In the first round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) women's lacrosse tournament, Colorado Mesa University squared off against the Hawks from Rockhurst University (RU). When the dust settled, it was the No. 3 seeded Mavericks that walked away with the narrow 14-11 victory on Thursday night.
 
It wasn't a great opening couple of minutes for the Mavericks as they fell behind 1-0 just over a minute into the contest. CMU's defense was able to keep the game there until Olivia Hayden was finally able to break the scoreless drought at the 18:50 mark in the first half. The happiness was short lived however as RU came back 20 second later to regain the lead once again.
 
A goal by Mary Koch and Hayden's second of the night a few minutes later gave CMU their first lead of the contest at 3-2. Both teams would close out the first half scoring two goals, sending the game into the half with the Mavericks up 5-4.
 
The Hawks were not going to let the Mavericks build any kind of lead throughout this game. Ten minutes into the second half, RU was able to tie the game up once again at 6-6, but Lindsi Peters didn't let it stay that way for long. Less than 30 seconds after RU tied the game, Peters was able to net a goal to put the Mavericks back out in front.
 
That goal set the Mavericks on the defining scoring run that they needed to pull away in the game. CMU would go on a 5-0 scoring run (including Peters goal) to increase their lead up to 11-6 in the time span of six minutes. With only 15 minutes remaining, the Hawks were going to need some offensive firepower to appear.
 
They cut the lead down to three with just under 10 minutes to play, but the Mavericks responded with three straight goals of their own to push their lead to the highest of the game (14-8). There was no coming back from that for the Hawks.
 
CMU finished the game winning a majority of offensive categories. The Mavericks outshot the Hawks 36-24 in the game, as well as went 16-18 on clear attempts. Defensively, CMU made life uncomfortable for the Hawks as they forced them into committing 27 turnovers.
 
Peters and Koch both finished with hat tricks to lead the game in the scoring category. Peters also added two assists to give her a game high five points. Hayden and Grace Howe also added two goals apiece in the Mavericks winning effort.
 
Lula Mitchell got her first post season win in goal. She collected eight saves in the game.
 
With the victory, the Mavericks advance to the second round to take on the No. 11 ranked (No. 2 seeded) Regis University Rangers. The game is set to take place on Friday at 4 p.m. down in Denver.