Mesa State looked into its own past Saturday night and something entirely unexpected happed -- the memory came out on top.

A year ago, the Mavericks were a young team on the rise, knocking off several of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's giants. This year, Mesa State is the giant that ran into the young team on the rise.

Andrea Weedman had 18 kills and 23 digs to lead the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to a 3-2 (30-13, 22-30, 19-30, 30-23, 15-13) victory over Mesa State at the Lions' Den.

It was the fourth straight win for the Mountain Lions (5-5, 2-0 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference).

"(The win) was pretty unexpected because Mesa was number one," said UCCS libero Laura Meeter. "(But) throughout the match, I could tell that there was a lot of hope that we could win."

Meeter had a match-high 25 digs as the UCCS defense used a strong blocking game to reduce angles for the Mesa State hitters. It also resulted in 11 UCCS blocks and 26 continuation plays, where the attack was blocked but Mesa State managed to retain control of the ball.

"Defensively the block set us up really well," said Meeter. "That made our job a lot easier. It takes away the angles available for the hitter on the court."

And taking away those angles means the back row had a lot less space to cover.

The strong defensive play created good passing, which UCCS setters Jessica Stewart and Jocelyn Evans turned into prime scoring opportunities. For the match, the Mountain Lions outhit Mesa State .146 to .087.

"We were trying to create a split by keeping the sets outside and not running everything close to the middle," said Weedman. "The middle (blockers) on the other side would stick with (UCCS middle blockers) Caroline (Ottino) and Kelly (Angel), so we would push it to the outside and the (Mesa State) middles would get caught off guard.

"We only faced one blocker a lot of the time."

Stacey Vogel led Mesa State (7-3, 0-2 RMAC) with 15 kills, while setter Allison Krug added 35 assists and was particularly effective at keeping the Mountain Lions off balance with her serve. Krug served two three-point runs, two four-point runs and a five-point run in the match.

"(Krug) had a good deep float serve that was pushing us back and keeping us off balance," said Weedman.

After starting Game 1 at 4-4, the Mountain Lions stunned the heavily favored Mavericks by going on a 14-3 run, highlighted by three kills by Caroline Ottino, who finished with 12 for the match.

"We were serving tough," said Weedman. "Their passing was off a little and we just jumped on that."

Game 2 was a back and forth affair with Mesa State retaining a slim lead throughout. Weedman's kill cut the margin to two at 20-18, but the Mavericks answered by outscoring UCCS 10-4 the rest of the way.

After opening up Game 3 at 7-1, and cruising to a 30-19 win, Mesa State found itself in a mirror-image 7-1 hole in Game 1. The Mavericks cut the lead to 7-4 but never got closer than that the rest of the way.

The deciding game was tied at 6 when Weedman had consecutive kills to make it 8-6. Diane Sheldon knocked down one of her 13 kills to give UCCS a 13-10 advantage, but Mesa State managed consecutive points to draw within one. Wrenn and Weedman added kills to give UCCS the upset.

"It's huge. We're so excited," said Weedman. "This is a huge confidence boost. It seems like we're just starting to play together, fighting real hard and showing everybody we have the talent we have."