DENVER – One down, two to go.
 
No. 1 MSU Denver embarked Thursday upon what it hopes will be a run to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament volleyball championship and cruised to a relatively easy 3-0 win over eighth-seeded Fort Lewis.
 
The Roadrunners, also the tournament's No. 1 seed, won by set scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-19. It was MSU Denver's third win over the Skyhawks this season, and the second in 12 days.
 
"It was a great way to start the tournament," said MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn, who was introduced as the RMAC Coach of the Year in a pre-match ceremony. "Fort Lewis always brings a lot of energy to the court and moves the ball around. They have a different style of offense that's always a little bit of a challenge, but I thought we did a good job of adjusting to it."
 
MSU Denver won its 20^th straight match to improve to 26-1 overall. The Roadrunners play No. 22 Colorado School of Mines, the tournament's fourth seed, in a 7:30 p.m. semifinal Friday, also at the Auraria Event Center. MSU Denver won 3-2 at Mines in the regular-season meeting.
 
Rylee Hladky had 10 kills and 11 digs, Kaylee Corsentino had eight kills on .333 hitting, and Kelsey Gordon had seven kills while hitting .385. All three were named to the All-RMAC first team earlier in the day – Hladky earned her second straight RMAC Player of the Year Award.
 
"It was really awesome that everyone was having success," said Delaney Eckhardt, who set 15 assists. "Our passers were putting us in the box, so it was really easy to make the right decision and give our hitters one-on-one opportunities."
 
After hitting .406 in the first set, MSU Denver settled for .243 for the match.
 
"We found some good matchups on our side of the net and maintained the serve and pass game," Glenn said. "We're happy to get done in three tonight and we're looking forward to tomorrow."
 
Amela Qershia set 17 assists and also had 14 digs as well as a pair of service aces.
 
"Amela did a great job of taking the cross-court ball away from their right-side, which was critical because that's a hitter who can go off sometimes and score a lot of points for them," Glenn said. "And she did more than just get the ball up, she put us in a good spot with her dig to give us a chance to run our offense."
 
Libero Ashlyn Cianciulli, All-RMAC second team for a second straight season, had a team-best 15 digs.
 
Meanwhile the Roadrunners had nine blocks, slightly higher than their season average of 2.52 per set that ranks sixth in Division II.
 
Gordon, Ember Canty and Mikayla McClinton were each credited with four blocks (Canty had one solo and three assists, the others four assists). Canty passed Steph Laraway (2015-18) on the program's all-time chart and now has 292 career block assists to rank sixth in program history, which is third in the rally-scoring era. McClinton passed Lisa Jones (2007-10) in two categories and now has 286 career block assists and 318 total blocks – she's fifth in the rally-scoring era in both categories.
 
Fort Lewis hit .091 – the 20^th straight match (notice the winning streak of the same length) MSU Denver's opponent has hit below .200.
 
Now comes the tough part as the Roadrunners, who have played in six straight RMAC finals, try to win the title for the first time since 2013.
 
Friday's semifinal precedes a hoped-for spot in Saturday's 6 p.m. final.
 
"Everyone is going to give us their best shot," Gordon said. "And we're showing that we're battle-tested. We want matches that will push us, matches that aren't easy, because that makes us better."