GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team will close out the regular season and honor their seniors, who could be playing their final career home match, when they Mavericks host rival Western Colorado University for their Senior Night match on Friday at 7 p.m. in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks will enter the match with a 16-9 overall and 12-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference records are assured of a RMAC Tournament with at least the No. 5 seed.  However, they will need a win and help from UCCS or Westminster in order to earn a top four seed and the right to host a tournament quarterfinal match on Tuesday (Nov. 19).
 
Otherwise, the Mavericks will be on the road to play the No. 4 seed, which would be the Colorado School of Mines, in the opening round.
 
The Mountaineers will enter Friday's match with an 11-14 overall record.  They are 7-10 in RMAC play.
 
Senior Night
 
Senior Night festivities will precede Friday's match as the Mavericks will honor their three seniors in Samantha Ritter, Katie Scherr and Camille Smith as well as redshirt junior Kasie Gilfert, who will be graduating in May, 2020 and has decided not to return for her final year of athletic eligibility.
 
Ritter, Scherr and Smith have been with the Mavericks for all for years of their collegiate careers and have played in a combined 292 matches in their 2016-19 careers.  All three have been previously recognized by the RMAC for their athletic or academic successes.
 
Gilfert, who has played in 56 matches for the Mavericks, joined the program in January of 2018 after a 1 ½ years at Division I Northern Arizona, where she redshirted in 2016 and played in 2017.  She was then named as the RMAC and South Central Regional Player of the Year while becoming CMU's initial AVCA First Team All-American at the Division II level last season. 
 
Smith was also an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American in 2018 after earning First Team All-RMAC honors.
 
Post-season scenarios
 
Win or lose on Friday, the Mavericks will end up as the No. 5 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament unless the Mavericks get help.  The Mavericks are currently tied with the Colorado School of Mines for fourth place in the RMAC standings at 12-5, a match behind Dixie State, which stands in third at 13-4. 
 
However, Mines would win any direct head-to-head tie-breakers over the Mavericks thanks to their Friday night win in Brownson Arena.  Mines plays at UCCS, which is fighting for one of the last two available RMAC Tournament spots, this Friday. 
 
Dixie State plays at 15^th place Westminster in Salt Lake City, also on Friday.  If Dixie State is able to defeat the Griffins, the Trailblazers would be the No. 3 seed, which would put the Orediggers and Mavericks in the No. 4/5 battle, which Mines would host unless they fall at UCCS and CMU wins.
 
The Mavericks could move up all the way to the No. 3 seed if they win and get help in both Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City as the Mavericks would win a direct head-to-head tie-breaker with Dixie State by virtue of winning more sets in the two head-to-head meetings that were split.  CMU won at home in three sets on Sept. 28 but lost in four sets on Oct. 26 in St. George, Utah.
 
Mines can not move into the No.3 spot as Dixie State won a 5-set match over the Orediggers on Oct. 12.  That fact gives the Trailblazers the edge in both head-to-head and 3-way tiebreakers over Mines. 
 
Home Court Success
 
Despite seeing their 8-match and more than year-long home-court winning streak come to a close on Friday night, the Mavericks will enter this weekend's match with a strong run of success in Brownson Arena.  The Mavericks are 7-1 at home this season and have won 16 of their last 18 home matches at home after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena last year.
 
The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavericks are 51-10 (.836) at home over the past six seasons since 2014.
 
The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in 2016 and 2017.  CMU was 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 66-19 (.776) at home in that that span.
 
Western Colorado's last win in Brownson Arena came in 2012.
 
Reese delivers
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore Ashton Reese had the best overall weekend of her career as she came off the bench to tally 10 kills and four blocks in Friday's match on the right side against Mines to earn a start, just her second of the season, on Saturday against UCCS.  In that 3-set win, Reese had a match-high 12 kills and hit a career-best .500.  The Eaton, Colorado native's 12 kills were just one shy of her career-high 13, which she had on Sept. 27 against Westminster.  It was also good for her third double-figure effort of her season and career.
 
Prior to Friday, Reese had not played since Oct. 4 due to injury.
 
Perfect at 300
 
As a team, the Mavericks hit .309 as a team in Saturday's win over UCCS.  The effort marked the fourth time this season that the Mavericks have hit .300 or higher as a team.  They are a perfect 4-0 in those matches and have dropped just one total set in them.
 
Triple Second
 
Kasie Gilfert ranks second in the RMAC in three different statistical categories entering the final weekend of regular season play.  She has 359 kills, good for an average of 4.08 per set.  She also stands second with her .388 hitting percentage and has 411 ½ total points (4.68/set).
 
Mines' Abby Tiesman leads the RMAC with her 4.71 point per set and .390 hitting percentage marks while South Dakota Mines' Dana Thomson paces the RMAC with 447 kills (4.26/set) while ranking third in total points per set at 4.59.
 
Gilfert also ranks 17^th in the NCAA Division II statistics for hitting percentage after setting an RMAC and CMU record mark of .451 last year.  She also stands 19^th nationally for points per set and 22^nd for kills per set this season.
 
Smith also ranked
 
Fellow Maverick middle Camille Smith is also ranked amongst the RMAC's top 10 players in those categories.  She currently sits fourth in hitting percentage (.365), seventh for kills per set (3.01) and eighth for points per set (3.59).
 
The Quest for 2,000
 
Senior setter Samantha Ritter registered 41 more assists last weekend tallying 23 in Friday's match against Mines before doling out 18 in Saturday's 3-set sweep of UCCS.  She now has 1,987 career assists and is just 13 away from reaching the 2,000 mark for her collegiate career.  If she does, she would be the tenth Maverick setter in program history to reach the milestone.
 
The Tinley Park, Illinois native also has a team-leading six double-doubles to her credit this season and has registered 26 in her career, which included an Honorable Mention All-RMAC honor as a sophomore in 2017.
 
Digging her way up
 
Maverick sophomore libero Kerstin Layman has moved up a spot to sixth in the RMAC statistics for digs per set after tallying 38 last weekend.  She now has 415 this season, good for an average of 4.66 per set.  She has recorded 25 or more digs in four different matches this season and has reached 20 or more seven separate times, including on Friday when she had a match-high 23 against Mines.
 
Highly ranked 6-2 offense
 
The Mavericks' offense has been clicking this year as the Mavericks are second in the RMAC for both kills (14.36) and assists (13.44) per set.  They also rank amongst the nation's top 10 in both categories, standing seventh for assists and eighth for kills per set.
 
Fleming in year No. 15
 
The 2019 season is the Mavericks' 15th under Head Coach Dave Fleming, who has racked up 283 career wins (284-157) and a .644 career winning percentage, including this year's 15-8 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 Western
 
The Mountaineers are enjoying their best season in three years and have won 11 matches after winning just four (two each) in 2017 and 2018 combined.  With an 11-14 overall record and a 7-10 RMAC mark, they currently sit in a tie for tenth place in the RMAC standings.
 
Freshman outside hitter Jordyn Todd leads the team in both kills (255) and total points (289.5). 
 
Middle hitters Brianna Hardy, also a freshman, and Maddy Johnson, one of the team's four seniors, lead the team with 53 and 50 total blocks, respectively.  They also have the two highest hitting percentages amongst the regulars.  Johnson is hitting .282 and has 136 kills to rank third on the team with her 2.28 kill per set average.  Hardy has put down 101 kills and is hitting at a .223 clip.
 
Junior setter Hanna Hendrickson sits sixth in the RMAC for assists per set at 7.78.   Freshman Myles Hilbert leads the team with 372 digs (4.28/set) to rank eighth in the conference while Todd is second on the squad with 294 (3.23/set).
 
The Mountaineers had a 3-match winning streak snapped on Saturday by Mines.  They had lost their previous four.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have dominated the Mountaineers in recent years and are 33-8 against them since 2000.  CMU has also won 13 straight matches in the rivalry, including a 3-set sweep of the Mountaineers on Sept. 24, the fifth consecutive sweep dating back to 2017.
 
CMU has won all but one of the last 26 meetings between the teams.  The lone Western victory in that stretch came on Oct. 26, 2012 in Grand Junction.
 
Up Next
 
After Friday's match, the Mavericks will learn their official seeding for next week's RMAC Tournament, which will begin Tuesday (Nov. 19) with a quarterfinal match-up.  The four quarterfinal winners will then play in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 22.  The championship match, which will determine the RMAC's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division II Tournament, will be played on Saturday, Nov. 23.
 
The top remaining seed after the quarterfinal round will host the semifinals and championship match.
 
The Mavericks won the RMAC Tournament title in 2018.