GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After winning their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Regular Season title since 2014 last week, the Colorado Mesa University Volleyball team will put its undefeated record on the line when the Mavericks play host to the RMAC Tournament in Brownson Arena, beginning on Thursday.
The Mavericks will serve as the top-seed in the tournament. They will face eighth-seeded UCCS in the quarterfinal round at 5 p.m. on Thursday evening. A win would send them to Friday's semifinals against either No. 4 seed Colorado School of Mines or No. 5 seed Western Colorado University, CMU's last two opponents of the regular season. That semifinal will be played at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday's championship match is set for 6 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 MSU Denver will take on No. 7 seed Colorado Christian at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. No. 3 seed CSU Pueblo was due to take on No. 6 seed South Dakota Mines in the first quarterfinal at 11 a.m. However, that match has been canceled and declared a no contest after positive COVID-19 tests within the South Dakota Mines program have forced the Hardrockers to withdraw from the tournament. The RMAC made that announcement on Tuesday morning. CSU Pueblo now receives a free pass to the semifinals and will play the winner of the MSU Denver/Colorado Christian match in Friday's first semifinal at 5 p.m.
UCCS was originally not qualified for the RMAC Tournament after finishing ninth in the RMAC's RPI standings. However, original No. 4 seed Regis bowed out of the RMAC Tournament late last week due to a department-wide COVID pause. The No. 5-8 seeds were then each moved up a line as UCCS was granted access.
Tickets are on sale for what is now a
7-team tournament by session through the RMAC Tournament webpage. A limited number of 450 fans will be permitted for each session.
The Mavericks will open up Session II on Thursday. Friday's two semifinal matches are both in Session III while Saturday's Championship match makes up Session IV.
For fans who can not attend, the live stream on the RMAC Network and live statistics for all six matches can be accessed at the links above.
Historic Season
The Mavericks enter the RMAC Tournament with a perfect 14-0 overall record. Although this unusual 2021 spring season was shorter than a traditional fall season, the Mavericks are the first team in RMAC Volleyball history to complete the entire regular season with an unblemished record.
CMU went 11-0 in conference matches throughout the season and won the RMAC's Regular Season title with a 17.18 RPI (Rating Percentage Index). Because teams played an unequal number of matches in this COVID-effected season, it was that index that determined the regular season championship as well as qualification and seeding for this week's tournament.
MSU Denver, which went 11-1 in RMAC matches, was second in the RPI standings at 16.42.
The Mavericks are also the first RMAC team since the 2016 MSU Denver squad (18-0), to go unbeaten in conference play.
The Mavericks also accomplished the feat back in 1991 (12-0), 1987 (7-0) and 1984 (8-0).
Regardless of the outcome of this week's tournament, the Mavericks are assured of their best ever-winning percentage for a season this year. The current winning-percentage is .879, set by the 2014 team that went 29-4 overall.
Title No. 11
This year's RMAC Regular Season title is the 11
th in the CMU Volleyball program's history. It is the first since 2014 when the Mavericks went 18-1 in conference play to share the RMAC title with the Colorado School of Mines. The Mavericks had defeated the Orediggers that year and earned the No. 1 seed and the right to host the RMAC Tournament, which they won.
CMU's other nine RMAC crowns came in 1984, 1985, 1986. 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1994.
Nearing 300
Maverick Head Coach
Dave Fleming, now in his 16
th season at the helm of the Maverick program, will enter Thursday's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal with 299 career wins to his credit, the most of any active coach in the conference by ten over Mines' Jamie Magalei, who has 289 entering this weekend.
A win on Thursday would make Fleming just the fifth oach in RMAC history to win 300 matches while coaching in the conference, an elite club that currently includes only his predecessor Rusty Crick, Regis' Frank Lavrisha, MSU Denver's Debbie Hendricks and Rick Squires of former RMAC member Nebraska-Kearney, which now calls the MIAA home. Squires is the only active coach in the group.
Crick, a RMAC Hall of Fame inductee, won 563 career matches at the helm of the Maverick program for 1982-2004. That total is highest number of wins coming solely from when an institution was a member of the RMAC.
Squires is the fifth winningest coach in Division II history with 882 career wins and counting. In his 22 seasons at Nebraska-Kearney, which was an RMAC member from 1994-2011, he has won 676 matches. He coached in the RMAC from 1999-2011, winning 417 matches in that time.
Lavrisha won 637 career matches in 30 seasons at Regis, which joined the RMAC in 1996, 10 seasons after his tenure with the Rangers began in 1986. He is now the coach at Division I University of San Francisco. He has 665 total wins as a head coach, including 380 while in the RMAC.
Hendricks won 353 matches with the Roadrunners from 2000-15 and retired with 549 total victories in total. Another MSU Denver Coach in Pat Johnson won 391 from 1968-87 but never coached in the RMAC.
Western New Mexico's Jim Callender won 356 matches in his 21 years at Western New Mexico, which was a member of the RMAC for part (2005-16) of his 1998-2018 tenure with the Mustangs. 214 of those wins came while WNMU was in the RMAC. Callender retired with 730 total career wins to his credit in 34 total seasons years at six different institutions.
More about Fleming
Fleming is now 299-158 in his tenure, good for a .654 career winning percentage. His tenure, which dates back to 2005, 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.
Fleming has guided the Mavericks to seven NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles (2014, 2018), two RMAC Regular Season titles (2014, 2020-21) 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.
On Wednesday, Fleming was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time his career after a vote of his peers. He was also named as the RMAC Co-Coach of the Year in 2018 after winning the honor outright in 2009 and 2014.
A new opponent
The Mavericks defeated all but one RMAC opponent that played this spring. UCCS was the only team the Mavericks did not play in the regular season, a fact that is set to change on Thursday when the Mavs take on the Mountain Lions.
UCCS was due to have played in Grand Junction on Mar. 4 but was forced to bow out of a 3-team RMAC pod with CMU and MSU Denver due to COVID issues at the time.
The Mavs also did not face CSU Pueblo in a conference match, but did defeat the ThunderWolves in a non-conference affair on the opening day of the season (Jan. 24).
New Mexico Highlands did not play at all this spring.
Weekly Honor Sweep
The Mavericks swept this week's RMAC Player of the Week honors, which were announced on Monday.
Freshman setter
Sabrina VanDeList was named as the RMAC Setter of the Week for the third straight week after recording 23 assists, eight digs and a match-high three service aces in last Monday's RMAC title-clinching sweep of No. 13 Colorado School of Mines. The Mavericks also hit a strong .305 as a team in the match.
Sophomore middle
Savannah Spitzer received the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week for the second consecutive time after she put down 13 kills while hitting .571 in the win over Mines. She also had three blocks.
Meanwhile,
Kerstin Layman was honored as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks after recording 19 digs while leading the Maverick defense that held Mines to just two service aces and to a .204 team attack percentage.
The Mavs have now received seven RMAC Player of the Week honors in the last three weeks alone and have a league-high 11 throughout the season. Seven different Mavericks have been recognized, a group that also includes
Maddi Foutz,
Emily Tucker,
Holly Schmidt and
Haley Hahn.
Honors… You like honors?
The Mavericks certainly do and were well represented on the RMAC Major Awards and All-RMAC team announcement, made Wednesday.
Maverick senior outside hitter
Maddi Foutz was named as the RMAC Player of the Year while setter
Sabrina VanDeList was named as the RMAC Freshman of the Year. Both were named to the First Team All-RMAC squad along with sophomore middle blocker
Savannah Spitzer while Fleming, as mentioned above, was tabbed as the RMAC Coach of the Year.
The Mavericks also had two Second Team All-RMAC picks in junior libero
Kerstin Layman and junior outside hitter
Maddi Foutz. Freshman outside hitter
Sierra Hunt was an honorable mention selection.
The three first team selections are the most the Mavericks have had since 2014, when they also had three. The six total selections are also the most CMU has had since 2014 and led the RMAC???
Elite Company
Foutz is just the third Maverick to ever earn RMAC Player of the Year accolades joining 2-time selection and CMU Hall of Honor Inductee Amy Miller (1993-94) and recent superstar
Kasie Gilfert (2018).
VanDeList is the fourth Maverick to earn RMAC Freshman of the Year honors joining Lindsay Dumas (1999), Drew Choules (2004) and
Taylor Woods (2015).
Ranking Record with a first place vote
The Mavericks continue to sit second in
the latest AVCA Division II Coaches' Top 25 Poll, released Wednesday (Apr. 7) and have now occupied that spot for five 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 ten regular season polls since Feb. 3, when they were ranked 20
th. They have been included in the top 5 in each of the last eight and in the top 10 for each of the last nine.
In the latest poll, the Mavericks received 1,121 points in the poll and are receiving one first place vote. Only Lewis, 15-0, is receiving more points. The Flyers garnered 45 of the 47 first place votes and had 1,173 total points to retain the top spot.
There are now four teams who will be participating in the RMAC Tournament amongst the nation's top 25. MSU Denver is ranked third while Mines dropped two spots to 15
th after the Mavericks defeated them last Monday. CSU Pueblo moved into the No. 25 spot of this week's poll.
Regis, who is not participating in the RMAC Tournament, is also nationally-ranked at No. 22.
It should be noted that only teams that have played at least one match this spring are eligible to be ranked in the poll.
History making-run
The Mavericks' 14-0 start is their best in their program's history. The winning streak of 14 consecutive wins make for the second longest winning streak in program history.
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.
Leading killers
As a team, the Mavericks continue to lead the RMAC with their 14.90 kill per set average, a mark that ranks them sixth nationally. It is also the best average for the Mavs as a team since 2007, when they put down 15.25 kills per set.
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 158 (3.16/set) this year to lead the way while
Holly Schmidt (2.90) is just behind. Both sit amongst the RMAC's top ten, ranking fourth and eighth, respectively. Foutz is tied for second in the conference with 158 total kills.
Savannah Spitzer, who leads the RMAC with her .426 attack percentage, the sixth best mark in all of Division II, is second on the team in total kills with 119, six more than Schmidt. Spitzer is averaging 2.38 per set.
Efficient Hitter
Savannah Spitzer's current .426 individual attack percentage has her on pace to finish the season in the No. 2 spot in CMU's single-season charts.
Kasie Gilfert set the CMU and RMAC record of .451 when she won the national statistical title in 2018.
Gilfert also holds the current No. 2 mark of .391, which she set in 2019.
About UCCS
The Mountain Lions finished the regular season with a 4-9 overall record. They went 4-7 in conference matches and finished ninth in the RMAC RPI standings at 9.91, but received a life-line to their season when Regis was forced to withdraw from the RMAC Tournament.
Junior outside hitter Lauren Shockley leads the team in kills (157) and total points (182.5), thanks in part to her team-high 15 service aces. She ranks third in the conference for points per set (3.58) and sixth for kills per set (3.08). Shockley is the only Mountain Lion with 100 or more kills this season and earned Second Team All-RMAC honors.
Sophomore setter Emily Ettel is fourth in the RMAC for assists per set (8.72) while redshirt junior Jordyn Kinsey stands ninth in the conference for digs with her 3.84 per set average.
Grace Ferguson leads the team with 37 blocks, good for a 0.84 per set average.
Maren Burkhart, who is second on the team with 84 kills, is hitting .225.
The Mountain Lions are hitting .164 as a team to rank seventh in the RMAC statistics. Their opponents have hit .193 against them, a mark that puts UCCS ninth in the conference, defensively. They also rank 13
th in blocks (1.52) and 14
th in digs (12.68)
Series Histories
The Mavericks hold a 29-8 lead in the series with UCCS since 1994 and have won three straight and seven of the last eight match-ups. The Mavericks are 14-2 at home against the Mountain Lions, who did claim a 5-set win over the Mavericks on Nov. 5, 2016.
The two teams last met in the RMAC Tournament in 2014, when the Mavericks claimed a 27-25, 25-11, 25-17 3-set sweep in the quarterfinal round of that year's tournament, which CMU also hosted.
Up Next
This weekend's RMAC Tournament will conclude the 2021 spring season.
However, many of CMU's indoor players will travel with their beach counterparts to the AVCA Small College Beach Championships in Tavares, Florida next Friday-Sunday (Apr. 16-18).
