DENVER – It's just the second week of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball season, and already a major showdown is set to be staged.
Division II No. 8 MSU Denver (7-3 overall, 2-0 RMAC) plays Friday at 6 p.m. at No. 11 Colorado Mesa (11-0, 3-0).
The Roadrunners' RMAC-record streak of 42 consecutive regular-season league victories will be put to an extreme review by Mesa, which just happens to be the last team to defeat MSU Denver in the regular season – back on March 4, 2021.
MSU Denver has won five straight since then in the series, including two thrilling "reverse-sweeps" in which the Roadrunners won the final three sets after dropping the first two. The second of those came in last year's NCAA Tournament South Central Regional semifinals.
Many of the cast of characters for both teams have returned to starring roles, and both teams also have former apprentices taking on more major roles and newcomers making their debuts.
"They have a lot of their same pieces back," MSU Denver coach
Jenny Glenn said. "They seem to be playing aggressively and with confidence."
Mesa's Sydney Leffler and MSU Denver's
Riley Anderson rank 1-2 in the RMAC in kills per set at 4.4 and 4.1, respectively.
Mesa's Emma Shaddix, a transfer, and Savannah Spitzer rank first and third, respectively, in the RMAC in hitting percentage. MSU Denver's
Ember Canty and
Mikayla McClinton rank 1-2 among active Division II players in career total blocks.
Mesa setter Sabrina Van De List is second in Division II with 12.0 assists per set, while MSU Denver's two-setter system of
Amela Qershia and
Delaney Eckhardt combines to average 10.7 assists and 0.84 service aces per set.
The match figures to feature to most difficult environment of the season.
"It's always a rowdy and loud environment there, and it's a fun match to play because of that," Glenn said. "We have a fairly veteran group that has been able to handle environments like that. We need to maintain our composure and play our style of volleyball."
The matchup will be a good measuring stick for both teams.
While MSU Denver has thus far played five matches against nationally-ranked teams and three others against teams receiving votes, Mesa hasn't played a ranked team and has played only one team receiving votes.
Is the best course of action to have an extremely challenging schedule, or to build confidence on continuity with a series of victories? Like most things, the answer is probably somewhere in between.
"We're working on what needs to happen to get us playing at the highest level we can, and we're figuring out things one by one every day and getting better," Glenn said. "That's what you want. Our preseason was difficult, and it exposed some things and gave us a good list to work on throughout the season."
After the Friday match, it's on to Salt Lake City to face Westminster (3-8) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
