GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After posting a perfect 3-0 week and hosting their first two home matches of the season over the weekend, the Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team will head back on the road for the first two of four straight road matches this weekend.
 
The Mavericks (8-5 overall) are 4-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play and tied for second place in the conference standings, just a half-match behind the MSU Denver Roadrunners (9-3, 4-0 RMAC), their Friday night (7 p.m.) opponent.  The Mavericks will then head to Nebraska to face Chadron State (8-4, 2-2 RMAC) on Saturday evening at 6 p.m.
 
Live video streams of both matches can be seen on the RMAC Network.  Live statistics will also be provided by both home institutions at the links above.
 
Repeat Player of the Week
 
Maverick redshirt junior Kasie Gilfert was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Offensive Player of the Week for the second straight week on Monday.  The honor was the fifth of her career and comes after she put down a RMAC-leading 49 kills while hitting a combined .443 in CMU's three wins last week.
 
Gilfert averaged 5.44 kills and 6.17 total points per set throughout the victories at Western on Tuesday (Sept. 24) and at home against Westminster and Dixie State last Friday and Saturday, respectively.  She also recorded nine blocks.
 
In the win over Western, she had 18 kills and four blocks while hitting .410 in a 3-set sweep of the Mountaineers, who had won their previous four matches.  She then had 16 kills and hit .469 in three sets worth of work against Westminster.  She then capped the week by recording 15 kills while hitting .462 in Saturday's 3-set sweep over Dixie State, which had come into the match undefeated in RMAC play.
 
Conference leader in nation's top 10
 
Gilfert leads the RMAC in three different categories this season.  She is hitting .428 and has 188 total kills, good for a RMAC-leading average of 4.37 per set.  She is also pacing the conference in total points per set (5.02) after recording 216 in her 43 sets played.
 
Gilfert also ranks in the nation's top 10 in all three categories as of Monday.  She is fourth in hitting percentage, eighth in points per set and 10^th in kills per set.  She also ranks 23^rd in the country in total kills.
 
Home-Sweet-Home
 
The Mavericks continued to show their home-court dominance last weekend defeating Westminster and Dixie State in a span of less than 24 hours on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively.  The Mavericks, who were at home for the first time in 2019, are now 46-9 (.836) in Brownson Arena over the past six seasons since 2014.  Saturday's win over Dixie State also allowed the Mavericks to avenge their only home-court loss of 2018, a year that saw the Mavericks go 9-1 in Brownson Arena.  The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in 2016 and 2017.  The Mavs were also an impressive 14-1 in 2014 en-route to a RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last seven years since 2012, going 61-18 (.772) at home in that that span.
 
Big #'s
 
Several Maverick players set new career-highs in Friday's home-opening 4-set win over Westminster.  Right side hitters Ashton Reese, a junior, and Maranda Theleus, a freshman, both set new career-bests of 13 and 12 kills, respectively. 
 
Meanwhile, senior outside hitter Katie Scherr had a career-high 24 digs against the Griffins while junior setter Ara Norwood had a career-high 32 assists while finishing just a dig shy of a double-double.  Fellow setter Samantha Ritter did have a double-double, recording 22 assists and 14 digs.
 
Just five away
 
After recording a dozen kills in each of the weekend victories, Maverick senior middle Camille Smith is now just five kills away from becoming the third current Maverick to reach the 500 career milestone.  She now has 495 career kills.  Smith has recorded 115 so far this season.
 
Fellow senior Katie Scherr, an outside hitter, now has 633 career kills while Kasie Gilfert is rapidly catching her for the active team-lead in that category.  Gilfert now has 601 career kills as Maverick and 636 collegiate kills, including 35 as a redshirt freshman at Division I Northern Arizona in 2017.
 
Nine away
 
Junior setter Ara Norwood is now just nine assists away from 1,000 for her career after recording a career-high 32 in Friday's win over Westminster before tallying 19 more and her third double-double of the campaign on Saturday against Dixie State.  She had 11 digs in that match.  The double-double was also the tenth of her career.
 
Norwood, who has been the Mavs' starting setter as part of a 6-2 offensive attack in each of the past two seasons, now has 991 career assists, including a team-high 288 this season.  She is averaging 6.70 per set this year after recording 677 (6.10/set) in 2018, when she earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors.
 
Fellow setter Samantha Ritter, a senior who was CMU's primary setter in 2017, now has 1,759 career assists.  She has tallied 230 this season and co-leads the team with three double-doubles.  She has had 23 double-doubles in her career.
 
Elsewhere in the rankings
 
The Mavericks also have a few other players amongst the RMAC leaders in various statistical categories.  Camille Smith currently sits fourth in the RMAC with her .360 hitting percentage and is sixth in the conference for kills per set (3.19). 
 
Sophomore libero Kerstin Layman is eighth in digs per set at 4.52 while Ara Norwood is ninth in the conference for assists per set at 6.70.
 
As a team, the Mavericks are up to second in team hitting percentage (.235) and also rank second in kills (14.57) and assists (13.68) per set.
 
1K Looming
 
Junior setter Ara Norwood, who has been the Mavs' starting setter as part of a 6-2 offensive attack in each of the past two seasons, is nearing the 1,000 career assist mark.  Norwood enters this weekend with 940 career assists, including 237 this season.  She is averaging 6.58 per set this year after recording 677 (6.10/set) last year.
 
Fleming in year No. 15
 
The 2019 season is the Mavericks' 15th under Head Coach Dave Fleming, who has racked up 276 career wins (276-153) and a .643 career winning percentage, including this year's 8-5 mark thus far.  Fleming took over the helm of the program in 2005 and is just the fourth head coach in the program's 35-year history.  He has guided the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, a 2014 RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles, last 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, including in 2018, when the Mavericks went 24-7 to enjoy their second best season in Fleming's tenure, only shy of the program's 29-4 season in 2014.
 
About MSU Denver
 
The Roadrunners are 9-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in RMAC play to lead the conference standings by a half-match over CMU and Regis and by a full match over four other 3-1 teams.
 
They have the RMAC's longest current winning streak having won five straight matches overall defeating then No. 1 and now unranked Tampa in their final match of the Colorado Premiere Challenge, which they hosted on Sept. 13-14.  Their only three losses came at that tournament to Tarleton State, Barry and Southwest Minnesota State, ranked ninth, 13^th and 15^th nationally at the time. 
 
Three of their wins have come over nationally-ranked squads, including in a 3-1 win at then No. 12 (Now No. 17) Regis on Friday.  They have also defeated Fort Lewis and Adam State at home and Colorado Christian on the road since the beginning of conference play after starting the year 4-0.
 
The Roadrunners lead the RMAC in both blocking and service aces combining to score nearly five points per set in those aspects of the game.  They rank fifth in the country for blocking (2.50/set).  They are also fourth in the RMAC in both hitting percentage (.230) and opponent hitting percentage (.165).
 
Senior middle blocker Alyssa Kelling is the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week and is second in the RMAC for blocking (1.24/set) and third in hitting percentage at .361, 20 points higher than Avaline Lai, who is sixth in the RMAC.  Jessa Megenhardt, Kayla White, Rylee Hladky and Joli Salder all rank amongst the RMAC's top five servers.
 
White, a junior outside hitter leads the team in both kills (140) and digs (144).
 
About Chadron State
 
The Eagles have had a solid first half of the 2019 season posting an 8-4 overall record.  They are also 2-2 in RMAC play.  They had been 8-2 and 2-0 in the RMAC before dropping 3-set matches at Colorado Christian and Regis over the weekend.
 
Their eight wins are already equal to last year's total, when they went 8-19 overall and 6-12 in the RMAC.
 
First Year Head Coach Jennifer Stadler's squad has been led by Shelby Schouten and Rylee Greiman offensively and by senior Ashton Burditt defensively.  Schouten and Greiman are tied for the team lead for kills at 112.  Schouten, a senior right side, is also hitting .253 to lead the team.  Burditt has already recorded 241 digs, a 5.60 per set average, which ranks her second in the RMAC.
 
As a team, the Eagles are also second in the RMAC for digs (18.02 per set).  They also rank amongst the RMAC's top half in blocking (6^th, 1.84) and service aces (5^th, 1.53), opponent hitting percentage (6^th, .183) and kills (8^th, 12.21).
 
Freshman setter Tori Strickbine is fourth in the RMAC for assists (8.51/set) while sophomore Chadron native and Black Hills State transfer Chandler Hageman is seventh in blocks (1.12).  Katie Thoeney is also seventh in the RMAC for service aces (0.39).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks won both matches against MSU Denver in 2018, claiming the RMAC Tournament title over them in Golden on Nov. 10.  They also won a Sept. 22 home match in three sets after the Roadrunners had won the six previous meetings in 2016 and 2017.  The teams have met in the postseason in each of the last five years.
 
The Roadrunners lead the series 23-9 since the turn of the century and are 8-3 against the Mavericks in Denver in that time.
 
Conversely, the Mavericks had dominated the series with the Eagles, winning every year dating back to and including 1996.
 
Up Next
 
After this upcoming weekend, the Mavericks will again be on the road for two more matches in the metropolitan Denver area.  They will be at Colorado Christian on Friday, Oct. 11 and at Regis, currently ranked 17^th in the national poll on Saturday, Oct. 12.
 
The Mavericks will then play seven of their final nine regular season matches at home, starting Oct. 18 against Black Hills State.