GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will look to avenge their only loss of the last two months and a 2021 spring-season ending defeat while trying to advance to the RMAC Tournament championship match when they take on the nation's tenth-ranked Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in the first of two semifinals on Friday evening at MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center in downtown Denver.
 
The match will begin at 5 p.m. and masks are required for those that attend per a new public health order in the locale.  Tickets can be purchased through the RMAC Championship web page
 
A live stream will also be available on the RMAC Network and live statistics can be accessed at the link above.
 
The Mavericks, the tournament's third seed, will enter with a 21-5 overall record and have won 13 of their last 14.  Their only loss in that stretch came to the second-seeded Orediggers (24-3), less than two weeks ago on Nov. 6 in Golden.  Mines has won 23 of their last 25 matches overall, winning each of the last seven in straight sets since dropping a 5-setter on Oct. 23 at Regis.
 
The winner of Friday's semifinal will face the winner of the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m., Friday, between the top-seeded, national No. 1 and host Roadrunners and fifth-seeded CSU Pueblo.  The championship match will be played at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks began their post-season run with a Tuesday night quarterfinal victory over Colorado Christian.  The Mavericks were quite balanced in their 4-set home win over the Cougars, a team they have now beaten six consecutive times since and including 2018.
 
Freshman Sydney Leffler put down a match-high 16 kills while fellow outside hitter Holly Schmidt recorded an 11-kill, 11-dig double-double, her second of the season, to lead the way.    Maverick middle blockers Savannah Spitzer and Tye Wedhorn also played significant roles in the win.  Spitzer finished with 10 kills and hit .471 while Wedhorn put down nine kills on .333 hitting while adding a match-high five blocks.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList had 45 assists and whizzed past the 1,000 mark for the season.
 
Defensively, libero Kerstin Layman and defensive specialist Jordan Woods joined Schmidt, playing in her final career home match, with 11 digs.
 
Ashton Reese also had six kills and four blocks while hitting .308 while coming off the bench on the right side.
 
Mines, which has won the last two RMAC Tournaments, swept Western Colorado in Tuesday's quarterfinal round to record their seventh straight RMAC Tournament victory over the last three seasons.
 
Tourney Time
 
The Mavericks are 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 now 17-13 in it under Fleming, who began his tenure at CMU in 2005.
 
The Mavs now have a winning 9-7 record in the quarterfinal round under Fleming.
 
Playing in their third semifinal over the last four years on Friday, the Mavericks are a strong 6-2 in the semifinal round under Fleming.
 
The Mavs are 1-1 against Mines in the semifinal round and 1-5 against them in the RMAC Tournament under Fleming.
 
They Mavs are now 7-3 against the rest of the 8-team tournament field this season and are 1-3 against the other remaining semifinalists.
 
In the spring, the Mavericks, who won the RMAC's regular season title, recorded a tournament 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.
 
Mines then went on to win the RMAC Tournament title, their second straight and fourth in the last six years, with a championship match win over MSU Denver.
 
Post-Season Honors
 
The Mavericks were well represented on the RMAC's post-season honors list, released Wednesday.  The Mavericks had two major award winners and had five combined players named to the first and second team all-conference squads.
 
Sydney Leffler was named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year and was joined on the first team by redshirt freshman Sabrina VanDeList, the RMAC Freshman of the Year in the spring.  VanDeList is now a 2-time first team honoree.
 
Meanwhile, CMU redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman was named as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year.  She also earned her third career all-conference honor and was named to the Second Team All-RMAC squad for the second time this calendar year.
 
Maverick middle blockers Savannah Spitzer and Tye Wedhorn were also named to the second team squad earning their second career All-RMAC selections.  Spitzer, a redshirt sophomore, was a first team pick in the spring, while Wedhorn, now a redshirt junior, had also earned Second Team All-RMAC plaudits in 2018 as a freshman at Fort Lewis, where she played for two years before transferring to CMU in the fall of 2020.
 
Freshman record
 
Leffler surpassed the Dave Fleming coaching era record for kills in a season by a freshman on Tuesday after recording 16 in the quarterfinal win over Colorado Christian.  She had entered the match with an even 300 on the year and was the first Maverick freshman in 15 years to reach that mark.
 
Alisan Tompkins had been Fleming's only previous freshman to reach the milestone, recording an even 300 kills back in 2006.
 
1K Setter
 
Redshirt freshman Sabrina VanDeList also zoomed past the 1,000 assist mark for the season on Tuesday becoming the first Maverick setter since 2017 to reach quadruple figures.  VanDeList now has 1,039 assists on the season and ranks second in the RMAC with her per set average of 10.82.
 
Samantha Ritter was the last Maverick setter to reach 1,000, tallying 1,008 assists in 2017.
 
VanDeList's total is already the ninth best in the rally-scoring era, which dates back to 2001.
 
She also is tied for eighth in the rally-scoring era for single season service aces with 39.
 
Blackjack
 
The Mavericks recorded their 21^st win of the season on Tuesday after reaching the 20-win mark in their regular season finale over then 23^rd-ranked Regis last Friday night.
 
The Mavs have now won 20 or more matches in six different seasons under Fleming and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in four of the previous five.  CMU has made seven total NCAA Tournament appearances under Fleming and eight overall.
 
The Mavericks are also a strong 36-6 in this calendar year, good for an impressive .857 winning percentage.  They had gone 15-1 in the spring season, winning each of their first 15 matches before falling to Mines in the semifinals of the RMAC Tournament.
 
Moving on up
 
The Mavericks moved up two spots to fourth in this week's NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings, which were released Wednesday by the NCAA Division II Volleyball Committee.
 
Wednesday's rankings, which do not yet include results from the opening round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and Lone Star Conference Tournaments, will eventually determine the at-large selections and seeding for the region's portion of next month's NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
A total of eight teams will be selected on Monday via the official selection show, which will air on NCAA.com at 5:30 p.m. MST.  The tournament winners will receive automatic berths while the other six teams will be selected at-large.
 
The Mavericks, who are now 21-5 overall and 21-3 in "in-region" matches had been ranked sixth in the first two sets of rankings but moved up last week's victories over Westminster and Regis, which dropped a spot to fifth in the rankings, to close out the regular season.
 
MSU Denver continues to hold down the top spot in the rankings while Mine is still ranked second.  LSC Regular Season Champion Angelo State, which hosts the remaining rounds of the LSC Tournament, is still third.
 
Elsewhere, Regis fell to ninth-ranked CSU Pueblo in the RMAC Tournament on Tuesday and now anxiously await Monday's selection show for a possible at-large berth.  The Rangers slid a spot to fifth in this week's rankings behind the Mavericks.
 
Texas-Tyler lost a match to Texas-Permian Basin last week and moved down to the No. 6 spot while Lubbock Christian, West Texas A&M, CSU Pueblo and Texas A&M-Commerce all remained in the No. 7-10 spots. 
 
However, Texas A&M-Commerce was downed by Oklahoma Christian in the opening round of the LSC Tournament on Tuesday night, likely ending the Lions' season.  The other four ranked LSC teams are playing separate quarterfinal matches on Thursday in San Angelo, Texas.
 
Home Streaking
 
With Tuesday's quarterfinal win, the Mavericks improved to 9-1 at home this season and will finish 2021 on a 9-match home-court winning streak.  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 68-12 (.850) 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 32 of their 36 home matches, good for an .889 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 83-21 (.798) 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 321-164, good for a .662 winning percentage.  His 321 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 Orediggers
 
The second-seeded Orediggers, who are ranked tenth in this week's AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll, continue to lead the country with their .328 team attack percentage.  They also stand second in the country for kills per set (14.94) and third for assists per set (13.77).
 
They have won seven straight matches overall and have also won seven straight RMAC Tournament matches since falling in the 2018 semifinals at home.
 
The Orediggers had seven players selected to the All-RMAC squads, including RMAC Setter of the Year Drew Stokes, who received the honor for the second straight and third time overall.  She is now a 4-time First Team All-RMAC selection and leads the country with her 11.99 assist per set average.  Stokes is also third in the RMAC for service aces with 41 (0.44/set).
 
Amanda Donais, Elle Duis and Taylor Hicken were all first team selections as well, while Julia Eiken, Lindsey Jin and Rose Stuewe were second team picks.
 
Hicken leads the RMAC and ranks fourth nationally with her .440 attack percentage, within striking distance of the RMAC record of .451, set by CMU's Kasie Gilfert in 2018.  Hicken is also fourth in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.34 and has a team-high 311 to her credit.

Donais (2.89), Jin (2.67), Stuewe (2.63) and Eiken (2.51) are all averaging more than two kills per set as Stokes, who has 1,115 assists in total, does a tremendous job of distributing the ball.
 
Defensively, Duis ranks second in the conference for digs per set (4.54).
 
Eiken also leads the team with 65 blocks, one category where the Orediggers are a bit weak.  They check in just 13^th in the conference statistical rankings, averaging 1.48 per set.
 
In the win over the Mavs two weeks ago, Stuewe led the Orediggers with 12 kills on .524 hitting.  Jin (.579) and Eiken (.526) also hit above .500 on 11-kill nights.  Stokes had 38 assists and three aces while Hicken was held to six kills and a .143 hitting percentage.  However, she also recorded four aces.
 
14^th-year Head Coach Jamie Magalei is 21-9 in the RMAC Tournament and has led the Orediggers to four RMAC tournament titles.
 
Series History
 
The series with Mines has been intense over the last several years.  The Mavs hold a 22-18 lead in the Division II era series, although Mines has won the last two and four out of the last five meetings, including this month's 3-set (25-17, 25-14, 25-16) victory.
 
Friday's match-up will mark the first time since the 2008 RMAC Tournament semifinal that the teams will meet on a neutral-court.  That and a 2005 RMAC Tournament quarterfinal, were both played in Kearney, Nebraska and are the only two previous neutral-court match-ups in the Division II era.
 
Fleming is 9-14 against the Orediggers and 6-13 against Mines' 14^th year head coach Jamie Magalei, who is just five wins behind Fleming with 316 career wins after joining the elite 300-win club earlier this season.
 
Up Next
 
Should the Mavericks win Friday's match, they would advance to the RMAC Tournament Championship match for the seventh time under Fleming.  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, a very likely possibility considering their current regional ranking position.