DENVER – The No.1 team in Division II hit a staggering .356, which included a ridiculous .526 mark in the third set to defeat Adams State 3-0. The win pushed MSU Denver's win streak to 12, while improving their overall record to 18-1 and 9-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Adams State fell to 6-15 overall and 3-7 in the RMAC.
The Roadrunners, who came into the weekend ranked second in the nation in hitting percentage at .312, took their offensive game up another notch against the Grizzlies. They recorded 39 kills on 87 attacks, committing just eight errors in the three-set match.
"There was a lot of praise for our passers. They did super well," Senior outside hitter
Maddy Williams said. "Shout-out to Riley, she killed it tonight! I think we were all aggressive tonight. That was another thing we focused on was coming in aggressive and finishing aggressive, and we did a good job of that tonight."
Williams led all Roadrunners with 10 kills, while hitting .529. The team had five players record five or more kills, which included five from
Megan Hagar, who came off the bench and racked up all five in the third set. She hit .571 in the match and added a service ace and two digs.
"I just wanted to give back to my teammates and make them proud," Hagar said. "I just like going in there and giving back to them while giving them the best I that I can because I care for them so much. I just want to do well for them and for the coaches."
The serving game was running on all cylinders firing in eight service aces, while holding the Grizzlies to a .190 hitting percentage. Both senior setter
Delaney Eckhardt and senior outside hitter
Riley Anderson dropped in three aces a piece.
"We work on it every single day," Hagar said serving. "Amy (Watanabe) does such a good job of training us and coming up with drills to make it more fun. We work on all of the basics every day and makes it easy to perform it in a game."
Every Roadrunner that wasn't injured got into the match and contributed in some way. The depth on this top-ranked volleyball team not only shows how much talent is on this team, but how much this team really fights for one another.
"We have a lot of unity in this team this year." Hagar said. " We talk about it a lot. It makes it so easy to be happy for someone because we care about them so much. It truly is a family dynamic out there and just really makes the team chemistry on and off the court so much better."
The Roadrunners will next welcome in the Thunderwolves of CSU Pueblo Saturday afternoon at 4pm. CSU Pueblo is looking to get back on track after falling to the Colorado School of Mines 3-1 in Golden on Friday night.
