DENVER – Less than 24 hours after overwhelming one of the top teams in Division II with defense, No. 2 MSU Denver overpowered one of the better teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with its offense on Saturday afternoon in a 3-0 sweep of Westminster.
 
The Roadrunners (11-1 overall, 4-0 RMAC) were on pace for a program record by hitting .515 some 10 points into the third set, and settled for a sizzling .438 – the best for the program since hitting .441 against Fort Lewis on Oct. 19, 2012 – in the 25-15, 25-15, 25-17 victory.
 
"When our offense is firing, we're hard to stop," MSU Denver coach Jenny Glenn said, "especially when we mix up the play calls and move around a little bit. Our hitters made really good decisions, and we were extremely low-error in the hitting department, and that's become a hallmark of this team. We don't make a lot of hitting errors."
 
Annika Helf had 10 kills on .412 hitting and Riley Anderson had nine kills on .533, but it was sophomore Alivia Huxoll, with increased playing time on the right side, who impressed most with a career-best nine kills on .692 hitting.
 
Huxoll had seven kills on her first seven swings.
 
"We worked on it a lot this past week," Huxoll said of the team's offense. "Our setters have done really well pushing the speed. They did a really good job today of getting all of us hitters the ball, and our passers were putting up great numbers, too."
 
Huxoll, whose previous career high was five kills, has been called upon recently in place of Skyler Michael.
 
"It's definitely been different, getting to go out and play," Huxoll said. "I've worked on my mindset, being confident with it, and my teammates are there to encourage me and tell me good things."
 
Said Glenn: "We're very much a unit, and on any given night we have three players at each pin who can go in there and do the job at a high level. Aliva is getting a little more time right now, and she's definitely ready. I trust her to get the job done.
 
"She's doing great offensively. She's versatile, we're finding her in some different situations ,and she's making good decisions when she doesn't have a swing to score off and keeps the ball in play."
 
MSU Denver hit .433 in the first set and a sublime .560 in the second set.
 
After starting the third set with seven kills and no errors in their first 11 swings, the Roadrunners were at .515 for the match, with program records for both overall (.509 against Florida Southern on Oct. 16, 1987) and rally-scoring era (.486 against Millersville, Pa., on Aug. 28, 2009) hitting in sight.
 
The final numbers: 51 kills and just nine errors in 96 attacks.
 
Alyssa Boyte had six kills on 10 error-free swings while adding three blocks, Delaney Eckhardt set a team-best 22 assists, and Abbie McCrimmon had 15 digs.
 
Helf also had three blocks as the Roadrunners recorded six total blocks.
 
The Roadrunners had put up 16 total blocks in Friday's 3-1 win over No. 18 Colorado Mesa.
 
"We hope to do them both well (offense and defense) at the same time," Glenn said. "Using our size and speed to overwhelm teams, I think that's what happened a little bit today. Westminster is a really feisty team that is getting better every year. We were ready for a fight, and our athletes were ready to go."
 
The Roadrunners, who play their third match in five days on Tuesday, when they play host to Colorado Christian at 6 p.m.