GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of four straight and 11 of their last 12 matches, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will take their talents to the state of South Dakota this weekend for a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matches.
 
On Friday at 6 p.m., the Mavericks will square off with the South Dakota School of Mines in the Hardrockers' King Center in Rapid City.  They then head to Spearfish for a Saturday evening (5:30 p.m.) encounter with Black Hills State University in the Yellow Jackets' Donald E. Young Center.
 
A live stream of both matches can be seen on the RMAC Network and accessed at the link above.  Live statistics for both matches can also be found on the links above.
 
The Mavericks will enter the weekend with a 13-4 overall record.  They are also 8-1 in the RMAC, good to be in a second place tie in the conference standings with Dixie State University, which won at Westminster College on Tuesday.
 
South Dakota Mines is 4-14 overall and 1-8 in the RMAC after falling to Black Hills State (6-10, 3-6 RMAC) in three sets in Rapid City on Tuesday night.  Black Hills State will face Western State Colorado University on Friday night before hosting the Mavs.
 
Win over ranked team helps Mavs back into poll
 
The Mavericks' 5-set win over then No. 24 Regis on Friday was CMU's first over a nationally-ranked team in the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll for the first time in nearly two years.  The Mavs had last defeated a ranked team on Oct. 15, 2016 when they knocked off then No. 18 Colorado School of Mines in a 4-set win in Brownson Arena.  The Mavericks had lost eight straight matches against nationally-ranked foes prior to Saturday.
 
The Mavericks' win over the Rangers has also helped the Mavericks back in consideration for a national ranking of their own.  CMU is receiving five points in this week's poll after last being included in the "others receiving votes" category in the preseason poll, when they were receiving a pair of 25^th place votes.
 
Cal State San Bernardino is the new No. 1 in the poll after now No. 2 Northern State (S.D.) upset former No. 1 (now third) Concordia St.-Paul over the weekend.  The Mavericks have also played against No. 11 Rockhurst, No. 14 Cal State-L.A. and No. 24 Cal Poly Pomona this year, winning in straight sets over Pomona, currently 14-3, on the opening weekend of the season when the Broncos were unranked.  The Mavericks have also defeated Northwest Missouri and against Azusa Pacific this year.  Both of those teams are also in the others receiving votes portion of this week's poll.
 
RMAC Player of the Week
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore Kasie Gilfert was named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after she recorded 42 kills, an average of 5.25 per set, with just one hitting error while hitting at an incredible .594 clip.
 
The 6-foot-0 middle blocker and right side out of Parker, Colorado and Legend High School via Division I Northern Arizona University, had a career-high 26 kills while hitting .556 in Friday evening's 5-set win over Regis.  She then connected for kills on each of her first 11 swings in Saturday afternoon's sweep of Colorado Christian, finishing that match with 16 kills while hitting an error-less .667.
 
She also recorded six blocks throughout the weekend as she tallied a team-high 45 points, an average of 5.62 per set.
 
Gilfert is the Mavericks' leader in total kills with 210 and kills per set (3.44) and ranks third in the RMAC for kills per set.  She also stands third in the RMAC for blocking at 1.03 per set and sixth for total points at 3.97 per set.
 
1 & 2 combo moves up into nation's top 10
 
The Mavericks continue to have the top two hitters in the RMAC in attack percentage and now have two of the nation's top 10.  Junior middle Camille Smith continues to lead the RMAC in that category at .433.  She hit .525 over the weekend with 22 kills and just one error on 40 attempts.  She had a career-high 16 kills and hit at an error-less .583 clip in Friday's win over Regis.   Smith has 135 kills and just 19 attack errors in 268 attempts this season.
 
She has hit over .600 in four different matches this season and has hit below .300 just twice.
 
Meanwhile, Kasie Gilfert continues to stand second in the RMAC and now ranks eighth in the nation with her .423 season attack percentage.  Gilfert has hit at a .400 clip or higher in eight different matches, including the two aforementioned efforts this weekend.  Her .667 effort on Saturday equaled a season and career-high that had originally been set a week prior against Chadron State.
 
As a team, the Mavericks rank third in the RMAC with their .227 attack percentage.  The Mavericks hit at a combined .259 clip this weekend.
 
Woods moves up to No. 2 and reaches century mark
 
Maverick senior libero Taylor Woods recorded 34 more digs during this weekend's victories and now has 1,813 in her career.  She had 21 digs in Friday's win over Regis and in the process surpassed Pam Glenn for the No. 2 spot on the Mavericks' all-time career digs chart.  Glenn had 1,783 in her 1992-95 career which was under the old "serve-to-score" format of the sport.
 
Amy Miller, a CMU Hall of Honor inductee (2005) and 2011 RMAC Hall of Famer holds the record of 2,542, set from 1991-94.
 
Woods, who recorded 13 digs in what was her 100^th career match on Saturday against Colorado Christian, became CMU's rally-scoring era (2001-Present) school-record holder for career digs in the Mavericks' third match of 2018 against Azusa Pacific.  She also had a season-high 32 in the season-opener against Cal State-L.A., the fourth-highest single-match total of her illustrious career.
 
She has had 20 or more digs six times this year and has been in double-figures in all 17 matches while racking up 290 digs to rank sixth in the RMAC with her 4.75 per set average.
 
Woods, the 2015 RMAC and AVCA South Central Region Freshman of the Year and 3-time overall All-RMAC selection, is also well above pace to smash Ashley Loftsgard's rally-scoring era digs per set record.  Woods is averaging 4.90 digs in 370 career sets to date.  Loftsgard, the former rally-scoring era record holder for total digs at 1,578, averaged 4.03 in 392 sets played in her 2005-08 career.
 
Push for 2K
 
Woods can now begin thinking about reaching the 2,000 career dig milestone.  She is currently 187 shy of that mark and would need to average just over 20 digs (20.33) per match to reach that total by the end of the regular season.  However, that needed pace would be lowered depending on how many post-season (RMAC and NCAA Tournament) games the Mavs may qualify for.  Thus far in 2018, Woods is averaging 17.05 digs per match although 10 CMU's 17 matches have only gone three sets.  She has averaged 18.13 digs per match thus far in her career.
 
Approaching 1K
 
Senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards is nearing the 1,000 career kill milestone and will enter this weekend with 993 kills, just seven shy of that mark.  She played sparingly this past weekend due to injury but did record three kills in Friday's match against Regis.
 
The 2-time First Team All-RMAC selection and 2017 AVCA Honorable Mention All-American has registered 154 kills this season, the second highest total on the Maverick squad.  Edwards is looking to become just the sixth Maverick in the rally-scoring era (2001-Present) to record 1,000 career kills.
 
Great Leadership
 
Dave Fleming is in in 14^th year as the Mavericks' head coach and earned his 250^th career win on Sept. 7 against CSU-Pueblo.  He and the Mavericks have since won seven more matches. He now has a 257-145 career record, good for a .639 career winning percentage.
 
Fleming took over the helm of the program in 2005 and is just the fourth head coach in the program's 34-year history.  He has guided the Mavericks to six NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, a 2014 RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and three RMAC West Division crowns.  The Mavericks have had winning seasons in all but one of his years with the program and have reached the 20-win mark four times.
 
Get out the brooms
 
The Mavericks have won nine of their matches in straight-set sweeps this season posting 3-0 victories in seven of their last 12 matches overall.  In fact, the Mavericks have dropped just three sets in their five home matches this year to post a 21-3 home-court set win mark.
 
Epic match
 
Friday's 5-set victory (25-20, 20-25, 28-26, 25-27, 15-12) over Regis certainly would have to rank amongst one of the top all-time CMU matches from an entertainment side for the 723 fans in official attendance.  The Mavericks won the final five points of the fifth set as they overcame 6-3, 8-6, 10-8 and 12-10 deficits to win that frame, 15-12.  The Mavericks also went on a 17-4 run in the second half of the opening set to win it 25-20 after digging out of a 16-8 hole.
 
The Mavericks also overcame a 20-17 deficit and fought off a set-point at 26-25 to win the third set but could not convert on a pair of match points in the fourth set as Regis forced a fifth.
 
Career-best blocking
 
In addition to her career-high 14-kill effort on Friday, Camille Smith also set a new career-high for blocking in that match, recording seven against the Rangers.  She then followed that up with six more blocks, including two solos, in Saturday's sweep of Colorado Christian.  She averaged 1.62 blocks per set over the weekend, raising her season total to 57, good for a 0.93 per set average which ranks her ninth in the RMAC and second on the team behind only Kasie Gilfert.
 
Smith also has a team-leading 13 block solos this year.
 
Scherr double-double
 
Junior outside hitter Katie Scherr recorded her first double-double of the season on Friday with 13 kills and 11 digs.  The double-double was the 11^th of the Bismarck, North Dakota native's career.  The 13 kills were also a season-high.
 
Leading D
 
The Mavericks held Colorado Christian to a .055 team attack percentage in Saturday's win after holding Regis to a .205 clip.  The Mavericks continue to lead the RMAC with a .126 opponent attack percentage, the 24th best defensive mark in the country.
 
The Mavericks have held nine different opponents to a sub-.100 team hitting percentage this season and have done so seven times in their current 11-from-12 winning stretch.
 
Block party
 
The Mavericks recorded 20 blocks as a team over the weekend, including an impressive total of 12 in Saturday's 3-set win over Colorado Christian, an impressive average of four per set.  The Mavericks have now recorded 145 total blocks as a team this year, an average of 2.38 per set.  That average ranks them 15th nationally and second in the RMAC behind only Dixie State, which also leads the country at 3.07 per set.
 
It also has them on pace to be the program's best blocking season since 2003.
 
In 2017, the Mavericks finished just 13^th in the RMAC for blocking with a 1.53 per set average.  They recorded 148 team blocks that year.  This year's edition of the Maverick squad is just three blocks away from that total with still nine regular season matches.
 
Individually, Kasie Gilfert leads the team with 63 blocks while Camille Smith is second with 57.  Natalee Todd has also contributed significantly to the Mavericks' net defense with 55 total blocks.  Todd stands 10th in the RMAC for blocking a 0.92 per set.
 
Strong "first" start
 
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Allison Smith saw extended playing time for the first time in nearly two years over the weekend, coming on in place of MacKenzie Edwards.  She recorded four kills, matched a career-high with nine digs and added a pair of blocks in four sets of relief in Friday's win over Regis before starting for the first time since 2016 in Saturday's win over Colorado Christian.  She recorded nine kills, five digs and four blocks and hit at a respectable .273 clip against the Cougars.
 
Smith, who has been plagued by injuries herself, redshirted during the 2017 campaign after having a strong true freshman campaign in 2016 when she made 14 starts while finishing with 173 kills, third most on the squad.  She was in double-figures for kills six times as a freshman, recording 24 while hitting .317 against Colorado Christian.  She also had 19-kill efforts at Regis and at Adams State that year.
 
6-2 attack
 
Both Maverick starters Ara Norwood and Samantha Ritter had strong weekends as the conductors of the Mavericks' 6-2 offensive attack.  Norwood, a sophomore who has started all 17 matches this season, matched a season and career-high with 29 assists in Friday's win over Regis and also added nine digs, the third best single-match total of her career.  She then had 21 assists and eight digs in Saturday's victory.  Meanwhile, Ritter who plays on the other three rotations, set new season-highs for both assists (25) and digs (15) against Regis to record her third consecutive double-double.  The junior now has 15 career double-doubles.
 
Pre-Season Picks
 
The Mavericks were picked to finish fifth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this year, according to the conference preseason coaches' poll.  They received 173 points in the polling of the conference's 16 head coaches after their 17-10 (11-7 RMAC) 2017 season that saw them finish sixth in the conference's regular season standings.
 
Early Season honors
 
CMU also had two Preseason All-RMAC selections in seniors MacKenzie Edwards, a returning AVCA Honorable Mention All-America outside hitter, and libero Taylor Woods.  Edwards was a First Team All-RMAC selection last year while Woods earned second team honors for the second straight year in 2017.  Woods was also recognized as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the week on Aug. 27 for her efforts at the Concordia Invitational.
 
Meanwhile, Kasie Gilfert was named to the all-tournament team at the Concordia Invitational while both Gilfert and MacKenzie Edwards earned all-tournament honors at the Rockhurst Volleyball Classic.
 
About South Dakota Mines
 
South Dakota Mines will enter Friday's match with 4-14 overall and 1-8 RMAC records after dropping what was their third straight overall match in three sets to Black Hills State at home.  Freshman outside hitter Dana Thompson, who hails from Fruita, Colorado, had a match-high 16 kills against the Yellow Jackets and paces the RMAC with 286 kills this season an average of 4.47 per set.  She ranks eighth in the country with that average.
 
Sophomore Tana Dahlberg leads the 'Rockers back-row with 261 digs, a 4.14 per set average that ranks her 10^th in the conference.
 
As a team, they rank 15^th in the conference in hitting percentage (.146) and kills (10.75) but are in the top half of the conference in defensive categories such as opponent hitting percentage (8^th, .202), blocks per set (8^th, 1.57), and digs per set (5^th, 15.89).
 
The Mavericks have won all five meetings over the past five years and have recorded season sweeps in each of the last three.
 
About Black Hills State
 
The Yellow Jackets won their rivalry game at South Dakota Mines on Tuesday night to snap a 4-match losing streak while improving to 6-10 overall and to 3-6 in the RMAC heading into the weekend.  They are just a single match out of a RMAC Tournament spot.
 
Seven different players are averaging more than a kill per set with Jadie DeLange leading that bunch with 131 kills and a 2.52 per set average.  Sierra Stugelmeyer is second in that category with 116 kills (2.07) and leads the team in blocks with 42.  Valerie Blake leads the team in digs at 189 (3.38/set).
 
Setter Laurel Lech is eighth in the RMAC for assists at 8.58 per set.
 
As a team, the 'Jackets rank 14^th in the RMAC in hitting percentage at .151 but are a strong blocking squad that ranks fifth with 1.94 per set.
 
The Mavericks hold a 5-1 series lead since Black Hills State joined the RMAC in 2012 and also hold a 2011 win over the Yellow Jackets.  Two of those wins have come in Spearfish.  However, the Yellow Jackets won the 2016 meeting there in five sets.
 
Up next
 
After this weekend's trip to South Dakota, the Mavericks will return home for their final two home matches of the regular season on Friday, Oct. 12 against Dixie State and Saturday, Oct. 13 against Westminster.  The Mavericks are a perfect 7-0 at home this year.  The match against Dixie State will be preceded by Parent's Night festivities.  The Mavericks' four seniors (Alyssa Chutka, MacKenzie Edwards, Natalee Todd and Taylor Woods) will be honored before the match against Westminster.