DENVER – Talk about a tough turnaround.
 
Less than 96 hours after celebrating a dominant run through the toughest volleyball tournament in NCAA Division II, the sixth-ranked MSU Denver Roadrunners will jump on a bus Wednesday for a four-hour journey to Grand Junction, Colo., where they'll open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play in a hostile environment against 24^th-ranked Colorado Mesa on Thursday.
 
They say there ain't no rest for the wicked.
 
But at least the Roadrunners have been wickedly good.
 
"We look at our schedule in three portions – the preseason, the conference season, and the postseason," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "Overall, we had a really good preseason, learned a lot about ourselves and were able to use that as a measuring stick by playing teams that challenged us. We're leaving that portion of the season with a lot of confidence."
 
Last weekend, MSU Denver went 4-0 by defeating a solid Texas A&M-Commerce team, then dominated against then-No. 10 Central Missouri and then-No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul (Minn.). The Roadrunners capped their first Colorado Premier Challenge championship since 2003 with a five-set win over then-No. 17 Wayne State (Neb.).
 
Avaline Lai was named the National Player of the Week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association for the second time in her career after pounding 63 kills while hitting just a shade under .500.
 
MSU Denver is 6-2, with its only losses coming after having two match points in each match, both of which were away from home.
 
Perusing the perplexing AVCA Top 25 poll that came out this week, the Roadrunners are ranked behind two teams they just beat (Concordia-St. Paul is No. 4 and Wayne State is No. 5), had little trouble with new No. 7 Central Missouri, had one of its aforementioned five-set losses on the road against a much fresher No. 17 Western Washington and also suffered a setback to new No. 21 Chaminade (Hawaii).
 
But Colorado Mesa on the road is a stern test.
 
Heading into Thursday's 6 p.m. match, the Mavericks are 5-2, with one of the losses to current No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State. Mesa finished No. 3 in the national ratings last year (MSU Denver finished fourth) after going undefeated during RMAC regular-season play at 11-0 in a season that was condensed due to COVID-19.
 
Familiarity is a factor.
 
"The big difference in conference play is scouting," Glenn said. "Teams have a lot more time to scout and to be prepared, to work on strengths and weakneeses."
 
MSU Denver's only regular-season league loss in the spring was a 3-1 decision at Colorado Mesa, a disappointing outcome.
 
"A challenge you have in conference is not attaching emotion to your opponents," Glenn said. "You have so much history and experience with each program that it's a challenge to erase the past and play each game in the moment. When we are able to do that, it works in our favor."
 
MSU Denver returns right away to face Fort Lewis in a 3 p.m. home match Saturday at the Auraria Event Center.  In accordance with MSU Denver campus protocols, all fans in attendance at the indoor venue will be required to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status.
 
Fort Lewis is picked to finish 11^th in the RMAC and is 1-4.
 
"This team has been pretty resilient," Glenn said. "We went to Kearney the weekend before the season started and the bus was late and we got off and played right away, then we played 18 sets of volleyball the first weekend of the season in Washington. We've faced a lot of uncomfortable moments already, so having just a day to rest before Fort Lewis won't be a factor."
 
There's no rest for the wicked.