nine kills, four blocks) and
Mikayla McClinton (six kills, three blocks) were also working their craft.
Joli Sadler set 30 assists and
Jessa Megenhardt had 22, and libero
Ashlyn Cianciulli had a team-high 16 digs.
For the match, MSU Denver had a season-high 15 service errors, but also hit .390 (its second-best total of the season) and added 8.0 blocks.
"We are an aggressive serving team, but we gave up a lot of errors that we normally don't – 15 service errors is about double what we would expect," Glenn said. "We hit for a high percentage, which was good, but we made some errors that aren't on the stat sheet that aren't characteristic of how we play. But we were in a good place by the end of the match, playing very good volleyball. Battling through it and getting a win was good for us."
Now the Roadrunners face 25
th-ranked CSU-Pueblo in a 5 p.m. semifinal on Friday. The ThunderWolves advanced to the semifinals in a no contest, as South Dakota Mines withdrew from the tournament due to COVID-19 concerns.
MSU Denver swept the ThunderWolves in a Feb. 20 regular-season meeting.
Will CSU-Pueblo benefit from having Thursday off, or could the ThunderWolves have benefitted from playing a first-round match?
"Who knows?" Glenn said. "Give me a magic ball. That can go either way.
"It was really good for us to have a match in this gym and environment where we were able to work through some stuff and get to a comfort level at the end. I'm sure CSU-Pueblo will be ready to roll. They are playing extremely well right now and they are a good offensive team that serves aggressively.
"Our goal all weekend is to attack and hopefully make our opponents uncomfortable."
