GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team will begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with three road matches in five days starting Friday night at 7 o'clock in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  The Mavericks, who went 4-4 in the non-conference portion of the season, begin the stretch against the New Mexico Highlands University Cowgirls (1-7) before heading North on I-25 for a 2 p.m. Saturday clash with the ThunderWolves of CSU-Pueblo (2-6).
 
The Mavericks will then return briefly home before wrapping up the stint on Tuesday (Sept. 24) against "travel partner" Western (4-4) in Gunnison.  The Mountaineers will have also played at CSU-Pueblo and NMHU on opposite days.
 
Live video streams of all three matches can be seen on the RMAC Network, accessed on the line above.
 
Live statistics will also be provided by each of the home institutions on the corresponding links above.
 
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 Team Mainstay
 
Maverick junior and returning All-American Kasie Gilfert was named to the all-tournament team from last weekend's Drury Invitational in Springfield, Missouri and has now earned an all-tournament team selection in each of her six career opportunities.  Gilfert led the Mavericks with 44 kills and 52 total points while hitting at an impressive .383 clip in the Mavs' four matches in the Show-Me State.
 
She has now been named to the all-tournament team in both of CMU's early-season non-conference events this year after being named to the all-tournament team all four possible times in her debut season with the Mavericks in 2018.  That included her selection as the RMAC Tournament MVP and a spot on the NCAA Division II South Central Regional All-Tournament team in last year's post-season run.
 
Gilfert was also named as the RMAC and South Central Regional Player of the Year in 2018 and became CMU's initial AVCA Division II First Team All-American.
 
500 as a Maverick

Gilfert also eclipsed the 500 career kill mark in her time as a Maverick on Saturday as she finished with a match-high 16 kills while hitting .625 in Saturday's match against Missouri Western State.  She came into the Drury Invitational with 469 kills as a Maverick and 504 total collegiate kills, including 35 as a redshirt freshman at Division I Northern Arizona in 2017.  Finishing the Drury Invitational with 44, Gilfert now has 513 kills as a Maverick and 548 as a collegiate athlete with nearly two seasons of eligibility remaining.  She had eclipsed the combined 500 milestone in the opening tournament of the year and has exactly 100 kills this season
 
Senior teammate Katie Scherr, who has been with the Mavs since 2016 and for all four years of her career now has 594 career kills to lead the current CMU squad in that category.
 
Friday Double Doubles
 
Junior setter Ara Norwood and senior outside hitter Katie Scherr each recorded double-doubles in matches on Friday at the Drury Invitational.  Scherr had 10 kills and a season-high 15 digs in the morning win over Truman State while Norwood had 17 assists and 10 digs against Northwest Missouri State that afternoon.  Norwood also had a double-double on Sept. 7 in the win over Dallas Baptist and leads the team with two this season. 
 
Fleming in year No. 15
 
The 2019 season is the Mavericks' 15th under Head Coach Dave Fleming, who has racked up 272 career wins (272-152) and a .642 career winning percentage, including this year's 4-4 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 New Mexico Highlands
 
The Cowgirls have begun the season with a 1-7 mark in two non-conference tournaments in San Angelo, Texas and Kearney, Nebraska.  Their lone win came in five sets over Southeastern Oklahoma State on Sept. 7.  They have been swept five teams and have taken matches against Texas A&M-Kingsville and Mary to four sets.
 
Fourth-year coach Dwight Combs is 27-53 in his time with the Cowgirls after coming to Las Vegas after serving as the head coach at UC-Santa Cruz.  His teams are a combined 18-36 in RMAC play during his three previous years.
 
This year's team was picked 12^th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 71 points.  They went 9-17 overall and 7-11 in RMAC play last year but did post a very respectable 4-5 home-court record a year ago.
 
About CSU-Pueblo
 
The ThunderWolves went 2-6 in non-conference play defeating Southeastern Oklahoma State and Arkansas-Monticello on back-to-back days last weekend in Durant, Oklahoma after going 0-5 to begin the season.
 
Austin Albers is in his first season as the ThunderWolves' head coach after spending the previous five years at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he went 145-57 while earning back-to-back conference coach of the year honors in 2017 and 2018.
 
The ThunderWolves were picked 11^th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after finishing last year's campaign with 5-22 overall and 3-15 RMAC records.
 
Four different ThunderWolves have 50 or more kills.  Sarah Vang leads the balanced attack with 63.  Kyle Meltzer has 135 digs to her credit while Jazzy Espinoza paces the squad with 25 blocks.
 
About Western
 
The Mountaineers have won four of their last six matches and like the Mavericks, went 4-4 in non-conference play.  Those four wins are already twice as many as they had in all of 2018, a year in which the Mountaineers went 2-24 overall and 1-17 in RMAC play.
 
As a result of those 2018 struggles, they were picked last in this year's RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll but have shown promise of a signifcantly higher finish.
 
They went 3-1 last weekend at Fort Hays State's tournament defeating the host Tigers, Southern Arkansas and Newman while falling in five sets to Northwestern Oklahoma State.  They also defeated East Central (Okla.) on Sept. 7 to garner their first win of the season at the Gorilla Classic in Pittsburg, Kan.
 
Jessica Fey is in her second season as the head coach of the Mountaineers and now has a 6-28 career record in her time in Gunnison.
 
Freshman Jordyn Todd has been a major part of the Mountaineers' rise in fortunes early in 2019.  The outside hitter from Boyd, Texas, leads the squad with 85 kills and 102 total points and is hitting at a solid .242 clip.  She also leads the team with 13 service aces.
 
Emille Scates and Brianna Hardy are tied for the team lead with 20 blocks thus far while Myles Hilbert has anchored the back row with 101 digs.  Scates is also second on the team behind Todd with 74 kills
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have dominated each of their upcoming opponents in recent years.
 
They have won 11 straight and 18 out of the last 19 matches against New Mexico Highlands, which last defeated the Mavericks in 2011.  The Mavs are 26-6 against the Cowgirls since 2001.
 
The Mavericks are 27-8 against CSU-Pueblo since 1999 and have won have won each of the last seven and nine of the last 10 meetings since the ThunderWolves last won on Sept. 21, 2013 in Pueblo.  They also swept the 2011 series after the Mavericks had won seven straight and 10 out of the 11 previous meetings.
 
The Mavericks are 32-8 against the Western Mountaineers since 2000 and have won 12 straight matches against them dating back to the start of the 2013 season.  Western has won just once in the last 25 meetings.  That victory came in 2012.
 
Up Next
 
After this upcoming 3-match stretch on the road, the Mavericks will have the opportunity to play in Brownson Arena for the first time of the regular season on Friday, Sept. 27, when they host Westminster at 7 p.m.  They also will take on Dixie State on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 28 at 4 p.m. hoping to avenge what was their only home loss of 2018.  The Mavericks were an impressive 9-1 at home last year.