LAKEWOOD, Colo. – After an early caution light, No. 7 MSU Denver spent the final three sets on cruise control Thursday night, speeding past Colorado Christian 3-1.
 
MSU Denver dropped the first set before winning 25-27, 25-11, 25-9, 25-20, earning a seventh straight victory. Though it was against a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponent, the match was played as a non-conference encounter, thus the Roadrunners' streak of regular-season league victories remains at four.
 
"It was a slow start for us and a fast start for them," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "They came out aggressive and feisty. They played loose and made a lot of good plays, and we were a little behind the ball. They crowd was rowdy and that was a piece of the puzzle tonight.
 
"They are well-coached and tactical, and they were executing their game plan. After that, we had the next move in the chess game and the girls really responded to making the next move, and that was critical to getting the win."
 
MSU Denver's big, bad, blocking brigade was at it again, recording a season-high total of 15 team blocks. Individually, Ember Canty and Maddy Williams each had seven (one of Canty's was a solo block) and Mikayla McClinton had six.
 
After hitting .211 in the first set, Colorado Christian (6-7) hit just .025 the rest of the way.
 
"We made really good offensive and defensive adjustments throughout the course of the match," Glenn said. "The things that were beating us early we started defending better. Our right-side blockers (Williams and Skyler Michael) continue to do a good job of shutting down our opponents' left sides and helping the defense behind them play better."
 
MSU Denver (10-3) hit .182 in the first set before firing away at a blistering .457 in the middle two sets, with 26 kills and only five errors in 46 attacks. The Roadrunners finished the night hitting .286.
 
"Our goal is to increase our numbers as the match goes on and to have their numbers decrease as the match goes on," Glenn said.
 
Riley Anderson led the way once again with 19 kills on .429 hitting, and Maddie Lindsay chipped in with 11 kills while hitting .280. Williams had seven kills to go with her seven blocks.
 
Setters Delaney Eckhardt (19 assists, four aces) and Amela Qershia (16 assists, three aces) combined for 35 assists and seven aces, while libero Abbie McCrimmon had a team-leading 12 digs and true freshman defensive specialist Autumn Gibbs had a career-best 10. McCrimmon (two) and Gibbs (one) combined for three aces.
 
MSU Denver plays a neutral-site match, also a non-conference contest against a conference opponent, Friday at 7 p.m.
when it faces Colorado School of Mines on Colorado Christian's floor.