SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – After a slow start, the No. 3 MSU Denver volleyball team charged full-speed ahead Friday for an impressive 3-1 win over No. 9 Cal State Los Angeles on the second day of the Yotes Classic Showcase.
 
The Roadrunners earned a 21-25, 25-14, 25-20, 25-15 decision while hitting .381 after the first set. They had only seven hitting errors in the final three sets after have nine errors while hitting .023 in the opener.
 
"We were in a hole and had to dig ourselves out of it," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We were trying too hard the first set, and when you try too hard you are high-error. Once we settled into the match and started playing Roadrunner volleyball, with the  right mindset of trusting the process, everything started to fall into place.
 
"We also had better ball control after the first set – we were out of system a lot in the first set, and you're not going to hit over .200 when you're out of system as much as we were."
 
You can't blame MSU Denver for being amped at the start of the match – Cal State Los Angeles returns nearly every player from a team that reached the semifinals of last year's National Championships.
 
"That's a really good Cal State Los Angeles team," Glenn said. "They have big firepower on the pins, but we really managed that well defensively and found space on the floor offensively as the match went on. And it became a serve-and-pass game as it always does – especially the first weekend of the season."
 
MSU Denver featured a balanced attack, as two-time All-American Rylee Hladky led the way with 12 kills.
 
Demonstrating that it's a Mad, Mad World, Maddy Williams had a career-high 11 kills in her second match as one of the Roadrunners' outside hitters, while Maddie Lindsay provided a spark off the bench with six kills on .429 hitting (no errors, 14 attacks).
 
"Maddie had a great matchup," Glenn said. "She entered the match and gave them a different look that they hadn't seen, and she was able to execute really well on the pin. We have some depth there. She's a different style of attacker and she did a great job."
 
Riley Anderson had seven kills, and middle blocker Mikayla McClinton pounded six kills on .455 hitting (one error, 11 attacks) in addition to adding three blocks (one solo).
 
Setter Amela Qershia had 21 assists while matching her career best with four aces, and new libero Abbie McCrimmon matched her career high with 12 digs.
 
MSU Denver held Cal State Los Angeles to .014 hitting for the match. The Golden Eagles had lost a five-set match to No. 18 Regis on Thursday night and dropped to 0-2.
 
"I'm proud of holding such a high-offense team to a low hitting percentage," Glenn said. "We did a nice job of defending them and diffusing them with some of the strategies we used. Our right sides made some adjustments – they're new to the position and they defended well."
 
After the first-set struggle, MSU Denver came out blazing in the second set, jumping to leads of 7-3, 10-4 and 15-5. Then the Roadrunners overcame a 9-3 deficit in the pivotal third set, using a 9-2 burst to take control at 22-18.
 
MSU Denver fell behind 3-0 to open the fourth set but, while hitting .448 (14 kills, one error, 29 attacks) in the final frame, the Roadrunners scored six straight points to lead 7-4 and later scored 10 in a row to turn a close set into a 24-14 advantage.
 
The Roadrunners are now 2-0, including Thursday's season-opening win over Central Washington.
 
The three-day tournament doesn't get any easier, as the Roadrunners wrap things up with two matches Saturday against nationally-ranked teams, facing No. 15 Western Washington at 3:30 p.m. MDT and then No. 19 host Cal State San Bernardino at 8:30 p.m. MDT.
 
"This was a good battle for early in the season," Glenn said. "It was a good team effort, and each match we have grown a ton. We're a lot different that we were even a week ago. I'm proud of how we've been adaptable and able to make changes."