COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The title-winning and history-making Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team was well represented in the Spring 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Major Awards and all-conference teams, which were announced by conference officials on Wednesday after a vote of the league's head coaches.
 
Senior Maddi Foutz was named as the RMAC Player of the Year while fellow First Team All-RMAC selection Sabrina VanDeList was named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year.    Sophomore Savannah Spitzer was also tabbed to the first team.
 
Meanwhile, 16^th year Head Coach Dave Fleming was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year.
 
The Mavericks, who are 14-0 overall and 11-0 in RMAC play entering this week's RMAC Tournament in Brownson Arena, also had two second team picks in juniors Holly Schmidt and Kerstin Layman and another honorable mention selection in freshman Sierra Hunt.
 
Foutz, a native of Bayfield, Colorado, is just the third Maverick to earn RMAC Player of the Year honors joining 2-time winner Amy Miller (1993-94) and Kasie Gilfert (2018) in that elite club. 
 
VanDeList, a native of Severance, Colorado and 2020 graduate of Fort Collins High School is the fourth Maverick to claim freshman of the year plaudits joining Lindsay Dumas (1999), Drew Choules (2004) and Taylor Woods (2015).
 
Fleming's coach of the year accolade is the fourth of his tenure (2009, 2014, 2018) and comes after he led the Mavericks to the first perfect regular season in RMAC history.  If the Mavericks win their RMAC Tournament quarterfinal against UCCS, he would become just the fifth coach in conference history to have won 300 career matches while coaching in the RMAC.
 
The Mavericks last had three first team selections in 2014, which also the last time that the Mavericks had six total players recognized.  That year's team went 18-1 in the RMAC and 29-4 overall while winning a share of the RMAC Regular Season crown, the RMAC Tournament title before advancing to the final of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.
 
CMU also won the 2018 RMAC Tournament title.
 
Foutz, an outside hitter, who had played as a defensive specialist at Division I Colorado State in 2017 and 2018 before joining the Maverick program in the fall of 2019, is tied for second in the RMAC for total kills (158) and leads the team with 144 digs this spring.  She is also sixth in the RMAC for total points (172 ½) also had six double-doubles while hitting a strong .246 this season.
 
VanDeList, CMU's primary setter in the Mavs' 6-2 offense, also has six double-doubles to her credit this season, which has seen her earn RMAC Setter of the Week honors in each of the last three weeks.  She has tallied a team-high 328 assists (6.43/set) and 129 digs (2.53/set), the second most on the team behind Foutz.  She is also second on the team for aces with 17 and has helped lead the Mavericks to the RMAC lead in team kills per set (14.90), the sixth highest average in al of Division II.  The Mavs also rank 12^th in hitting percentage at .253.
 
Spitzer, a sophomore middle blocker out of Aurora, Colorado and Cherokee Trail High School, is a major part of that hitting percentage success.  She leads the RMAC and ranks sixth nationally with her attack percentage of .426 heading into this week's RMAC Tournament.  That mark is currently second on CMU's single-season record chart behind only Gilfert, who set the RMAC and CMU record of .451 in 2018.  She is also second on the team with 119 total kills and 30 blocks and has been named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week in each of the last two weeks.
 
Layman, who was an honorable mention selection in the fall of 2019, ranks eighth in the RMAC for digs per set (3.97) and is third on the team in total digs with 123 despite missing the first five matches of the abbreviated spring season and then playing as a defensive specialist in three more before moving back into her starting libero role.  The Littleton, Colorado native and Columbine High School product, has had 102 of her digs in the last six matches alone as CMU's libero, recording a career-high 35 against Western Colorado on Mar. 27.  She has been named as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week twice in the last three weeks.
 
Schmidt, an outside hitter from Castle Rock, Colorado who attended Castle View High School, ranked eighth in the RMAC for kills per set (2.90) and is hitting .228.  She also has 101 digs and has recorded four double-doubles while reaching double-figures for kills in six separate matches.  She recorded a career-high 25 kills along with 14 digs against South Dakota Mines on Feb. 20, helping her earn RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
 
Hunt, who has split time with Schmidt in the starting line-up as an outside hitter, has emerged as a key member of the squad in this her freshman season.  She has been in double-figures for kills in four of the last seven matches, recording 12 in three different efforts.  She has 68 kills, 40 digs and 11 blocks this season and registered a career-high 15 digs against Western Colorado to record her first career double-double.   She hails from Aurora, Colorado and is a 2020 graduate of Rangeview High School.
 
As the top seed, the Mavericks will host the RMAC Tournament, which begins Thursday in Brownson Arena.  The Mavericks play No. 8 seed UCCS in the quarterfinal round at 5 p.m.