Lemau'u made some outstanding defensive plays in the match to help lead the Blue Raiders to 21-2 on the season and 6-1 in the Sun Belt. The win over the Pioneers is just the second in school history, as the squad defeated Denver for the first time since 2002. Middle Tennessee is riding its second longest winning streak of the season, with seven consecutive, and hasn't lost in the month of October.

Middle Tennessee's winning streak looked to be in jeopardy early, as the Denver Pioneers came out in game one to dominate the Blue Raiders. For the just the third time this season Middle Tennessee lost the first game of the match, falling 18-30 to Denver.

Game one found the Blue Raiders down early and the squad could never catch up. After being tied at four, Denver went on a 22-10 run to balloon their lead. Denver committed just two errors to the Blue Raider's 10 and had six service aces in the game.

"At the break between game one and two, I pulled the team together and told them they just didn't compete at all in game one," said Head Coach Matt Peck. "After we talked to the team it was like two different matches as we seemed to totally take control of the rest of the match."

After Middle Tennessee committed the 10 errors in game one, the Blue Raiders had just eight errors in the next three games. In game three, Middle Tennessee was perfect with 13 kills, no errors and had a .500 attack percentage.

The Blue Raiders ended the match with a .340 attack percentage to Denver's .130. Middle Tennessee committed 18 total errors and the Pioneers had 27.

Middle Tennessee had three players record double figure kills in the match. Junior Andressa Lyra led the match with 18 kills and recorded a double-double as she also had 13 digs. Ashley Adams was close behind with 15 kills and Victoria Monasterolo notched 12.

The Blue Raiders travel to Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday. Match time is set for 7 p.m.

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