PUEBLO, Colo. – No. 6 MSU Denver's record-setting streak of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball victories finally came to an end Saturday, as CSU Pueblo upset the Roadrunners 3-1.
 
MSU Denver had won 48 consecutive matches in regular-season league play, but CSU Pueblo hit an outstanding .384 against the Roadrunners while also ending MSU Denver's 33-match win streak in the series between the teams dating to 1999.
 
"They played really efficient, clean volleyball and made it really tough to defend them and execute our gameplan well," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We didn't respond quickly when we got in a hole at the start of the match, and it's tough to get out of a hole when a team is playing that well against you."
 
It's the third straight year that the ThunderWolves gave MSU Denver fits at Massari Arena, as matches played there in both 2021 and 2022 went five sets.
 
CSU Pueblo, 10-10 overall but 8-2 in the RMAC, hit a staggering .593 in the first set, with 16 kills and no errors in 27 attacks, racing out to a 25-11 victory by winning 22 of the final 28 points.
 
The ThunderWolves won the second set 25-21 before MSU Denver hit .455 in the third set to win 25-18. But CSU Pueblo scored the first six points of the fourth set – three of them on service aces – and eventually won the final set 25-20.
 
"It was a struggle all night in serve and pass," Glenn said. "It was a battle we were occasionally winning, but they kept responding and pushing back, so that's a credit to their persistence. Volleyball is a crazy game. We were able to hit the reset button after the first set, but they hit the reset button after the third set. We just couldn't find our rhythm all night."

MSU Denver dropped to 15-4 overall as its overall winning streak ended at 12. The Roadrunners are 8-1 in league play.
 
It was MSU Denver's first loss in a regular-season RMAC match since March 4, 2021, when the 2020 season was pushed into early 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Riley Anderson led MSU Denver with 14 kills, while Mikayla McClinton had eight kills on .353 hitting and added three service aces. Ember Canty had four kills and five blocks (three solo).
 
Setters Delaney Eckhardt (18) and Amela Qershia (16) combined for 34 assists, and Abbie McCrimmon had a team-high 12 digs.
 
The Roadrunners hit .230 for the match with 20 attack errors.
 
MSU Denver had won 27 straight matches in the month of October, dating to a 3-1 loss at South Dakota Mines on Oct. 12, 2019.
 
The Roadrunners were playing away from home for the eighth time in nine matches.
 
"Credit to Pueblo, they played a great match," Glenn said. "We looked a little tired, and we weren't sharp and unfortunately we made it difficult on ourselves with a lot of small errors over the course of the match."