STEPHENVILLE, Texas.— After winning their opening match in three sets on Thursday afternoon, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will play in the second round of the NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship on Friday evening at 5 p.m. CST (4 p.m.) Mountain against the nation's 20^th-ranked Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions.
 
Live statistics and a video stream of the match as well as other tournament information can be found by clicking on the associated links.
 
The South Central Regional semifinal will be a battle of the second (Texas A&M-Commerce) and third (Colorado Mesa) seeds and will be the first meeting between the teams since 2016.
 
It will be played in Tarleton State University's Wisdom Gym with the winner advancing to play either the host and top-seeded TexAnns or No. 4 seed Colorado School of Mines in Saturday's regional championship match at 4 p.m. CST (3 p.m. Mountain).
 
The winner of that match will move on to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, beginning Nov. 29.
 
Seven other regions are also playing their 8-team regional tournaments throughout the weekend around the country.
 
Hottest teams
 
Friday's regional semifinal will be a match-up of the two hottest teams in the region, who have each won four straight post-season matches.  Texas A&M-Commerce is now 29-5 overall after winning their opening match of the NCAA Tournament in four sets (25-19, 14-25, 25-14, 25-23) over Lone Star Conference rival Angelo State.  The Lions have now won 12 straight matches, winning last week's Lone Star Conference Tournament final over Tarleton State.
 
Their Thursday win over Angelo State was their first NCAA Tournament win in 30 years (1988).
 
Meanwhile, CMU has now won seven straight matches, including three in last week's RMAC Tournament, defeating MSU Denver in Saturday's championship.  The Mavericks are now 24-6 overall.
 
Appearance No. 8
 
The Mavericks are making their eighth NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in program history.  Including Thursday's opening round win over Dixie State, the Mavericks are now a combined 7-7 in their previous appearances and have qualified for the tournament in four of the last five years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) after making four consecutive appearances from 2004-07.
 
The Mavericks hosted the South Central in 2014 winning their first two matches before falling to Arkansas-Fort Smith in the regional final.  The Mavericks also advanced to the regional final in 2006 while winning their first round matches in both 2005 and 2015.
 
Friday's NCAA Tournament match will be the 14^th for 14^th year head coach Dave Fleming, who has now guided the program to seven qualifications.  He is 7-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament after taking over the program for coaching legend Rusty Crick, who retired following the 2004 season.
 
This season has been played as a tribute to Crick, who passed away in April.
 
The Mavericks qualified for the 2004 NCAA Tournament in Crick's final year and also went to the 1994 NIT Tournament under his direction.
 
Against the field
 
The Mavericks are now a combined 5-2 against the rest of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional field this year.  All seven of those matches have come against the other three RMAC squads in the tournament.  The Mavericks went 1-0 against Mines, 2-0 against MSU Denver and 2-2 against Dixie State and have won four straight matches combined against those foes, highlights of their 7-match winning streak.
 
The Mavericks also went 1-3 against teams selected for the NCAA Tournament in other regions, posting a victory over Cal Poly Pomona, which earned the No. 4 seed in the West Region. The Mavericks also played West No. 3 seed Cal State-L.A., West No. 5 Azusa Pacific and Midwest No. 3 Rockhurst over the first two weekends of the campaign in early season tournaments.
 
Cal State-L.A. was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday by Central Washington while Rockhurst advanced with a 3-1 win over Illinois-Springfield.  Cal Poly Pomona beat Azusa Pacific.
 
Against the Lions
 
The Mavericks are 5-1 all-time against Texas A&M-Commerce, winning each of the last five meetings.  Maverick Coach Dave Fleming is 3-0 against them.
 
The last meeting was on Sept. 10, 2016 here in the Wisdom Gym.  The Mavericks won that match in four sets (25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 25-12) after winning a 3-set match on Sept. 6, 2014 in Canyon, Texas.  The previous meeting between the teams was in 2005 in San Angelo, Texas.
 
MacKenzie Edwards had 19 kills while Allison Smith put down 13 while hitting .407 off the bench in the 2016 match-up.  Taylor Woods recorded 24 digs in the victory.
 
No back-to-backs
 
No matter what happens in the rest of the NCAA Tournament, the Mavericks will have gone this entire season without losing back-to-back matches.  The Mavericks are a perfect 6-0 in "bounce back" matches this season after their losses.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce has only had one losing streak this season dropping their only back-to-back matches on Sept. 7 against Angelo State and a night later at Tarleton State in the Wisdom Gym.
 
Tourney title No. 2
 
CMU won the RMAC Tournament for the second time in program history on Saturday with a 3-set sweep of MSU Denver in Golden, Colorado.  The Mavericks hosted and won the 2014 RMAC Tournament for their first such title.
 
In this year's tournament, the Mavericks were seeded third after posting a 15-3 RMAC regular season record.  They defeated sixth-seeded Colorado Christian in three sets at home in Grand Junction, Colo. on Tuesday, Nov. 6 to earn their first post-season win in three years before knocking off second-seeded Dixie State on Friday (Nov. 9) in the semifinal round, also played in Golden.  MSU Denver was seeded fourth.
 
All-Tourney Honors
 
After recording 27 kills and 16 blocks while hitting .382 in the Mavericks' three tournament matches, redshirt sophomore Kasie Gilfert was named as the RMAC Tournament's MVP, which backed up her RMAC Player of the Year nod, handed out last week.  Gilfert was joined by three Maverick teammates on the RMAC All-Tournament team with senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards, senior libero Taylor Woods and sophomore setter Ara Norwood also earning the recognition.
 
Edwards also put down 27 kills and had 28 digs and five blocks throughout the tournament while Woods recorded 40 digs and six service aces.  Norwood had 53 assists and 26 digs in the three matches.
 
The honors have continued to pour in
 
The post-season honors have continued to flow in this week as redshirt sophomore middle blocker/right side Kasie Gilfert was named as the South Central Region Player of the Year by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association on Wednesday.  She is the first Maverick to ever earn the honor and was named to the 7-member first team all-region squad.
 
Meanwhile, senior libero Taylor Woods picked up second team all-region honors.
 
RMAC Plaudits
 
The Mavericks also had five players and their coach recognized on the RMAC's post-season awards list, which was announced last week.
 
Kasie Gilfert, named as the RMAC Player of the Year, and Coach Dave Fleming, named as the Co-Coach of the Year, led the group with junior middle blocker Camille Smith joining Gilfert on the First Team All-RMAC squad.
 
Senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards and senior libero Taylor Woods, who now have seven career all-RMAC plaudits between them, were both second team selections while sophomore setter Ara Norwood received honorable mention status.
 
Gilfert is the first Maverick since Amy Miller (1994) to ever receive the player of the year nod. 
 
Fleming now has three career RMAC Coach of the Year accolades (2009, 2014).
 
Meanwhile, Woods became CMU's first 4-time All-RMAC selection since Miller (1991-94).  There were no liberos selected to the first team this year.  Woods was a first team pick as well as the RMAC and AVCA South Central Regional Freshman of the Year in 2015 and has been a Second Team All-RMAC pick each of the last three years. 
 
Edwards was a first team pick in both 2016 and 2017 and now has three career All-RMAC plaudits.
 
Norwood joins fellow setter Samantha Ritter, a 2017 selection, as Maverick setters to receive honorable mention recognition.
 
Giving Dixie State a dose of their own medicine
 
The Mavericks recorded 18 total blocks in last Friday night's RMAC Tournament win over Dixie State, which came into that match as the top blocking team in the NCAA Division II National Statistics.  The Mavericks' blocking total was their best since recording the same number in a 5-set match against Regis on Oct. 7, 2006 and set a new rally-scoring era (2001-Present) school-record for blocks in a 4-set match.  Kasie Gilfert was involved in 14 of those blocks to set a rally-scoring era school-record for individual blocks in a match.
 
Blocking has been key all season
 
The Mavericks also recorded nine blocks in Saturday's 3-set RMAC Championship match win over MSU Denver and four more on Thursday against Dixie State and have raised their season total to 259.  They are now averaging 2.42 per set and entered the NCAA Tournament ranked 15th in the nation at and second in the conference behind only Dixie State.
 
The 2.42 per set average has the Mavericks on pace to have the program's best blocking season since 2003, when they averaged 2.57 blocks per set to set a rally-scoring era school-record.
 
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 during their 17-10 season that year.
 
4-set national blocking leader
 
Kasie Gilfert's 14 blocks in Friday's RMAC Tournament semifinal, which included three solos, were the most of any NCAA Division II player in a 4-set match throughout the entire 2018 season.  The total is also equal to the highest for any Division II player in any length match this year.
 
The Mavs' 18 team blocks on Friday was equal to the fourth highest 4-set match total in Division II this year.
 
Gilfert sets a record
 
With her 14 blocks on Friday, Gilfert zoomed up seven spots from a tie for eighth into a tie for first on the CMU's rally-scoring era charts for single-season blocks.  She then broke that mark on Saturday when she recorded a block in the second set of the RMAC Tournament championship match against MSU Denver.
 
Gilfert put down a team-high four blocks in Thursday's win over Dixie State and now has 121 total blocks this season, five more than Lauren Powley's 2003 season total, which was the former rally-scoring era record.  Gilfert is now averaging 1.13 per set this season to rank third in the RMAC.
 
Dynamic Duo
 
Teammate Camille Smith added a match-high six blocks, her third best blocking effort of the season, on Saturday and now has 101, an average of 0.94 per set that ranks her eighth in the RMAC through Thursday. 
 
In the process, the Mavericks now have a pair of players reach 100 blocks in the same season for just the third time in their rally-scoring history.  Abby Ney (103) and Melissa Hess (102) were the last pair to reach triple-digits in 2014.  Powley and Rosa Masler (106) accomplished the feat in 2003.
 
Nearing 400
 
Gilfert also put down nine kills in Thursday's NCAA Tournament match against Dixie State, raising her season total to 394.  That total is the ninth highest in the Mavericks' rally-scoring era present and is just four shy of the RMAC lead, currently held by South Dakota Mines' Dana Thompson, who took more than 500 swings more than Gilfert, who is averaging 3.68 kills per set.
 
Gilfert also ranks second in the RMAC with 462 total points, an average of 4.32 per set.  That total is the sixth highest in the Mavericks' rally-scoring era history.
 
She ranked second in the region for both kills and total points per set coming into the NCAA Tournament.
 
Edwards Eclipses Eleven (Hundred)
 
Senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards recorded five kills in Thursday's match against Dixie State before checking out in the second set with an injury.  She now has 1,102 career kills, including 263 this year.  The 3-time (2x First Team) All-RMAC selection and 2017 Honorable Mention AVCA All-American, became just the sixth Maverick in the rally scoring era to surpass 1,000 career kills earlier this season and ranks fifth in the rally scoring era for career kills.  Her 2018 total is second best on the Maverick squad, only to Gilfert.
 
Scherr Steps Up
 
Fellow outside hitter Katie Scherr stepped up in support of Edwards in Thursday's 3-set sweep as she recorded eight kills and 14 digs while registering a season-high four service aces.  Her 14 digs was her third best effort of the season, an even more impressive feat when considering that her only two better totals this year (17 at Adams State, 15 vs. Northwest Missouri State) were both in 5-set matches.
 
2K Libero extends the streak to 36
 
Maverick senior libero Taylor Woods became just the second CMU player of all-time to reach the 2,000 career dig milestone last Tuesday when the Glendale, Arizona native recorded a team-high 13 digs in the RMAC Tournament quarterfinal win over Colorado Christian.  She added 12 more in Friday's semifinal win over Dixie State and then registered 15 in the championship against MSU Denver before registering 16 more in Thursday's NCAA Tournament win.  She now has 2,046 career digs, the most of any active RMAC player.
 
Woods has had 20 or more digs nine times this season while finishing in double-figures in all 30 matches of the campaign.  She has also been in double-figures in 36 straight matches over the last two seasons and all but one of her last 69 matches.  She has been in double figures in 108 of her 113 career matches.
 
Woods has racked up 523 digs this season and ranks fourth in the RMAC with her 4.89 per set average.  However, she ranks first amongst players on a RMAC Tournament qualifying squad.
 
She is also averaging 4.92 digs per set throughout her career and will smash the current rally-scoring era school record of 4.03, set by Ashley Loftsgard in her 2005-08 career.  Woods is also on pace to break CMU's all-time record for digs per set/game, a mark currently held by Lauren Freeman at 4.84, who played for the Mavs in 1992 and 1993.
 
Only Amy Miller, a CMU Hall of Honor inductee (2005) and 2011 RMAC Hall of Fame, has more career digs than Woods.  Miller set the all-time school-record of 2,542 from 1991-94, in a time when squads played under the side-out scoring system and typically played significantly more matches than they currently do.
 
As an example, the Mavericks played 51 matches in 1991 and 45 in 1994.  The Mavericks have played 30 matches this season and would only play 35 even if they were to advance all the way to the championship match of the NCAA Tournament.
 
Digging 500
 
With her 15 digs on Saturday, Woods also completed her third career 500-dig season.  She was already the only Maverick to have two different 500-dig seasons in the rally-scoring era.  She tallied 552 digs in 105 sets as a freshman in 2015 to earn RMAC and AVCA South Central Region Freshman of the Year honors and then finished with 504 digs in 107 sets as a sophomore in 2016.  She had 467 digs in 97 sets last year.
 
Her previous totals rank her fourth, seventh and ninth in the Mavericks' rally-scoring era single-season record books.  Her total of 523 this year is already fifth best in that time as she massed Megan Rush (515 in 2012) on Thursday afternoon.
 
Aces up her sleeve
 
In addition to her milestone dig night last Tuesday, Taylor Woods also had a solid match from behind the service line against Colorado Christian.  She recorded six of the Mavericks' eight aces, just one shy of her career-high that eight, which she had set on Oct. 27 at Mines.  In the process, Woods zoomed up three spots to take over the RMAC lead in both total service aces and per set average entering the RMAC Tournament.
 
She then recorded two more aces in the semifinal win over Dixie State and four more in the tournament final against MSU Denver while continuing to expand her lead in the RMAC.  She then added an ace on Thursday and now has 45 aces and 0.42 per set average entering Friday's match.
 
Woods now has 117 aces in her 113-match career and moved past Megan Rush (107, 2009-12) into second place on the Mavericks' rally-scoring career aces chart behind only Drew Choules (153, 2004-07) last Tuesday.
 
This year's total of 45 has moved Woods into a tie for second place on the Mavs' single-season charts in the rally scoring era equaling Jeanette Crosbie's mark of 45, set in 2002.  Choules holds the single-season record of 69, set during her 2005 sophomore season.
 
Get out the brooms
 
The Mavericks have now won 17 of their matches in straight-set sweeps this season.  The Mavericks are 17-1 in 3-set matches, having been swept just once (Rockhurst).  That 16-1, 3-set mark is the best in the RMAC this season.
 
Five of the Mavericks' seven wins in their current winning streak have come in three sets.  The Mavericks have dropped just three sets in that stretch.
 
Double-Double count mounting
 
Both Ara Norwood and Samantha Ritter recorded double-doubles in Friday's semifinal win over Dixie State.  Norwood then finished with another double-double in the NCAA win over the Trailblazers, recording 15 assists and 10 digs.  Ritter now has seven double-doubles this season to share the team lead with MacKenzie Edwards.  Norwood has six while Katie Scherr has chipped in two giving the Mavericks 22 total double-doubles this year.
 
Home-court advantage
 
Last Tuesday's match against Colorado Christian was CMU's first in the friendly confines of Brownson Arena in span of 24 days.  The Mavericks, who had been on the road for their final five regular season matches over three weekends, won nine out of 10 at home this year, claiming seven of those victories in straight sets.  The Mavericks dropped just six total sets at home while winning 28.
 
The Mavericks have posted winning records at home in each of the last six years, going a combined 60-18 (.769) at home during that time, highlighted by a 15-1 home record in their 2014 RMAC Championship season and 9-1 home-court marks in both 2015 and this year.
 
Neutral-court success

The Mavericks have also fared well in neutral-site match-ups, going 7-2 this year.  The Mavs have won six straight neutral-court matches.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce is also a strong 10-1 on a neutral-court this season.  That mark includes seven wins and just one defeat in the Wisdom Gym, where they have played nine matches this year, just two fewer than in their own gym.
 
The Lions began the year with a 5-set loss to Harding in their first of four matches at the Tarleton Invitational but won their last three of that tournament.  They then lost to the TexAnns in a LSC meeting on Oct. 12 but won three straight matches in last week's LSC Tournament avenging the loss to Tarleton in the final before winning their opening-round match of the NCAA Tournament against Angelo State on Thursday.
 
Texas Wins
 
The Mavericks have also fared well in Texas over the last few years going a combined 10-2 in the Lone Star state since 2015, which spans the careers of the Maverick seniors.  The Mavericks went a perfect 4-0 in 2016 at Tarleton State's early season tournament and posted a 4-0 mark at Lubbock Christian's tournament a year ago.  The Mavericks played in the 2015 and 2016 South Central Regionals that were played in San Angelo, Texas and went a combined 1-2.
 
Initial Lone Star meeting
 
Friday's match will be the Mavericks' first against a LSC opponent this season.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce is 2-1 against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opponents.  They defeated Black Hills State in the Tarleton Invitational on opening day (Aug. 24) before falling in four sets to MSU Denver in the Colorado Premier Challenge a week later.  They then won the Bronze Bracket of that tournament with a 4-set win over Regis.
 
Those three opponents are the only common ones between the teams this year.  The Mavericks went 4-0 against those squads.
 
National lead and record pace
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore Kasie Gilfert hit at a .500 clip in Saturday's RMAC Tournament Championship match against MSU Denver as she put down 10 kills with just one hitting error on 18 attempts.  She then hit .304 against Dixie State on Thursday with nine kills and two errors on 23 attempts.
 
Her season-long hitting percentage now stands a .448, a mark that continues to be good for a massive lead in the NCAA Division II statistics.
 
Gilfert also leads all other 4-year college volleyball players in the country
 
Sharonda Pickering of Florida Gulf Coast has re-taken the NCAA Division I lead and is hitting .439 through Wednesday night while Division III leader Julianne Malek of Washington-St. Louis finished the season hitting at a .438 clip.  The new NAIA statistical leader is Nyssa Baker of Indiana-Kokomo, who is hitting .442.
 
Gilfert has recorded 394 kills while committing just 69 errors in 725 attempts and has hit at a .500 clip or higher in 13 different matches this season.
 
Gilfert's .448 clip would be tenth best in NCAA Division II since 2008, when college volleyball moved to a 25-point set format.  It will also likely allow her to break both the Maverick and RMAC records for single-season hitting percentage.
 
The current RMAC record is .417, set by Nebraska-Kearney standout Erin Gudmundson in 2004.  The 31-year old Maverick record is .389, set by Phyllis Jennings in 1987.  Melissa Hess holds CMU's rally-scoring era (2001-Present) record of .371, set in 2014.
 
The most votes
 
The Mavericks' RMAC Tournament winning run has helped keep and raise the Mavericks' standing in the "others receiving votes" category of the latest AVCA Division II Coaches Poll.  The Mavericks have now been in that category six different times this season, including the preseason, earning a season-high 33 points in this week's poll to lead the RMAC.  CMU had six points in last weeks' poll, and now has more points that the Colorado School of Mines (23) and Dixie State (8).
 
All but one of the Maverick's six losses have come against teams currently in the top 25 or in the others receiving votes category.  The Mavs also have five wins against those teams.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce will be their third match against a team ranked in the top 25 at the time of the meeting.  The Mavericks defeated No. 24 Regis on Sept. 28 after falling at No. 6 Rockhurst on Aug. 31.
 
20 win seasons
 
Thanks to a Nov. 2 3-set sweep at Western on Friday, the Mavericks reached the 20-win mark for the fifth time under 14^th year Head Coach Dave Fleming and for the 10th time in their NCAA Division II history, which dates back to 1992.  The Mavericks also had nine 20-win seasons in their NAIA history. 
 
Prior to this year, the Mavericks last won 20 matches in 2014 when they went 29-4 after a 21-8 2013 season.  The Mavericks also won at least 20 matches in 2010 (20-9) and 23 in 2005 (23-7), Fleming's first season.
 
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 18 more matches. He now has a 268-147 career record, good for a .646 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 now guided the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, 2014 RMAC Co-Regular Season and Tournament titles, this year's RMAC Tournament title 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 five times.
 
He has now been honored as the RMAC Coach of the Year three times in his career (2009, 2014, 2018).
 
Clamping Down on Defense
 
After holding Colorado Christian to a .080 team hitting percentage last Tuesday, the Mavericks held Dixie State to a .093 mark on Friday night.  They then held MSU Denver to a .051 clip in the RMAC Tournament Championship. 
 
The three opponents hit just a combined .076 against the Mavericks in the RMAC Tournament.
 
The Mavericks then held Dixie State to a .157 team hitting percentage on Thursday.
 
Coming into the NCAA Tournament, the Mavericks were 14th nationally and first in the South Central Region in opponent hitting percentage defense at .120.  They are now holding opponents to a .121 percentage and are out-hitting their opponents by a massive 102-point margin (.223-.121).
 
The Mavericks have held opponents to a sub-.100 team hitting percentage 16 times this season and have done so 14 times in their current 22-from-25 winning stretch, including in each of their four pre-NCAA Tournament matches.
 
They are 16-0 this year when holding their opponents below .100. 
 
Bettering the Pre-Season Picks
 
The Mavericks finished tied for the third in the RMAC regular season standings after being predicted 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. 
 
Smart kids win more awards
 
Led by RMAC Academic Player of the Year Taylor Woods, the Maverick volleyball team had nine players selected to the RMAC All-Academic Team, which was announced two weeks ago.  To be eligible for selection, a student-athlete must have a cumulative GPA or 3.30 or higher, used a season of competition and been at the nominating institution for a year.  Sports Information Directors from the conference selected the 14-member first team, which included Woods and senior outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards, based on a combination of athletic and accomplishments.  Qualified student-athletes not selected to the first team receive honor roll status.
 
Woods and Edwards were then named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District 6 Team as selected by CoSIDA.  Those honors were announced on Thursday and have earned both student athletes a spot on the Academic All-America ballot.  Edwards is now a 3-time honoree while Woods earned her first career selection.
 
Woods, a senior elementary education major who holds a 3.870 GPA, is the first Maverick to ever earn the prestigious honor, which dates back to 2007.  She and Edwards, a mass communications major with a 3.916 GPA, have now been first team RMAC All-Academic selection in each of the last three years.
 
The Mavs' honor roll selections were Julia Baskin (3.935 GPA, Sport Management), Hailey Crane (3.385, Psychology), Ara Norwood (3.706, Kinesiology/Fitness & Health Promotion), Samantha Ritter (3.459, Biology), Katie Scherr (3.475, Physical Education), Allison Smith (3.525, Biology) and Natalee Todd (3.722, Exercise Science).  Todd is now a 4-time honoree while Baskin, Crane, Ritter and Scherr have all earned two RMAC All-Academic plaudits in their respective careers.
 
In-Season Honors
 
The RMAC post-season awards were not the only ones that CMU players have earned so far this season.  The Mavericks 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.
 
Gilfert was then named as the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 1, Oct. 8 and Oct. 29 and was also tabbed as PrepVolleyball.com's Non-Division I National Player of the Week honor on Oct. 3 for her efforts in the Mavericks' Sept. 29 and 30 victories over then nationally-ranked Regis and Colorado Christian the weekend before.   She then was selected as the AVCA Division II Player of the Week last Tuesday (Oct. 30) for her efforts at UCCS and the Colorado School of Mines, becoming the first Maverick to ever earn the honor.
 
About Texas A&M-Commerce
 
The Lions are now 29-5 overall and went 15-3 in Lone Star Conference play during the regular season to finish second in the conference standings.  They then won their first LSC Tournament title in 31 years on Saturday here in the Wisdom Gym over Tarleton State.
 
Thursday's 4-set NCAA win over Angelo State was their first NCAA Tournament win since 1988.
 
They are ranked 20^th in this week's AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll, moving up two spots thanks to their 12-match winning streak and LSC Tournament title.
 
Freshman Celeste Vela, a setter and right side out of Guadalajara, Mexico had her ninth triple-double of the season in Thursday's win over Angelo State recording 13 kills, 18 assists and 11 digs.  She is one of five Lion players with 300 or more kills in what is a very balanced lineup. 
 
Jaryn Wacker has 339 kills this season to lead the team while Shelley Chapron, the LSC Tournament MVP is second on the squad with 337 but leads the team in kills per set at 3.19.  Chapron also paces the team with 129 blocks (0.97/set) and hitting percentage at .388 and was the only Lion selected to the First Team All-LSC squad.
 
However, Jaslyn Wacker, Jaryn Wacker and Bina Nijkam were all selected to the second team.  The Lions also had three honorable mention picks in Savannah Rutledge, Vela and Rylie Fuentes.  Jaslyn Wacker (119) and Nijkam (113) also have more than 100 blocks while Rutledge has recorded 597 digs, good for a 4.36 per set average.
 
Lion Coach Craig Case shared LSC Coach of the Year honors with Tarleton State's Mary Schindler.  Case, in his ninth year in charge of the Lions, is the longest tenured coach in program history, and entered the 2018 campaign as the second winningest.
 
Up next
 
If the Mavericks can win Friday's match, they will have advanced to the regional final the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history (2014, 2015) and claim their eighth all-time NCAA Tournament victory.  They would then play Saturday at 4 p.m. CST (3 p.m. Mountain) against either Tarleton State or Mines for the right to advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the first time in program history.