GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Coming off a huge win over nationally-ranked Regis University on Friday evening to close out the regular season, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will begin the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference volleyball tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m., when they host Colorado Christian University in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks, who are the tournament's third seed thanks to their 15-3 conference record and the head-to-head win over Regis, have won 12 of their last 13 matches and enter the post-season with momentum and with a 20-5 overall record.
 
Colorado Christian earned the sixth seed in the 8-team tournament field and will enter Thursday's match with an 11-15 overall record.  They went 8-10 in conference play.
 
Tickets for Tuesday's match are now on sale at www.cmumavericks.com/tickets and a live stream and live statistics of Tuesday's match can be accessed at the links above.
 
Tourney Time
 
The Mavericks will be playing in their tenth consecutive RMAC Tournament, having qualified in all but one (2011) of the 17 seasons with Head Coach Dave Fleming leading the program.  The Mavericks have won the RMAC Tournament twice under Fleming (2014, 2018) and are 15-13 in it under Fleming, who began his tenure at CMU in 2005.
 
The Mavs also have a winning 8-7 record in the quarterfinal round under Fleming, including a 1-1 mark against Colorado Christian.
 
They are 6-3 against the rest of the tournament field this season.
 
In the spring, the Mavericks recorded a quarterfinal win at home over UCCS before being downed by the Colorado School of Mines in the semifinal round as their historic 15-1 and regular season title-winning season was ended.
 
Colorado Christian also played in last year's RMAC Tournament in Grand Junction, falling to No. 3 seed MSU Denver in the quarterfinal round.  The Cougars' last RMAC Tournament win came in 2017.
 
The road ahead
 
The winner of Tuesday's match will advance to the semifinals, which will be played on Friday at the highest remaining seed of the four quarterfinal winners.  The RMAC Tournament match will then be played on Saturday at that same site.  The tournament winner will receive the conference's automatic qualifying spot into the NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
The Maverick/Cougar winner will play the winner of the quarterfinal between No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines and No. 7 seed Western Colorado, which will be played in Golden, on Friday.
 
MSU Denver won the RMAC's regular season title with a perfect 18-0 conference mark and is the top seed in the tournament.  They host No. 8 seed New Mexico Highlands, which edged out Adams State on the third tiebreaker to get into the tournament.
 
Regis, the fourth seed, will host No. 5 seed CSU Pueblo in the other quarterfinal in Denver.
 
If MSU Denver wins on Tuesday, the Roadrunners are assured of hosting privileges for the semifinals and championship match.  Mines would be the host with a quarterfinal win combined with an MSU Denver loss.  The Mavericks would host the remaining rounds only if they are able to win on Tuesday and see upsets of both of the top two seeds.

The complete bracket can be seen here.
 
Doubling up on the POW honors
 
The Mavericks had two players selected as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.  Fourth-year redshirt junior Maverick outside hitter Holly Schmidt was named as the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career in her final opportunity on the heels of her Senior Night performance while redshirt freshman Sabrina VanDeList was named as the RMAC Setter of the Week for the third time this season and sixth time during the calendar year.
 
20 wins in a 35-win year
 
The Mavericks won their 20^th match of the season for the sixth time under Fleming, as they defeated Regis in a hard-fought Friday night Senior Night win. 
 
The Mavericks other 20-win seasons under Fleming were in 2005, his first year, 2010 2013, 2014, 2018.  The Mavs have gone on to the qualify for the NCAA Tournament in four of the previous five 20-win seasons and seven times in his tenure.
 
Friday's win over Regis was also the Mavericks' 35^th of the calendar year.  The Mavericks went 15-1 during the historic spring season and are 35-6 overall this year, good for an impressive .854 winning percentage.
 
Sitting Sixth but on the way up?
 
The Mavericks have been in the No. 6 spot in each of the first two sets of NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings, which will eventually determine the at-large selections and seeding for the region's portion of the NCAA Tournament.  Eight teams from the region will qualify, including the two conference tournament champions from the Lone Star Conference and RMAC.
 
The rankings will again be updated on Wednesday before next Monday's NCAA Division II selection show.
 
National poll No. 1 MSU Denver has led both sets of rankings while Mines has occupied the No. 2 spot.  Angelo State was ranked third while Regis was ranked fourth in each of the first two.
 
Texas-Tyler has been ranked fifth in both sets of rankings but dropped their regular season finale to Texas-Permian Basin, begging the question if the Mavericks will move up thanks to their win over Regis and the Patriots' loss.
 
The movement in the rankings came the bottom half as Lubbock Christian moved up two spots to the No. 7 spot in last week's rankings, ahead of West Texas A&M and CSU Pueblo, which each slid a spot.  Texas A&M-Commerce has been tenth in each of the first two rankings.
 
LCU went 1-1 last week falling to unranked St. Mary's, while West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Commerce, which is heading to the Division I ranks in the Southland Conference next year, each went 2-0 in Lone Star Conference play last week.  CSU Pueblo went 1-1 last week, winning at Colorado Christian on Friday after falling to top-ranked MSU Denver on Thursday.
 
It is worth noting that the results of Tuesday's RMAC Tournament quarterfinals and the first round of the 12-team Lone Star Conference Tournament will not be included in this week's rankings.  However, those matches will still matter in the final selection process.
 
The Mavericks also continue to be listed in the "others receiving votes" category of the AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll as they have been all season, now occupying the unofficial No. 27 spot overall in this week's poll, released Monday afternoon.
 
The South Central Region, one of the deepest in the country has five teams ranked in the AVCA Top 25.  MSU Denver continues to lead the poll while Angelo State is still ranked sixth.  Mines moved remained in the No. 10 spot while Texas-Tyler slid four spots to 17th.  Regis was able to remain in the poll despite falling to the Mavs, clinging to the No. 25 position.

Another regional squad in West Texas A&M is also receiving votes.
 
Big Stat Nights
 
The Mavericks posted some incredible statistical numbers in last Tuesday's 5-set win over Westminster and again in Friday's marathon win over Regis.
 
As a team, the Mavericks recorded 78 kills, their highest total in a single match since 2007, in Tuesday's win over the Griffins.  Four different players were in double figures with freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler recording 20.  Fellow outside hitter Holly Schmidt had a season-high 18.  Meanwhile, redshirt junior middle hitter Tye Wedhorn recorded 15, the most in the Maverick portion of her collegiate career and equal to a full career-high.  Gabrielle Vogt was also in double figures with 12 kills.
 
Meanwhile, Maverick redshirt freshman setter Sabrina VanDeList doled out a career-high 63 assists, the most of any player in more than five years since Ali Svorinic had 64 on Oct. 14, 2016. 
 
Defensively, Maverick freshman Jordan Woods had a career-high 17 digs while libero Kerstin Layman led the Mavericks with 21, 18 of which came in the final three sets
 
The numbers continued to be impressive on Friday against Regis as VanDeList recorded 57 assists and a career-high 21 digs.  Leffler (14), Schmidt (13), Wedhorn (12) and Vogt (12) were all in double figures for kills once again while Libby Borgerding was one of four Mavs in double figures for digs with a career-high 11.
 
An even 300 from the youngster
 
With a team-high 34 kills last week, Maverick freshman outside hitter Sydney Leffler finished the regular season with a team-high 300 this year.  She had five 20-plus kill efforts throughout the season and ranks third in the RMAC for kills per set (3.49) and fifth for points per set (3.76).
 
Leffler is the first Maverick freshman in 15 years to have 300 or more kills in a season.  Alisan Tompkins was the last to accomplish the feat with an even 300 back in 2006, which means that Leffler will set a new Dave Fleming era (2005-Present) record for kills as a freshman with her first kill in the RMAC tournament.
 
Career Milestone
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle blocker Tye Wedhorn reached a career milestone on Saturday as she went past the 500 career kill mark for her collegiate career.  Second on the Maverick squad for kills this season behind Leffler with 198, Wedhorn now has 502 career kills, including 304 in two seasons at Fort Lewis in 2018 and 2019, where she earned Second Team All-RMAC honors as a freshman.
 
The Glenwood Springs, Colorado native, who made two brief appearances in the spring season for CMU, also ranks fourth the RMAC for hitting percentage at .348 this season and stands ninth in the conference for blocks with a per-set average of 0.89 this campaign.  She has 76 blocks in total this year and 216 in her collegiate career.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
With home wins over Westminster and Regis last week, the Mavericks improved to 8-1 at home this season.  Their only home loss came to now national poll No. 1 MSU Denver in the home-opener back on Sept. 16.
 
The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavs went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season and are 67-12 (.848) 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 31 of their 35 home matches, good for an .886 winning percentage, losing at home just once each season, something they will try to replicate again this year.
 
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 82-21 (.796) at home in that that span.
 
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 320-164, good for a .661 winning percentage.  His 320 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 six times, including this season and 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 the Cougars
 
Colorado Christian finished the regular season with an 11-15 overall record.  They went 8-10 in conference play, clinching a spot on the final day with a 5-set victory at home in Lakewood over UCCS on Saturday.  They were 4-6 in road matches this season.
 
As a team, the Cougars are hitting .193 to rank seventh in the conference.  Opponents are hitting a combined .217 against them, the 11^th best mark in the conference.
 
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Libby Goodman, a transfer from Division I North Alabama, ranks second in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.54 per.  She missed more than a month of the season and has played in just 52 of the Cougars' 97 sets.  However, she returned in a big way last weekend, recording 11 kills against CSU Pueblo on Friday before putting down a career-high 22 while hitting .396 in the tournament clinching win over UCCS.
 
Meanwhile, senior outside hitter Breanna Allen leads the team with 246 total kills and ranks fifth in the RMAC with her 3.37 per set average.  She is also fourth in the RMAC for points per set (3.80) while Goodman is sixth at 3.76.

Freshman middle hitter Lilly Woods leads the team with 69 blocks (0.97/set) to rank fifth in the conference and is also a strong offensive weapon with 142 kills (2.00/set) to her credit.  She also is hitting .280, the 13^th best mark in the league.
 
Freshman setter Izzy Jones has registered 888 assists and is averaging 9.15 per set to rank sixth in the conference.  She is also third on the team with 47 blocks and second with 199 digs.
 
Defensively, Madelyn Long has tallied 422 digs, good for a 4.35 per set average that puts her fourth in the conference statistical rankings, just one spot behind CMU's Kerstin Layman.  Long is also second on the Cougar squad with 26 aces, just two fewer than sophomore middle Mackenize Close, who has 28 to go along with 137 kills.
 
In the previous meeting with the Mavericks, Goodman had 15 kills on .387 hitting while Allen had 13 kills.  Woods was also in double-figures with 11 kills on .381 hitting while Jones recorded 43 assists.  Long had 17 digs as well.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks are 22-14 against Colorado Christian in their NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) history and have won five straight matches over the Cougars over the last four seasons.  One of those wins came in the quarterfinal round of the 2018 RMAC Tournament, which CMU went on to win, on Nov. 6 of that year.  Another was in five sets on Oct. 2 of this season, when the Mavericks rallied from 2-0 down to win a 5-setter in Lakewood.
 
The Mavs, who have won eight out of the last nine match-ups are 11-6 at home against the Cougars since 1992 and have won five straight home matches as well.  CCU's last win in Brownson Arena came in the 2013 RMAC Tournament quarterfinals, part of a 5-match winning streak in the series for the Cougars.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 13-6 against the Cougars in his time at CMU, including the 1-1 post-season mark.  He is 5-1 against Cougar counterpart Bobby Blanken, in his fifth season at the helm of the CCU program.
 
Up Next
 
Should the Mavericks win Tuesday's match, they would advance to the semifinals of the RMAC Tournament to face either No. 2 seed Mines or No. 7 seed Western Colorado.  Otherwise, the Mavericks would await the NCAA Division II Tournament selection show on NCAA.com, which will air on Monday (Nov. 22) at 5:30 p.m. MST, to see if they will continue their season.