DENVER – The sixth-ranked MSU Denver volleyball team saw the highs and lows of competition on Friday at the Colorado Premier Challenge.
 
The Roadrunners were two points away from knocking off No. 1 defending national champion West Texas A&M in five sets, but not only lost that match, they also followed that with a 3-1 defeat to an unranked but underrated Lewis (Ill.) team that had also taken West Texas to five sets.
 
"It was a tough day," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said. "We've just got to learn how, as a group, to finish matches. We didn't do that today."
 
The Roadrunners (3-3) had fallen behind West Texas A&M 2-1, including an uncomfortable 25-12 score in the third set. But MSU Denver won the fourth set 25-18 and led 13-9 in the fourth. Then West Texas A&M (6-0) scored seven of the next eight points to win the match at 16-14.
 
West Texas A&M has been a nemesis for the Roadrunners, with three wins in four tries at the Auraria Event Center, including regional championship match wins in 2021 and 2022.
 
"At times in the West Texas match we played really well, but it was a bit of a rollercoaster," Glenn said. "You're going to have a bit of that early in the season, but it was a bit too much.
 
"We made it really hard for ourselves in moments where we had easy plays. We sometimes did the harder things better than the easy things, which is problematic, but which is actually good for the future because we can take care of the easy things. We'll be working on that."
 
Riley Anderson led the way with 16 kills, while Rylee Hladky had a double-double of 11 kills and 11 digs. Ember Canty had seven kills and six blocks (one solo) and Delaney Eckhardt matched a career high with five service aces and shared the team assist lead with Amela Qershia at 22. Abbie McCrimmon had a team-high 16 digs.
 
"We made a lot of good tactical changes during the match, but we just didn't finish it, which is disappointing," Glenn said.
 
Then came Lewis (4-2), unranked but 28^th among teams receiving votes, which had similarly pushed West Texas A&M to five sets in Friday's first match.
 
The Roadrunners dropped the first two sets, fought off a match point in the third, and then were unable to mount a consistent attack in the fourth set, hitting -.027 on 37 swings (10 kills, 11 errors).
 
MSU Denver had won 21 straight matches against unranked teams, dating to the five-set loss to West Texas A&M in the 2021 regional final.
 
"It was tough to lose that match to West Texas A&M and then turn around to play again," Glenn said. "But Lewis also lost to them in a five-setter. I thought we started strong, but Lewis is a tough team to play. They're unorthodox and they do different things to make you uncomfortable. They're going to make you be sharp, and we weren't."
 
Anderson had a double-double of 15 kills and 11 digs, while Maddy Williams had eight kills and four blocks (one solo), Eckhardt and Qershia each set 17 assists, and McCrimmon had 13 digs.
 
"We had a hard time finding the pieces being in system enough to run our offense and create problems for them," Glenn said. "Because they're extremely feisty defensively. They're a very tactical, very good team."
 
The two losses in pool play dropped the Roadrunners into Saturday's Bronze Bracket. They'll play No. 22 Western Washington (0-6) at 11:30 a.m. Saturday on MSU Denver's East Court, and then will play later Saturday against either Texas-Tyler or Central Missouri.
 
MSU Denver swept Western Washington 25-19, 25-11, 25-15 last weekend at a highly competitive tournament in San Bernardino, Calif.
 
"They have a young team, so they're just going to get better with every match," Glenn said. "I think they played pretty well in their second match today (a 3-1 loss to No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul). We're more veteran than they are, so we need to step into the match, defend our home court and play like a more veteran team."