GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Coming off their most important win of the season to date and riding a 7-match winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will return home to try to complete season sweeps of western slope rivals Western Colorado University and Fort Lewis College this weekend.  The Mavericks, now 15-4 overall and 10-2 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, will host Western (11-9, 6-6 RMAC) at 6 p.m. on Friday and Fort Lewis (6-10, 6-6 RMAC) on Saturday at 4 o'clock.
 
Both opponents are locked in a 3-way tie with Colorado Christian for sixth place in the RMAC standings.  As such, they currently holding down the last three RMAC Tournament qualification spots, but are just one match ahead of 5-7 Adams State, making their trips into Brownson Arena very important.
 
The 6 p.m. start time against the Mountaineers is an hour earlier than originally scheduled after a revision last week to accommodate Western's transportation logistical issues.
 
Tickets are on sale and live streams for those unable to attend in person can be seen on the RMAC Network.  Live statistics for both matches can also be accessed at the link above.
 
Where we stand
 
After claiming a 5-set win over CSU Pueblo on Saturday, the Mavericks are now in a tie for third place in the RMAC standings with the Colorado School of Mines at 10-2.  The Mavs had entered the night in a tie for fourth with CSU Pueblo.
 
Meanwhile, Mines lost a 5-set match at Regis, now in sole possession of second place at 11-1, earlier Saturday evening.    National poll No. 1 MSU Denver is 12-0 in the conference.
 
CMU's only two conference losses have come to MSU Denver.
 
The Mavs and Orediggers are now a full match ahead of fifth-place CSU Pueblo, which is now 9-3 in conference play.  Only the top four teams at the end of the regular season will be at home for the first round of next month's RMAC Tournament.
 
However, CSU Pueblo will play at Mines this weekend with a chance to get right back in that picture.
 
The Mavs will then play at Mines on Nov. 6 and will conclude their regular season on Nov. 12 at Regis.
 
Nationally, MSU Denver is now enjoying its second consecutive week atop the AVCA Division II Top 25' Coaches Poll.  Mines dropped from seventh to 12^th in this week's poll as Regis climbed into the poll at No. 24 after sitting in the "others receiving votes" category.  The Mavs have also been in that category for each of the last six weeks after sitting 24^th in the Week No. 2 poll on Sept. 13.
 
Saturday's win was also important in the NCAA Tournament picture giving the Mavs a big head-to-head win over a fellow contender.  Although there are still three weeks of the regular season and the post-season Rocky Mountain Athletic and Lone Star Conference tournaments to sort things out, it is never to early to start looking at such matters.
 
There are currently six teams from the South Central Region, made up of those two conferences, in the AVCA Top 25 with No. 6 Angelo State, No. 15 (tie) Texas-Tyler and No. 25 West Texas A&M joining the RMAC's three representatives.  CMU is now the only South Central region team in the "others receiving votes" category.
 
A total of eight teams will be selected for the NCAA Tournament with the post-season tournament winners both earning automatic spots.
 
The first set of official NCAA Division II Regional Rankings are due to be released next Wednesday (Nov. 3) and will give a somewhat clearer picture of where teams stand heading into the stretch run.
 
Best hitting night
 
In last Friday's 4-set win at UCCS, the Mavericks hit .425 as a team recording 63 kills while committing just 12 hitting errors on 120 attempts.  The team attack percentage was CMU's highest since 2007, when the Mavs hit .426 against Chadron State.  The Mavs hit well above .400 in each of the three sets that they won against the Mountain Lions, clipping along at a .739 pace in the opening set, a 25-12 victory. 
 
Meanwhile, Maverick middle blocker Tye Wedhorn hit at a .824 clip throughout the night, putting down 14 kills on an errorless 17 attempts.  That percentage was the best for a CMU player since Abby Ney hit .833 at New Mexico Highlands in 2013.
 
Third straight 20
 
In the win over UCCS, Maverick freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler, recorded 20 kills on just 35 swings while hitting .514.  The effort marked her third consecutive 20 or more kill match after she had 21 against Black Hills State and 22 against South Dakota Mines.
 
Leffler, who also had 22 kills against MSU Denver back on Sept. 16, is the first Maverick since Stacey Vogel in 2006 to reach the 20-kill mark in three consecutive matches.  Vogel had separate streaks of four and five consecutive 20-match streaks that season while earning Honorable Mention All-America honors. 
 
Leffler is the first CMU freshman since at least 2003 to have such a streak.
 
Go Go Gabby Go
 
Following up on Leffler and Wedhorn's domination of UCCS, Maverick freshman right side Gabrielle Vogt took over Saturday's match against CSU Pueblo coming off the bench to record 23 kills on .340 hitting.  Her 23-kill performance was nine higher than her former career-high of 14 set against Northwest Nazarene in the spring and was the highest number of kills for any Maverick this season.
 
The Mavericks have now had a 20-kill performer in each of their last four matches, a streak last accomplished back in 2006, when Vogel had her aforementioned memorable stretches.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
With wins over Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines in their last home matches on Oct. 15 and 16, the Mavericks improved to 4-1 at home this season.  Their only home loss came to now national poll No. 1 MSU Denver in the home-opener last month.
 
The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavs went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season and are 63-12 (.840) at home over the past eight seasons since the start of 2014.
 
In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.
 
In the past four seasons, the Mavericks have won 27 of their 31 home matches, good for an .871 winning percentage, losing at home just once each season.
 
The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 2016 and 2017.  CMU was also an impressive 15-1 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 ten seasons since and including 2012, going 78-21 (.788) at home in that that span.
 
The Mavericks are slated to play four more regular season home matches this season, including this weekend's pair.  They will also play Westminster on Nov. 9 and Regis on Nov. 12 and hope to have home-court advantage
 
Back-to-back 50's, milestone
 
Maverick redshirt freshman setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded back-to-back 50-plus assist matches last weekend in the road wins over UCCS and CSU Pueblo.  In the process, VanDeList surpassed the 1,000 career assist milestone. 
 
Against UCCS, the match that she surpassed the milestone in, VanDeList recorded 50 assists as the Maverick offense was clicking with great efficiency.  That total matched her career-high, which had been set just two matches prior in the win over Black Hills State.  On Saturday at CSU Pueblo, the Severance, Colorado native then set new career-highs for both assists and digs, registering 51 and 18.
 
The double-double was her team-leading sixth of the season and the 12^th of her impressive 2021 calendar year.
 
VanDeList, who has 727 assists this season, was named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year and to the First Team All-RMAC selection in the spring season.  She now has 1,085 career assists in 35 matches during the calendar year, spanning both the spring and fall seasons.  She earned back-to-back RMAC Setter of the Week honors on Oct. 18 and 25 after picking up three such accolades during the spring.
 
Another 1K milestone Looming
 
Maverick redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman is also approaching the 1,000 milestone for career digs.  She will enter this weekend with 957 career digs, just 43 shy of the mark.  Layman has 307 digs this season and ranks third in the RMAC for digs per set (4.39).  She has been in double figures for nine straight and all but one of the Mavs' 19 matches this season.
 
Runs in the family
 
Maverick true freshman defensive specialist Jordan Woods recorded six service aces in Saturday's win at CSU Pueblo.  That total was CMU's best single-match total since 2018 when Jordan's cousin Taylor Woods recorded seven as a senior. 
 
Jordan Woods' 6-ace effort is also tied for fourth best in CMU single-match history.  With her six aces on Saturday and 13 in the last four matches alone, Woods has quickly moved into a tie for the team lead with Sabrina VanDeList with 28 aces. 
 
Woods also ranks third in the RMAC with her per set average of 0.47.  VanDeList is fifth in the conference at 0.40 per set.
 
Rare 30-Win "Year"
 
The Mavericks have now won 30 matches in 2021, split evenly between the spring and fall seasons.
 
Although that total has come in two different seasons, it is still quite a feat considering the Mavericks have played just 35 matches throughout the year, which would only be slightly more than a more normal season with a deep post-season run.
 
CMU went 15-1 in the pandemic-abbreviated 2020-21 season, played in the spring.  The NCAA Tournament was canceled all together.
 
The 2014 edition of the Mavericks played 33 matches, going 29-4 while winning the RMAC Tournament and advancing to the NCAA South Central Regional final.
 
CMU's last 30-win year came back in 1994 when the Mavs went 31-14 while participating in the D2 National Invitational Tournament. 
 
In their NAIA days, which preceded the move to the Division II ranks in 1992, it was common for teams to play well above 40 matches in a season, many of which came in multi-team tournaments  The 1986 team played 51.
 
300 & Counting
 
With CMU's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win over UCCS on Apr. 8, Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming became just the fifth of now six coaches in RMAC history to reach 300 career wins while coaching in the league.  Fleming, who is just the fourth head coach in the program's history, which celebrated its' 35^th season last spring, was also named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time after leading the Mavericks to a 15-1 record in the spring.
 
Now in his 17^th season, Fleming is 315-163, good for a .659 winning percentage.  His 315 career wins are the most of any active RMAC Coach and his tenure is equal to the longest in the conference amongst active coaches.
 
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has led the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles (2014, 2018, 2021-Spring), a 2014 RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).

The Mavericks have had winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and his teams have reached the 20-win mark five times, including in 2018, when they went 24-7 while winning the RMAC Tournament title and advancing to the semifinals of the NCAA South Central Regional.  Fleming was also named as the RMAC Co-Coach of the Year that year after earlier earning that honor outright in 2009 and 2014.

The 2014 team went 29-4, won the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles and hosted the South Central Regional portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament while advancing to the regional final.
 
About Western
 
The Mountaineers will enter Friday's match with a winning 11-9 overall record after claiming two home wins last weekend over Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines.  Those victories, which came in four and five sets, snapped a 3-match mini-slide that the Mavericks had triggered with their 3-0 win on Oct. 9 in Gunnison.
 
Senior middle hitter Kat Finnerty had a combined 19 blocks in the two weekends earning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week honors on Monday.  She is the first Mountaineer to earn a RMAC weekly honor in seven years.  She has recorded 90 blocks this season and leads the RMAC with her 1.15 per set average.
 
Finnerty is also a key part of the Mountaineers' balanced offensive attack.   Sophomore outside hitter Jordyn Todd has a team-high 179 kills (2.32/set) to her credit while Finnerty is right behind with 173 (2.22/set).  Emily Mangone  (143), Jaeda Davis-Golliher (148) and Savannah Mayer (124) are also in triple figures for kills.
 
Elizabeth Rupprecht leads the RMAC with her 4.42-dig per set average.  Todd, who has had six double-doubles this season as an all-around threat, is second on the team with 243 digs, good for a 3.16 per set average.
 
Setters Alex Galicia (397) and Hailee Martinez (274) have combined for nearly 700 assists.  Martinez also leads the squad with 15 aces.

About Fort Lewis
 
The Skyhawks, who play at Westminster on Friday in Salt Lake City, are flying high as of late as winners of three consecutive 5-set matches.  They have also won four out of five overall since last playing the Mavericks and could enter Saturday's match with a winning conference record should they get past Westminster, a team they defeated at home in four sets on Oct. 9 to begin their strong stretch.
 
Now 6-10 overall, the Skyhawks have struggled on the road, going just 1-4.  With four of their final six matches away from home, including two this weekend, they will need to figure out a way to improve if they are going to qualify for the RMAC Tournament for the first time since 2018.
 
Second-year head coach Giedre Tarnauskaite relies heavily on outside hitters Alexis Hobie and Chailyn Swenson.  Hobie has 155 kills (2.63/set) on the season while Swenson has put down 124 and leads the team with her 2.76 per set average.    Swenson and Hobie rank 12^th and 15^th in the conference with their averages.
 
Payton Harmann leads the team in assists with 257, good for a 5.47 per set average. 
 
Avynn La Rose, who had a career-high 17 kills in last Saturday's win against Black Hills State, leads the team in blocks with  30 while Rylee Johnson has 21 and a team-best 0.84 per set average while playing in just seven matches.  Kamryn Lopez has 219 digs, good for a 3.53 per set average that puts her 14^th in the conference.  She also has a team-high 15 aces.
 
 Johnson and Lopez earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC plaudits in the spring.
 
As a team, the Skyhawks have hit just. 133 this season to rank 14^th in the RMAC.  Their opponents are hitting .219.
 
Series Histories
 
After claiming 3-set wins on the road over both Fort Lewis and Western Colorado earlier this month (Oct. 8-9), the Mavericks continued their dominance of both teams.  The Mavs hold a 51-12 series lead over Western in the Division II era (1992-Present) and have won each of the last 16 matches dating back to 2013, the longest winning streak in the series history.  The Mavs also won 12 straight over the Mountaineers from 2006-12 and have been victorious in 28 of the last 29 meetings.
 
Six of the previous seven meetings have all been 3-0 Maverick sweeps. 
 
The Mavs are 26-5 at home against the Mountaineers in the Division II era.
 
Fleming has lost to the Mountaineers just twice in 32 career matches against them and is 6-0 against fourth-year Mountaineer Coach Jessica Fey.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks are now 42-12 against Fort Lewis in the NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) and have won seven of the last nine meetings although the Skyhawks stunned CMU in 5-set victories in both 2017 and 2018, the first of which came in Grand Junction, where the Mavs are 22-4 against the Skyhawks in the Division II era.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 20-7 against the Skyhawks in his tenure and is 2-0 against second-year Skyhawk coach Giedre Tarnauskatie having won a 3-set neutral-court match-up over the Skyhawks on Feb. 20, 2021 in Rapid City, South Dakota prior to the Oct. 8 win.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return to the road for what will be their longest trip in terms of mileage of the regular season.  They will venture 541 miles, according to the RMAC mileage chart, to Chadron, Nebraska to face Chadron State on Friday, Nov. 5 before going 310 miles to Golden, Colorado to take on the Colorado School of Mines, currently ranked 12^th nationally, a day later.  The Mavs will then 235 miles home to complete the 1,086-mile trip.