GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After a weekend split that saw the Mavericks pull out a 5-set win at Chadron State, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball squad will again be on the road this weekend playing two matches in the metropolitan Denver area.  On Friday at 7 p.m., the Mavericks (9-6, 5-2 RMAC) will be in Lakewood to face Colorado Christian University (6-9, 2-5 RMAC).  They will then face the nation's 16^th-ranked Regis University Rangers (12-3, 6-1 RMAC) on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock in Denver.
 
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.
 
Milestone night
 
A pair of Maverick veterans reached career milestones in Friday's match at MSU Denver.  Senior middle Camille Smith went over the 500 career kill mark during that match and will enter this weekend with 514 after recording 13 in Saturday's win over Chadron State.
 
Meanwhile, junior setter Ara Norwood went over the 1,000 career assist milestone on Friday.  She now has 1,036 career assists after finishing Saturday's match with 30.
 
Not the first
 
Other current Mavericks had hit those milestones as well earlier in their careers.
 
Senior outside hitter Katie Scherr has 652 career kills, including 116 this year.  Meanwhile, Kasie Gilfert, the 2018 RMAC and NCAA Division II South Central Region Player of the Year, has tallied 628 in her 1 ½ years as a Maverick and has 663 collegiate kills, including 35 as a redshirt freshman at Division I Northern Arizona in 2017.
 
Meanwhile, senior setter Samantha Ritter has recorded 1,794 career assists, 1,008 of which came as a sophomore in 2017 when she earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors as the team's primary setter.  She has split time with Norwood in each of the past two years as the Mavs' have run a 6-2 attack.
 
20-20 double-double
 
Ritter had a monster double-double effort in Saturday's 5-set win over Chadron State recording 25 assists and a career-high 24 digs.  It was her team-leading double-double of the season and the 24th of her career.
 
Ritter's effort also marked the first time that a Maverick has had a "20-20" double-double since 2016 when Mackenzie Edwards recorded 25 kills and 31 digs in an NCAA Tournament match against MSU Denver on Dec. 1, 2016.
 
Triple-figures
 
The Mavericks recorded 102 digs in Saturday's win over Chadron State.  The total marked the first time since CMU had recorded 100 or more digs in a single-match since 2015, when the Mavericks reached triple figures in three different matches.  Sophomore libero Kerstin Layman matched her career-high with 27 on Saturday while junior Colorado State transfer Maddi Foutz also matched her season and Maverick-high with 16.  Katie Scherr was also in double figures with 15.
 
CMU had just 36 total digs in Friday's 3-set loss at MSU Denver.
 
Balanced top-10 attack
 
The Mavericks were also very balanced offensively in Saturday's win at Chadron State as five different Mavericks reached double-figures for kills.  Kasie Gilfert led the way with 16 kills while Camille Smith and Katie Scherr both finished with 13.  Hailey Crane matched her season and career-high with 12 while freshman Maranda Theleus finished with 11.
 
Throughout the season, the Mavericks are averaging 14.29 kills and 13.37 assists per set.  They rank second in the RMAC in both of those categories and are eighth nationally in assists and 10^th for kills.
 
Still the leader
 
Gilfert continues to lead the conference in kills per set at 4.22.  She also ranks second in points per set (4.84), hitting percentage (.392) and total kills (215).
 
Elsewhere in the rankings
 
The Mavericks also have a few other players amongst the RMAC leaders in various statistical categories.  Camille Smith currently sits fifth in the RMAC with her .339 hitting percentage and is seventh in the conference for kills per set (3.05).  She also sits ninth for points per set at 3.59.
 
Sophomore libero Kerstin Layman moved up a couple spots to sixth in digs per set at 4.52 while Ara Norwood is still ninth in the conference for assists per set at 6.53.
 
As a team, the Mavericks rank fifth in hitting percentage (.220) and have given up just 53 service aces, a 1.02 per set average that ranks them third in the conference.
 
Fleming in year No. 15
 
The 2019 season is the Mavericks' 15th under Head Coach Dave Fleming, who has racked up 277 career wins (277-154) and a .643 career winning percentage, including this year's 9-6 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 Colorado Christian
 
The Cougars will enter the weekend with 6-9 overall and 2-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference records.  They have been alternating wins and losses in each of their last four matches after dropping four straight, including their first three RMAC matches from Sept. 14-24.  They won at New Mexico Highlands last Friday before falling CSU-Pueblo on Saturday.  Both of those matches and each of the Cougar's last five matches, have been decided in three sets.
 
The Cougars attack has been led by Cali Bahnsen and Ashley Drye, who have 144 and 133 kills, respectively. 
 
Junior setter Maddie Burns ranks second in the RMAC for assists per set at 10.08 but has missed each of the Cougars' last five matches.  Jincey Nystedt is averaging 9.58 per set in her place.
 
Mariela Gonzalez leads the team defensively, recording 306 digs thus far to average 5.67 per set to rank second in the RMAC.
 
About Regis
 
The Rangers are in second place in the RMAC standings at 6-1 and have won three straight matches since suffering their lone conference loss to leaders MSU Denver in four sets on Sept. 27.  They are also 12-3 overall and are currently ranked 16^th in this week's AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, up one spot from last week.
 
The Rangers got out to a 6-0 start and went 2-2 while co-hosting the Colorado Premiere Challenge before starting conference play.
 
They have the RMAC's top-ranked defense in opponent hitting percentage (.146) and rank fourth in blocking (2.14/set).  They also stand third in service aces (1.65) and attack percentage (.229).
 
Nikki Kennedy is the team's stand-out player.  The 6-foot-4 senior middle blocker has 148 kills (2.79/set) and an impressive 67 blocks (1.26/set) to rank third in the RMAC.    She is also second on the team in service aces with 15.
 
Meanwhile, Kelsey Green is right behind in kills with 145 while Caitlyn Burroway has 122.  Burroway also places the team in digs with 173.
 
Ranked foes
 
Saturday's match-up with Regis will mark the third time this season that the Mavericks' will have faced a team ranked in the top 25 of the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll.  Earlier this season, the Mavericks faced No. 8 Northern State and then No. 18 Northwest Missouri State, which is now ranked tenth.
 
In 2018, the Mavericks went 1-2 against nationally-ranked foes.  They also went 4-2 against teams receiving votes in the poll last year
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have won five of the last six matches against Colorado Christian after the Cougars had won the previous five from 2010-13.  The Mavericks had also swept the decade winning 10 head-to-head meetings from 2000-09.
 
The Mavericks also ended the Cougars' season in 2018 winning a 3-set RMAC Quarterfinal match in Brownson Arena en-route to the conference tournament title.
 
The Mavericks will be playing a nationally-ranked Regis squad for the fourth consecutive time.  The Mavericks defeated the then No. 24 Rangers in a 5-set classic on Sept. 28 after both the third and fourth sets went to "overtime".  The Rangers had defeated the Mavericks in both meetings in 2017 winning 3-set matches as the No. 14 ranked squad on Sept. 22 and ranked 11^th nationally on Nov. 11.  The Rangers had won five straight matches before last year's win.
 
Up Next
 
After this upcoming weekend, the Mavericks will return home for just the second weekend of the season to face Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines on Oct. 18 and 19, respectively.  The Mavs will play seven of their final nine regular season matches at home.