SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Despite dropping a five-set decision on the road, in its second match of the day against a fresh, high-quality opponent, No. 3 MSU Denver showed its championship mettle Saturday in a 3-2 loss at Cal State San Bernardino, which will be ranked much higher than No. 19 when next week's poll is announced.
 
MSU Denver justified its lofty ranking in the 25-23, 16-25, 20-25, 25-19, 16-14 defeat with a quality performance. That came after a 3-0 breeze against 15^th-ranked Western Washington early Saturday, and followed Friday's 3-1 win over No. 9 Cal State Los Angeles and a 3-1 win Thursday over Central Washington.
 
"It was a battle, a great battle, in multiple ways, for this early in the season," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "They had some high-powered offense and a couple of players that we had to continue to make adjustments against. I thought we did a great job overall defending, and just didn't come up with some critical plays when we needed them most.
 
"I'm proud of the team for how we battled tonight. Unfortunately we didn't come out on the victorious side, but we learned a lot as a group. I think this loss will fuel us moving forward."
 
Cal State San Bernardino, which played just one match Saturday, finished its own Yotes Classic Showcase at 4-0, with wins over the two Washington schools and the two Denver schools (No. 18 Regis was 2-2 for the tournament).
 
MSU Denver was unable to close out the first set against Cal State San Bernardino after leading 21-16, but nonetheless stormed back for easy wins in the second and third sets. Cal State San Bernardino played with the lead in the fourth set after moving in front 10-9.
 
In the fifth, MSU Denver jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the Coyotes scored five straight to take an 11-6 advantage. MSU Denver scrambled spectacularly defensively and pulled within 13-12, then tied it 14-14 after fighting off two match points, but Cal State San Bernardino was able to close it out.
 
Riley Anderson led the Roadrunners with 20 kills and matched a career-best with three service aces. For the weekend, Anderson had 61 kills for an average of 4.4 per set while hitting .296 and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
 
Rylee Hladky had a double-double of 12 kills and 16 digs, and Maddy Williams set another career best with 12 kills after posting 11 on Friday. Ember Canty had seven blocks (one solo), while Williams had five blocks.
 
Also for the Roadrunners, Abbie McCrimmon had a career-high 18 digs, and Amela Qershia set 25 assists.
 
MSU Denver had little trouble with 15^th-ranked Western Washington, which finished the weekend 0-4, winning 25-19, 25-11, 25-15.
 
Anderson slammed 14 kills on .346 hitting while adding four blocks (one solo), Maddie Lindsay had eight kills, 10 digs and three service aces to match a career best, and right-side hitters Williams (six) and Skyler Michael (five) combined for 11 kills on .556 hitting.
 
The Roadrunners hit .325 for the match, including .526 in the second set (11 kills, one error, 19 attacks), and held the Vikings to -.011 hitting, the lowest for an MSU Denver opponent in 78 matches dating to the 2020 season (played in the spring of 2021).
 
"We played really efficient volleyball," Glenn said. "We kept the pressure on them pretty much from start to finish which was a good step forward for us. They are a perennially good team at the national level."
 
MSU Denver returns home to co-host the rigorous Colorado Premier Challenge next weekend, starting it off with a match against No. 1 West Texas A&M (4-0) at 2 p.m. Friday at the Auraria Event Center.