DENVER – And now, for a rematch that has been eight days in the making, the eighth-ranked MSU Denver volleyball team travels to 12^th-ranked Regis for a 3 p.m. Saturday showdown with conference championship implications.
 
"We're really excited to get after it tomorrow and to show that we weren't really in the best space last week when we played them," libero Abbie McCrimmon said. "We're coming in with a really good mindset."
 
But first was Friday's matchup with UCCS, and the Roadrunners took care of business with a relatively easy 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-17, 25-18).
 
Last week the Roadrunners were swept, at home, 25-22, 25-19, 25-23 by the Rangers in a non-conference match. They bounced back two nights later to storm past No. 11 Colorado Mesa 3-1, then kept the focus on UCCS.
 
Players said they made sure not to get too far ahead of themselves.
 
"We know that Regis is coming and that it's going to be a tough match for us, especially with our performance last week," outside hitter Maddie Lindsay said. "But we've made it our new focus to be in the moment going forward. It's when we get ahead of right now and in the space that we're in that we kind of get overwhelmed and lose focus on the things that are important."
 
MSU Denver improved to 17-5 overall and 9-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference on Friday, while Regis improved to 18-5 and 10-1 win a Friday sweep of Colorado School of Mines.
 
MSU Denver still has a clear path to the RMAC regular-season championship if it wins out.
 
"We've been talking about trying to stay present and in the moment, but it is a challenge when we know what's coming tomorrow," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "They did a pretty good job of keeping tonight as the forefront, and now we can move on to the next thing. There's some freedom in that."
 
The Roadrunners played with the lead almost exclusively Friday, hitting .381 in the first set, .357 in the second and .327 overall.
 
"We definitely could have had a little more urgency, not letting them go on as many runs as they did," McCrimmon said. "But overall we did a good job of getting after it."
 
It was a solid effort overall, if not always the smoothest.
 
"We knew it was going to be a tough match," Glenn said. "They have various tempos that they run at, and it can be hard to find a rhythm against them. We saw that from time to time throughout the match, but even though we never really found a great rhythm, we found it from time to time and we were able to stabilize different areas of our game and get the win."
 
Said Lindsay: "We're satisfied with the three-set win, but we also kind of rode a bit of a roller coaster that we'd prefer not to do going forward. We talked about how we sometimes try to find a comfortable state and wait for things to feel good, but the reality is, especially approaching post-season, that things are never going to be comfortable."
 
Riley Anderson had 10 kills and a career-high four service aces and Rylee Hladky had an impressive eight-kill first set before sharing time with Lindsay the rest of the night and finishing with nine. Lindsay had six kills.
 
"Maddie has done a great job for us when Rylee was out," Glenn said. "And we're keeping her in a rhythm because in any given matchup, all three of our left sides are good possible options."
 
MSU Denver dealt 10 aces and had just three service errors, with one fewer ace and one more error than their previous season bests.
 
"We were really efficient," Glenn said. "Typically when we have 10 aces we'll have a higher error number, but we did a really good job of keeping the ball in the court in tough positions."
 
The serve-and-pass game is always a focus against Regis.
 
"We just have to serve and pass better (than last week's match)," Glenn said. "Both teams have good offenses, both have good defenses. We need to serve and receive well."
 
Setters Amela Qershia (21) and Delaney Eckhardt (18) combined for 39 assists.
 
And McCrimmon, the league leader in digs per set, picked up 14.
 
"Crim Dog is stellar," Lindsay said. "She's grown a lot in this role. It's not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination. She's learned to own her space in a way that is crucial for us. We rely on her a lot, and she's owning that role."
 
Said Glenn: "What I liked about her tonight is that we changed our defense against a particular hitter and she was able to know when to read into that, and when to read out of that. That was a big step for her in her progress in the libero jersey."