GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After surviving a 5-set thriller on Saturday, the nation's second-ranked Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team is on the  brink of a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Regular Season title, which they would clinch with a victory on Monday evening at No. 13 Colorado School of Mines in their regular season finale.
 
First serve in the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena is set for 5 p.m. 
 
The Mavericks enter the match with a 13-0 record and a perfect 10-0 conference mark.  Mines is 8-3 overall and in conference play.
 
How to follow
 
Due to local health regulations, fans will not be permitted to attend the match.  However, it will be streamed live on the RMAC Network.  Live statistics will also be available and can be accessed at the links above.
 
At the top
 
As the only remaining undefeated team in the RMAC, the Mavericks lead the conference standings with a 10-0 mark.  More importantly, they lead the calculation standings, which were officially released via Twitter by the conference last Monday and updated again this week.
 
This year's RMAC Regular season title and the right to host the 8-team RMAC Tournament to be played Apr. 8-10 will be based on the NCAA Performance Indicator. 
 
Heading into this week, the Mavericks have an average of 16.90 while MSU Denver is second at 16.55.  A Monday win over Mines would be worth 20 points and push CMU's average to an uncatchable 17.18.  A Monday loss would be worth 11 points and push the Mavs' average to 16.36, slightly behind MSU Denver, which would then have a chance to win the RMAC title with a Wednesday home win over UCCS.  MSU Denver is currently 10-1.  The Roadrunners' lone loss came at CMU on Mar. 4.
 
Here is a quick rundown of how the PI works:

• Teams will earn points based on their opponent and whether they win or lose each match.  The better the opponent, the more points a team will earn, win or lose.
• The breaks for opponents occur at .250, .500 and .750 winning percentages and can change all year long
• The chart can be seen here
• Once a team has their points, they will be divided by the number of matches that have been played this year to get their PI number.
• The highest PI will be the conference champion and will earn the right to host the RMAC Tournament

Another new Ranking Record
 
The Mavericks continue to sit second in the latest AVCA Division II Coaches' Top 25 Poll (Mar. 24) and have now occupied that spot for three straight weeks.  The No. 2 ranking is the highest in program history.

The Mavericks had been ranked fourth in the Mar. 3 poll after occupying the No. 5 spot for the previous two weeks, all of which have been higher rankings than their previous all-time best of No. 7 coming into this season.
 
The Mavs have now been ranked in each of the last eight weekly regular season polls to date since Feb. 3, when they were ranked 20^th.  They have been included in the top 5 in each of the last six and in the top 10 for each of the last seven.
 
In the latest poll, the Mavericks received 1,120 points in the poll.  Only Lewis, 13-0 at the time of the poll and now 14-0, received more points.  The Flyers garnered 46 of the 47 first place votes and had 1,173 total points to retain the top spot.  Hillsdale is third with 1,034 while MSU Denver is fourth with 1014.  Oklahoma Baptist rounds out the top five.
 
Mines, which had been ranked sixth before losing two matches on Mar. 20, is 13^th with 586 points while Regis is tied for 21^st with 223 points.  CSU Pueblo, which beat both Mines and Regis on Mar. 20, is just outside the top 25 with 63 points.
 
It should be noted that only teams that have played at least one match this spring are eligible to be ranked in the poll.
 
Gut-Check moment
 
The Mavericks faced their biggest gut-check moment of the entire season on Saturday as the Mavericks trailed Western Colorado 14-11 in the decisive fifth set in Gunnison.  Facing three consecutive match points, the Mavericks went on to score the final five points to take the fifth set, 16-14 and the match, 3-2.  The Mavericks had won the first and third sets but lost their overall leads both times as they dropped the second and fourth sets before falling behind by as many as five points at 12-7.
 
However, the Mavericks scored the next four points to pull within 12-11 before back-to-back Mountaineer points made it 14-11.  Savannah Spitzer then put down two kills and teamed with Ashton Reese for a block in the final 5-point stretch.
 
Career Days
 
Spitzer finished Saturday's match with a career-high 18 kills while committing just two hitting errors on 32 attempts as she finished the match with a .500 hitting percentage.  She also had a career-high seven blocks finishing the match with a career-high 21 ½ points.
 
Reese also set a new career-high with seven blocks.
 
In the back-row, libero Kerstin Layman tallied 35 digs and 12 assists, both of which are new career-highs.  She also had her first career double-double.
 
Freshman setter SabrinaVanDeList also had a career-high 36 assists and recorded 13 digs in Saturday win.
 
Outside hitter Sierra Hunt also had a career-high 15 digs while matching a career-high with 12 kills.
 
History making-start
 
The Mavericks' 13-0 start is their best in their program's history, at least at the NCAA Division II level.
 
The last time the Mavericks have won nine or more consecutive matches at any point during a season came in 2014 when the Mavericks went on a 20-match winning streak into the NCAA Division II South Central Regional final, where their record-setting 29-4 season came to an end.
 
Nearing 300
 
Entering Monday's match, Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming, now in his 16^th season at the helm of the Maverick program, has 298 career wins to his credit.  He is now 298-158 in his tenure, good for a .653 career winning percentage.  His tenure is equal to the longest in the RMAC, amongst active coaches, and coached his 450^th career match against South Dakota Mines on Feb. 20.
 
In his time at CMU, which dates back to the 2005 season, Fleming has guided the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles (2014, 2018), 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, most recently in 2018, when they went 24-7.  Fleming was also named as the RMAC Co-Coach of the Year that year by a vote of his peers.  He also earned that honor outright in 2009 and 2014.
 
The double-doubles continue
 
In their first 13 matches, seven different Mavericks have combined to register 24 total double-doubles this season.  In 2019, when the Mavs played 27 matches while going 17-10, the Mavericks had three players combine for 17 double-doubles.  The Mavericks have had at least one player with a double-double in 11 of their last 12 matches.
 
Freshman outside hitter Sierra Hunt and junior libero Kerstin Layman joined the list of double-double-ers on Saturday as they each recorded the first of their respective careers.
 
Maddi Foutz and Sabrina VanDeList are tied for the team lead with six double-doubles each.  Ara Norwood has five while Holly Schmidt has four.  Hunt, Layman and Emily Tucker have one each.
 
Leading killers
 
As a team, the Mavericks lead the RMAC with their 14.73 kill per set average, a mark that ranks them fifth nationally.  A large part of that success comes from the balance that the Mavericks have nine different CMU players are averaging more than a kill per set.  Maddi Foutz has a team-high 145 (3.09/set) this year to lead the way while Holly Schmidt (2.87) is just behind.  Both sit amongst the RMAC's top ten, ranking fifth and ninth, respectively.
 
Savannah Spitzer, who leads the team while ranking third in the RMAC with her .412 hitting percentage, is also averaging 2.26 kills per set and is third on the team with 106 in total.  She was ranked 12^th nationally with her .397 hitting percentage heading into Saturday but should move up when the national statistical rankings after her 18-kill, .500 hitting effort.
 
About Mines
 
The Orediggers enter Monday's match ranked 13^th nationally but having lost their last two matches on Mar. 20 when they were swept by CSU Pueblo before falling to No. 21 Regis in five sets in Pueblo.  Those losses dropped the Orediggers from the No. 6 spot in the national poll.
 
The Orediggers, who are 8-3 overall, are a perfect 3-0 at home this season, and currently sit fifth in the RMAC RPI standings with a 14.36 average.
 
They lead the RMAC with their .270 team hitting percentage behind standout setter Drew Stokes, who leads the RMAC with her 11.41 assist per set average.
 
Taylor Hicken is second in the conference with her 3.27-kill per set average.  Elle Duis leads the conference in digs per set with 5.00.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks and Orediggers have had some epic matches as of late with five of the last seven matches between the teams since 2015 going to five sets.  The Mavericks have won just one of those and have won just three of the last 12 overall since 2011 but do hold a 21-16 in the overall series since both schools made the move to the NCAA Division II ranks in 1992.
 
In 2019, the teams played two 5-set matches.  Mines won both taking the regular season meeting on Nov. 8 in Grand Junction to earn home-court advantage in the RMAC Tournament, which they then used to claim another 5-setter just 11 days later.
 
However, the Mavericks claimed a 2018 regular season victory in Golden in five sets before winning the RMAC Tournament title there later in the season after defeating MSU Denver in the championship match.
 
Up Next
 
After this week's matches, the RMAC will announce the final RPI standings and seeding for the Apr 8-10 RMAC Tournament.
 
Many of CMU's indoor players will also play Beach Volleyball this Friday and Saturday in Tucson, Arizona competing in the Arizona Invitational as the Mavericks continue to balance their indoor and beach seasons this spring.