CANYON, Texas – When it came to crunch time, No. 8 MSU Denver had the hammers.
 
The Roadrunners rallied late in each of the last two sets Friday to defeat spunky Angelo State 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20) to win their second-round match at the NCAA Tournament's South Central Regional.
 
"We talk a lot about banding together and going after things, being fearless, and we did a really good job of that," senior outside hitter Rylee Hladky said. "We were fearless in that moment. We just went after it and went and took it, and I was really proud of us for doing that."
 
MSU Denver improved to 25-6 and advanced to the regional final as one of 16 teams remaining in the tournament for the third straight season. The Roadrunners will play for a trip to the national quarterfinals in a 5 p.m. CST match Saturday against fifth-ranked, defending national champion and tournament host West Texas A&M – the team that defeated the higher-ranked and higher-seeded Roadrunners in Denver, in this round, each of the last two seasons.

On Friday, MSU Denver got a huge second-set boost from outside hitter Riley Anderson, rode the late-set heroics of Hladky and fellow senior Ember Canty in the third, turned around the third and fourth frames with mid-set service runs by Delaney Eckhardt, and closed it out with a nifty kill by redshirt freshman Skyler Michael on match point.
 
All in all, a pretty good night for everyone.
 
"I felt like we were trailing most of the match, with the exception of the second set," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "I was proud of how our team was able to grind and stayed composed. We went into four-point holes sometimes, but we did what we needed to do when it mattered.
 
"A lot of our season, we've been playing with big leads, and in the locker room we talked about how we stayed composed … that's an area where we grew tonight."
 
Anderson slammed a match-high 16 kills and co-left sider hitter Hladky added 14 as both hit .300 or better.
 
In the fourth set, MSU Denver appeared in danger of being forced into a fifth by Angelo State (24-8), which came back from a 2-1 deficit to upset second-seeded and ninth-ranked Regis in Thursday's first round.
 
But, trailing 15-11, Eckhardt started off on a five-point run that included one of her three aces to shift momentum.
 
"We were having a little bit of a rough serving night, lots of errors, back-to-back errors, and it felt hard," Glenn said. "But when she opened things up for us, it helped build some confidence and got the next person serving tougher."
 
Angelo State tied it 20-20, but Hladky had back-to-back kills to take control, and on match point, Michael hit a crafty shot along the net from right to left – one that Glenn has been trying to get her to hit all season – to end it.
 
It was Michael's career-best 12^th kill.
 
"I'm super proud of that kid," Glenn said. "She's a redshirt freshman, and she just keeps getting better every match. She made a really good play in a big moment."
 
The familiar thud of another MSU Denver block continued rattling the arena, with Division II's fifth-best blocking group registering a team total of 14. Canty had nine (one solo) individually, with Michael, Anderson and Mikayla McClinton each adding four.
 
"It's never just one person," Canty said. "Our size helps us a lot, but it's also the IQ. And, as blockers, we can trust our floor defense, too. We're huge at the net and we're super-feisty behind, and you have to have both if you want to win a championship."
 
The Roadrunners trailed 16-11 in the third before Eckhardt started her first big service run of the night, with two aces in a 4-0 burst that got the Roadrunners back in it. MSU Denver held leads at 19-18 and 20-19, but Angelo State answered with three consecutive points to lead 22-20.
 
But a Canty kill, a combined block by Canty and Michael, an Angelo State hitting error, and a combined block by Canty and Hladky brought it to set point at 24-22. Hladky hit wide for an error, but given a second chance Hladky put it away to clinch the set.
 
"We've been here before," Hladky said of the senior duo's clutch contributions. "We know what we're doing. We're experienced. We've been in this tournament before. We know what it takes to win in postseason. Our team does a good job of getting on board with that. We have fun and we push each other."
 
Said Canty: "We're going to battle for each other, and if we're not on, we're going to be boosting people next to us. It's never an 'us' show, but we have the faith because we've been here for so long working together."
 
After dropping the first set, MSU Denver trailed early in the second before Anderson turned it up. She had three kills and a block assist for the first four points, and added another kill for the sixth point, in a 6-0 burst that made it 10-5. She added another kill to make it 11-7, and the Roadrunners were on their way to the second-set victory. Anderson had eight kills in the set while hitting .636.
 
"That felt like Riley Anderson," Glenn said. "She's had a couple of matches where she didn't quite look like herself, even though her numbers have been pretty good. I was really pleased to see how she came out tonight. She played all six rotations in a really good flow, passing well. She had a great night."
 
Now, for the third straight season, the Roadrunners are one win away from going farther than they've ever gone before, the national quarterfinals.
 
"We can't make it bigger than it is," Glenn said. "We have to come in and play however many sets it takes. When we try to do more as a group, it doesn't go well for us.
 
"I like how quickly this team makes adjustments. Mid-match adjustments were constant tonight. Angelo State was doing different things on almost every play. That gives me confidence in this group. They have a lot of love for each other, and for the game."
 
Said Hladky: "It's another chance to play together, and that's what we do it for – for each other. You never know when it could be your last. So you have fun and do it together."