After completing the season 13-2 and 7-2 the Colorado Mesa Mavericks earned the No. 3 seed in the 2019 RMAC Tournament and will face the sixth-seeded Westminster Griffins this Thursday at 7 pm CDT in St. Charles, Mo. in a quarterfinal game. The winner will advance to play the No. 2 seeded Lindenwood University Lions Friday at 7 pm.

For a look at the entire bracket and the tournament central websites from both Lindenwood and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferences click the links provided above.

The Mavericks will head into the tournament on a three game winning streak after most recently defeating Fort Lewis 19-1 back on April 26. Prior to that the Mavs defeated both Adams State (19-0) and Westminster (20-5).

Paige Elliott leads the team with 74 points which is a CMU single season record. She has totaled 55 assists and 19 goals this season. Her 3.93 assists per game ranks third among all DII women's lacrosse players.

Senior Olivia Hayden is the only Division II player to rank in the top five in draw controls, groundballs and caused turnovers per game. Her 9.27 draw controls ranks fourth, and her 5.13 ground balls per game rank second, and her 3.73 caused turnovers rank first.

Erin Koehler ranks third nationally in caused turnovers per game averaging 3.33 each game.

Hayden leads the team in goals with 50 and is second in points with 64. Marissa Leonardi leads the team in free position goals with 6 while Hayden and Mary Koch are tied with three game winning goals this season to lead the team.

All-RMAC Honors

Olivia Hayden and Erin Koehler were highlighted on the All-RMAC awards which were released by conference officials yesterday afternoon. Senior Hayden earned Midfielder of the Year while senior Koehler earned Defensive Player of the Year.

Hayden is the Mavericks' single season and career leader in ground balls, draw controls, and caused turnovers. This season she has recorded 78 ground balls, 139 draw controls, and 56 caused turnovers. For her career she currently has 186 ground balls, 374 draw controls, and 120 caused turnovers.  

Koehler has totaled 67 ground balls which is second in the single season record book and her 50 caused turnovers this season ranks second each behind Hayden. In her career she ranks second in the CMU career record book in both ground ball (140) and caused turnovers (92).

Paige Elliott, Marissa Leonardi, and Mary Koch all earned Second Team All-RMAC honors while Kenzie Blackwell, Danielle Simpson and Raquel Ruhme were named Honorable Mention All-RMAC.

Summit Award

 For the second time in her career Olivia Hayden was named this year RMAC Women's Lacrosse Summit Award winner.

This award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA), participating at the final's sites for each of the RMAC Championships.

To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be a sophomore or above, who participated in their sport for at least two years with their school. They must also be an active member of the team, traveling and competing at the championship.

Hayden earned this award last year at the 2018 RMAC Championships. 

National Ranking

Released on April 29 the Mavericks ranked No. 15 in the IWLCA Coaches Poll. They have been ranked No. 15 the past three consecutive  weeks and have been nationally ranked for eleven consecutive polls.

 Regis University ranked No. 3 in this week's poll while Lindenwood University ranked in at No. 9.

In the USlacrosse Magazine which was released on April 29 the Mavericks stayed put from the previous week at the No. 14 spot. 

Regional Ranking

The Mavericks moved up one position to No. 3 in the Midwest Regional rankings which was released today. This week the Mavs jumped ahead of UIndy and sit behind Regis who is No. 1 and Lindenwood who is No. 2.

The Mavericks have head-to-head wins against No. 5 Grand Valley State and No. 6 Tiffin.

This is the final regional ranking that will be released before the NCAA Tournament. The top four teams will qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA Division II Women's Lacrosse Selection Show will air Sunday May 5^th at 8:30 pm ET on the NCAA.com.

The Mavs are seeking their first ever appearance.

Scouting Westminster

This will be the third meeting between the Griffin and the Mavericks. The Mavs have defeated them in both other games. In their first game which was a nonconference matchup the Mavericks won 23-6 on Walker Field. The next meeting between the two teams took place in Salt Lake City in a conference game where the Mavericks won 20-5.

The Griffins are 4-9 overall and 4-5 in conference which earned them a sixth seed in this year's tournament. They closed the regular season on a loss (16-4) to Regis University who claimed the RMAC Regular Season title this year. 

Mikala Davis and Daisy Mele each earned Honorable Mention honors for the Griffins. As member of the defense Davis has totaled a team high 48 ground balls and caused 21 turnovers. In the net Davis has recorded 123 saves.

Daisy has accumulated 29 ground balls and 15 caused turnovers.

The Griffins are led offensively by Madie Ingman who has 34 points on the season which included 24 goals and 10 assists.

Up Next

With a win over Westminster the Mavericks will advance to the semifinal game of the RMAC Tournament and will face second-seeded Lindenwood University on May 3 at 7 pm CDT.