GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  –  The Colorado Mesa women's lacrosse team (8-4, 7-1 RMAC) will make their way to the front range this weekend for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 2 seed.
Regis finished with a flawless conference record to host the tournament and gain the top-seed. UCCS took the No. 3 seed, followed by Fort Lewis at No. 4 to round out the 4-team bracket. The winners of Friday's semifinals will meet in the championship on Sunday at 12 p.m.
The Mavericks will play in the second semifinal Friday, taking on the Mountain Lions of UCCS, whom they have yet to face this season.
LAST TIME OUT
The Mavericks finished the regular season 8-4, and 7-1 in conference play. All of the team's losses have come from nationally ranked opponents.
After rescheduling their original April 9 game, the 10^th ranked Regis Rangers made their way west for a nationally ranked matchup. It was the first time since 2018 that the Mavericks had the home field advantage, playing in Denver in the previous five outings.
Regis scored twice in the first couple minutes of play, going up by five before the Regan Wentz stopped the scoring run to put the Mavs on the board. Melanie Evans would take advantage of a man-up opportunity in the final 10-seconds, but not enough as Regis put together 11 goals in the first half.
Ashton Whittle and Madison Navarro added two more goals in the second half, but was matched by eight goals in favor of the Rangers for a final 19-4 score.
A quick turnaround took the Mavericks to Salt Lake City to close out the conference schedule against Westminster.
In the first meeting, just seven points separated the team scores. This time, the Mavericks used a 14-6 edge in the first half, tacking on six more goals in the second half for a total of 20-goals to their opponents five.
Kiley Davis was behind a team high four goals, with Regan Wentz and Ashton Whittle adding hat tricks. Melanie Evans put together six points behind two goals and four assists.
Lula Mitchell earned the goalkeeping decision with six saves.  
ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN LIONS
As mentioned previously, the Mavericks and Mountain Lions did not meet during the regular season due to COVID-19 protocols.
Friday's semifinal will be the first time seeing each other since March 29, 2019. On that date, CMU took a 19-15 victory extending their overall series history wins to three straight.
This season UCCS sports an 8-3 record, 4-3 overall. The Mountain Lions opened the month of May with a loss to Regis, 8-17, an identical score to their first meeting of the season back in March.
Senior, Kiera Lowe is the go-to in the UCCS attack with 26-goals, one assist shy of a double-double. Lowe, a consistent starter has scored in all but one game this season with four hat tricks and two 4-goal games. Angela Naughton is the other player surpassing 20-goals, while also leading the team in assists with 13.
RMAC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Snagging one first-place vote, Colorado Mesa brought in 29-total points and were predicted to finish second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll. The other six first-place votes available were awarded to Regis who were favored to win the conference.

Kenzie Blackwell and Ashton Whittle landed on the 'Players to Watch' list.
Blackwell, a senior attack out of Granite Bay, Calif. returns for the Mavericks after a shortened 2020 season. Before the pandemic shut down the season, Blackwell led the team in goals racking up 11 in four games. She also assisted on five others for 16-total points, and scooped up seven ground balls, while causing two turnovers.

Whittle returns for her junior season as another key contributor to the Mavs front line attack. She started all four games during the abbreviated 2020 season, and scored the third most goals on the team with six.
MCHALE AT THE HELM
This seasons Maverick women's lacrosse team is under new leadership, with head coach Shannon McHale taking over the reins back in June of 2020.  McHale came to Colorado Mesa after spending the last three seasons as an assistant coach at perennial powerhouse Florida Southern. During her time with the Mocs, she helped the squad finish as the national runner-up, had six players earn IWLCA all-America honors, and won 18-straight games en route to the national title game.