DENVER – The MSU Denver volleyball team won its 34^th straight regular-season league match on Saturday night, sailing past New Mexico Highlands 3-0.
 
The streak is now the second-longest in the history of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and an undefeated run through league play this season would give the Roadrunners a record of 40.
 
All of which generates a collective shrug from the Roadrunners.
 
"It's not something that's really on our radar," All-American outside hitter Rylee Hladky said. "We talk about our goals being bigger than the conference. Every match is part of the road to the national championship, and it's one opponent at a time. Every opponent is a worthy opponent, and we attack each match that way."
 
Said libero Ashlyn Cianciulli: "It's exciting in the moment to talk about it, but then it's, 'What's next?' You have to move on to the next thing, because every match matters. We always have this 'Road to the natty,' and every single match is a chance to get there. So we don't talk about our accomplishments. It's 'What's next?'"
 
MSU Denver, ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II, improved to 19-1 overall and 12-0 in the RMAC with the 25-15, 25-16, 25-15 victory.
 
At 19-1, the Roadrunners are off to their best 20-match start since the 1978 team started 36-0.
 
So, regular-season winning streak? Kind of on the back burner.
 
"We can't get focused on that kind of stuff," Glenn said. "That's fun for everybody else to look at, but if we're focused on it, that's adding in a layer of pressure that we just don't need."
 
The Roadrunners hit .400 for the night, the fifth time in seven matches they've hit .372 or better.
 
That's not bad considering there was a healthy dose of experimentation going on.
 
"We were trying a lot of new things," Hladky said. "We were trying to do some things we've been working on in practice. And it was a lot of fun to try to mix things up. It takes the pressure away because you're taking risks and it's OK if you fail."
 
And while it was totally OK if Hladky had failed, she nonetheless had no hitting errors – none – in 25 attacks for a sublime .520 hitting percentage. It's good to be an All-American.
 
"One of the goals was to be creative with our offense, and we did that from time to time," Glenn said. "If we had passed the ball a little better I think you would've seen us being even more creative, but we were off the net. Highlands is a pretty aggressive serving team and pushed us back most of the night."
 
Mikayla McClinton hit .500 (six kills, one error, 10 attacks) and added five blocks, Riley Anderson hit .500 (eight kills, one error, 14 attacks), Kaylee Corsentino hit .316 (seven kills, one error, 19 attacks) and Kelsey Gordon hit .417 (five kills, no errors, 12 attacks).
 
The Roadrunners are now hitting .289 for the season.
 
Intensity levels and on-court action faded in and out of focus throughout the 71-minute affair.
 
"It was slower than we're used to playing," Hladky said. "We can make our own fun on our side and try to keep the tempo on our side. Sometimes that's difficult and we didn't do a great job of it tonight. But the last few points … that's how we want to end it. We ended it on a good note."
 
Amela Qershia and Delaney Eckhardt each set 17 assists, while Qershia added a team-high 14 digs.
 
"It was a lot different than we're used to," said Cianciulli, who had 11 digs. "We're used to playing fast and aggressive, and this match kind of tested that. Trying to keep the speed on our side was our biggest challenge."
 
Next up, the Roadrunners will put their league winning streak on the line in a Tuesday night match at Colorado Christian. The Cougars are 12-8 overall and are sixth in the RMAC at 7-4.
 
"It'll be a lot of fun," Hladky said. "It'll be similar to (Colorado School of) Mines (a five-set road win) the other night. And CCU is legit. They have good hitters, and they are disciplined. It'll be a fun, competitive match. It'll be good to be pushed that way again."
 
Said Glenn: "We're eager to play volleyball. We'll get one practice in, get prepared and go play. They have a high-powered offense and they're really aggressive at the net. Across all positions we're going to have to play really well."