GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After getting out to a 3-1 start close to home in Golden, the Colorado Mesa University Volleyball Team will take their longest trip of the regular season to the Show Me state (Missouri) for four matches this weekend at the Drury Invitational in Springfield.
 
The Mavericks will open the tournament against the host Panthers in their O'Reilly Family Event Center at 6 p.m. CDT (5 p.m. Mountain) on Thursday evening.  They will then play three other Missouri opponents throughout the weekend taking on Truman State (9 a.m. CDT/8 a.m. Mountain) and No. 18 Northwest Missouri State (5 p.m. CDT/4 p.m. Mountain) on Friday before wrapping up the weekend against Missouri Western State on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. Mountain).
 
Live statistics and video streams of all four matches can be seen on the links above.
 
Still receiving votes
 
The Mavericks remained in the "others receiving votes" categories of the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll, which had its first regular season edition released on Monday.  The Mavericks received 30 points in the poll and are one of four RMAC schools in that category behind MSU Denver (41), Regis (41) and the Colorado School of Mines (39).
 
Defending national champions Tampa remained in the No. 1 spot and received 41 of the 46 possible first place votes.  The rest of the top four was also unchanged with Cal State San Bernardino, Western Washington and Washburn holding down those spots.  Lewis bumped up two spots to fifth as Concordia St.-Paul slid five spots to 10^th after a 2-2 start.
 
Although the RMAC is not represented in the top 25, there are two teams from the NCAA Division II South Central Region in the poll in No. 9 Tarleton State and No. 20 Texas A&M-Commerce.
 
Pre-Season Picks
 
Coming off a RMAC Tournament title and their fourth NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in the past five years, the Mavericks have been picked to finish second in the RMAC this year, according to the preseason coaches' poll, which was announced on Aug. 14.  In the poll, the Mavericks received four first place votes and 209 total points from the conference's 16 head coaches, who each ranked their opponents 1-15 without voting for their own squad.

Defending RMAC regular season champion Colorado School of Mines received nine first place votes and topped the poll with 214 points while Dixie State was selected third out of the conference's 16 teams with 204 points while picking up the other three first place votes.
 
All-Tourney leaders
 
After both were named as CMU's "Players to Watch", announced in conjunction with the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Maverick middles Kasie Gilfert and Camille Smith were both named to the all-tournament team at last week's Oredigger Volleyball Classic, hosted by the Colorado School of Mines.  They selections were well deserved as both players led the 8-team tournament in a combined four statistical categories.
 
Smith had a tournament-high 58 kills and 67 total points and was named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday for that effort.  Meanwhile, Gilfert had a tournament-leading 15 blocks and led the affair in hitting percentage at .442 after setting and RMAC record of .451 for attack percentage last year.
 
Gilfert also finished second behind Smith in total points with 65 and kills with 56.  Smith was fourth in total blocks with 13 and hitting percentage at .378.
 
National Top 10
 
As a team, the Mavericks are ranked in the nation's top 10 for both assists (14.43) and kills (15.21) per set in the NCAA's early season Division II statistical rankings.  The Mavericks sit fourth in assists and sixth in kills per set. 

500 and 500 upcoming
 
On Saturday, Kasie Gilfert surpassed the 500 kill mark for her collegiate career.  She now has 504 total collegiate kills, including 469 in her 1-plus year time as a Maverick.  She also had 35 as a redshirt freshman at Division I Arizona in 2017 and will need just 31 more kills to reach the 500 mark in her time at CMU alone.
 
Maverick senior Katie Scherr, who had 28 kills last weekend, leads the current edition of the Mavericks in career kills with 564 while Camille Smith now has 438 and will likely hit the 500 mark at some point in the first half of the season.
 
Splitting the sets
 
For the second straight year, the Mavericks came out of the shoot running a 6-2 offense as senior Samantha Ritter and junior Ara Norwood split time at the setter position.  They are both Honorable Mention All-RMAC selections with Norwood earning that honor as the team's top setter in 2018 after Ritter earned the same plaudit in a full time role as a sophomore in 2017.
 
Norwood finished the first weekend with 95 assists (6.79/set) and 28 digs (2.00/set) while Ritter recorded 81 assists (5.79/set) and 31 digs (2.21/set).
 
Both players had double-doubles in Friday's victory against Dallas Baptist with Norwood recording 29 assists and 10 digs.  Ritter had 20 assists and 10 digs in that match.
 
Fleming in year No. 15
 
The 2019 season is the Mavericks' 15th under Head Coach Dave Fleming, who has racked up 271 career wins (271-149) and a .645 career winning percentage, including this year's 3-1 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.
 
Returning to an old position
 
Maverick junior Maddi Foutz, a transfer from Division I Colorado State, was brought in as a libero and defensive specialist, a role she played from the Rams over the last two years.  However, she was moved to the outside hitter position in pre-season workouts last year and started all four matches of the opening weekend in that spot.  She recorded 24 kills (1.71/set) and was second on the team for digs with 41 (2.93/set).   Foutz was just shy of recording double-doubles in both of CMU's first two matches, recording eight kills and 11 digs in the season-opening sweep of Fresno Pacific before tallying nine kills and 16 digs later that day in a 4-set win over Lubbock Christian.
 
Although the position is new to her at a collegiate level, Foutz had played in both the defensive specialist and outside hitter role for her Bayfield High School team and was named as the Intermountain League Player of the Year as both a junior (2015) and senior (2016).
 
First-time starters
 
The Mavericks had three players who made their first seven combined starts over the weekend at the Oredigger Volleyball Classic.  Freshman Maranda Theleus and Savannah Spitzer both made two starts each on the right side while sophomore Holly Schmidt made three starts as an outside hitter after seeing limited time as a freshman in 2018. 
 
About Drury
 
The Panthers came into the season ranked 18^th in the AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll but struggled on their opening weekending, going just 1-3 at the Capital Plaza Invitational, hosted by Washburn in Topeka, Kansas.  They dropped out of the top 25 as a result but are still receiving 23 points in the poll to sit just two spots behind the Mavs.
 
All three of the Panthers' losses over the weekend were in five sets, including one to then No. 23 Central Washington.  Their victory came by a 3-1 margin over Texas Woman's.
 
Freshman Julia McCown led the team with 62 kills and a .277 hitting percentage throughout the tournament.   Makina Wratten, a transfer from Division I Missouri State, had an impressive 22 blocks and recorded 47 kills as well.  Katie Gorman had 65 digs to pace the squad in that category.
 
In 2018, the Panthers went 28-7 and advanced to the championship match of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Tournament after sharing the regular season title.  They also hosted and advanced to the semifinal of the Midwest Regional Semifinal in their first NCAA Division II tournament appearance.
 
About Truman State
 
The Bulldogs, who hail from Kirksville, Missouri, went 2-2 on their opening weekend at the Nova Southeastern Tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  They defeated Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and Shaw in their middle matches and dropped a 5-set decision to the hosts after falling in three sets to No. 15 Palm Beach Atlantic in the opener.
 
They had two players named to the all-tournament team in outside hitter Morgan Smith and libero Lauren Wacker.  Smith had a career-high 22 kills against Shaw and 56 in the tournament as a whole.  Wacker had 102 digs, an impressive average of 6.00, per set and tallied 32 against Nova Southeastern.
 
In 2018, the Bulldogs went 21-11 and 10-8 in the GLVC before falling to Lewis in the quarterfinal round of the GLVC Tournament.
 
About Northwest Missouri State
 
The Bearcats, who hail from Maryville, got off to a strong start last weekend posting a 4-0 record at the Washburn Invitational.  They dropped just three total sets defeating two ranked teams in No. 23 Central Washington and No. 18 Drury, the latter of which was in a 5-set thriller.  They also claimed wins over Quincy and William Jewell.
 
That start has allowed the Bearcats to jump all the way to the No. 18 spot in this week's national poll after they had started the year in the other receiving votes category.
 
They had three players named to the all-tournament team in Hallie Sidney, Bethany Elkins and Morgan Lewis.  Sidney had 62 kills and 40 digs to lead the team in both categories and also recorded a .303 attack percentage and six service aces.  Elkins hit an impressive .403 and tallied 41 kills and 12 blocks while Lewis hit at a .396 clip with 49 kills and a team-leading 13 blocks.
 
Setter Maddy Ahrens recorded 169 assists, an average of 11.27 per set.  The Bearcats went 22-8 overall and 14-4 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association last season.

About Missouri Western State
 
The Griffons, who reside in St. Joseph, also got off to a 4-0 start competing at the Gorilla Classic, hosted by Pittsburg State.  Two of the wins were in straight sets over East Central and Western Colorado.  The other two came in four sets against Southwest Baptist and Midwestern State.
 
They out-hit their opponents by a combined .269 to .100 margin and had a balanced attack of four different players who recorded 30 or more kills throughout the weekend.  Ali Tauchen led the way with 49 and led the team in blocks with eight.    She also had nine service aces but was guilty of 10 errors.  Tiana Butler recorded 77 digs, an average of 5.50 per set.
 
In 2018, the Griffons went 15-17 overall and 7-11 in the MIAA after sharing the MIAA regular season title in 2017.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks last played Drury in 2003, claiming a 3-set neutral-court win in Kansas City, the only known meeting with the Panthers.  The Mavericks are 2-2 in available history against Truman State.  CMU won a 3-set match in Canyon, Texas on Sept. 6, 2014 in the last meeting.
 
The Mavericks played Northwest Missouri State for the first time last year winning in five sets on Aug. 31 at the Rockhurst Tournament. 
 
CMU has not played against Missouri Western State since 1996.  The Mavericks, known as Mesa State College at the time, won that year and in 1994, both times on a neutral court.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's tournament, the Mavericks will begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with three road matches beginning Friday, Sept. 20 at New Mexico Highlands.  They will also play at CSU-Pueblo on Sept. 21 and at Western Colorado on Sept. 24 before playing their home opener in what will be their 12^th overall match against Westminster on Friday, Sept. 27.