GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After going 3-0 in Texas to raise their overall record to 5-2, the now 24th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will look to get off to a hot start in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Volleyball action when they host No. 6 MSU Denver on Thursday night at 6 p.m. before getting on a bus to travel to Salt Lake City for a Friday evening encounter at Westminster, which comes just 24 hours later.
 
Thursday's match against the Roadrunners, who knocked three four nationally-ranked teams, including former No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul, to jump 14 spots in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division II poll, will also be CMU's home opener in Brownson Arena.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
Returning home to play their first match in Brownson Arena after two mostly neutral-court weekend tournaments should excite the Mavericks.
 
CMU was a strong 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season and have enjoyed a great deal of home-court success over recent years, posting a 59-11 (.843) record at home over the past seven seasons since 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 three seasons, the Mavericks have won 23 of their 26 home matches, good for an .885 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 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 nine seasons since and including 2012, going 74-20 (.787) at home in that that span.
 
The Mavericks are slated to play nine regular season home matches this season, playing three of their first four conference affairs in front of a home crowd.
 
Freshman leading the way
 
Outside hitter Sydney Leffler, a freshman out of Eaton, Colorado, has been a standout for the Mavs.  She leads the team with 86 kills and ranks third in the entire RMAC with her 3.44 per set average.  Leffler has been in double figures for kills in six of her seven career matches thus far, recording a career-high 17 in Saturday's win over Eastern New Mexico in CMU's final match at the Midwestern State Hampton Inn-Vitational last weekend. She also hit an impressive .375 in the match after hitting at the same clip in Friday's win over the tournament-hosting Mustangs.
 
Leffler is hitting .276 overall this season and also ranks sixth in the RMAC for total points with her 3.66 per set average.
 
Tye-ing up the attack
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle blocker Tye Wedhorn has been a key part to the Mavericks' strong 5-2 start.  A Second Team All-RMAC pick at Fort Lewis as a freshman in 2018, the Glenwood Springs, Colorado native joined the Maverick squad for the 2020-21 academic year but saw limiting playing time appearing in just two matches during the spring.
 
She also began this season as a reserve as well but put down five kills and three blocks while hitting .500 off the bench in a Sept. 3 win over Sioux Falls, earning a start, her first as a Maverick, for CMU's next match against Seattle Pacific. 
 
Wedhorn has not relinquished that role since and has been in the starting lineup along with 2021 First Team All-RMAC middle blocker Savannah Spitzer in each of the last five straight matches.
 
Wedhorn has posted some big numbers since recording 14 kills in each of Saturday's 4-set wins over Arkansas Tech and Eastern New Mexico.  She also had six blocks against Arkansas Tech to match her total from the Seattle Pacific match.
 
Wedhorn is second behind Leffler in total kills this season with 52.  She also has a team-leading 23 blocks and ranks second in the RMAC for blocks per set at 1.21.  She also paces the Mavericks in total points per set at 3.68 to rank fifth in the RMAC.
 
Covering all the bases
 
The Mavericks have at least one individual ranked amongst the RMAC's top ten in all seven individual statistical categories.
 
The group is led by Wedhorn, who ranks second in blocks as mentioned above, and redshirt freshman setter Sabrina VanDeList, who sits third in the conference with her 9.92 per set assist average.  VanDeList also fifth in the conference for service aces per set at 0.48.

Defensively, Kerstin Layman stands fourth for digs per set at 4.40.
 
Meanwhile, Ashton Reese sits tenth in the conference for blocks per set at 1.00 while Savannah Spitzer is ninth with her .350 hitting percentage.
 
As mentioned above, Wedhorn (3.68) and Leffler (3.66) are ranked fifth and sixth for total points per set.
 
As a team, the Mavericks sit in the top half of the RMAC statistics in numerous categories, standing third with their .222 hitting percentage and second for blocking at 2.28 per set.  They also rank fourth for their opponent hitting percentage of .167.
 
In the polls
 
Despite going 3-0 last week, the Mavericks slipped two spots to 24^th in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, which was released on Monday. 
 
The poll continues to a bit of a jumbled mess with no less than seven different teams receiving first place votes, including new No. 1 Nebraska-Kearney, one of just three teams in the top 10 without a loss.
 
The 7-0 Lopers received 30 first place votes and have 1,082 points while moving up two spots.  Angelo State (7-2) remained second in the poll despite dropping two matches last week, including one to unranked Adams State.  However, the Rambelles did go 3-1 at the Colorado Premier Challenge to help retain their spot.  Washburn, now 8-1, moved up a spot to third while former No. 1 Concordia St.-Paul dropped to fourth after a 2-2 performance in Denver.
 
Wayne State, which dropped the championship match to MSU Denver moved up 12 spots to fifth and is one spot ahead of the Roadrunners, who climbed 14 spots to sixth.
 
Elsewhere in the RMAC, the Colorado School of Mines moved up four spots to 11^th after a 4-0 weekend in Colorado Springs, which included a win over Washburn.  The Orediggers are now 7-1 this season.
 
Regis (5-3) continues to be in the others receiving votes category.
 
One of CMU's two losses this season came to now No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State, which is off to an 8-0 start and up eight spots in this week's poll.  
 
RMAC Poll Table-Topping Clash
 
Coming off their impressive 15-1 and conference regular-season title winning spring season, the Mavericks were unsurprisingly receiving some pre-season attention.  They were picked first in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll, where the conference's 15 head coaches ranked their opposition 1-14 without voting for their own squad.  The Mavs received seven first place votes and scored 182 points.  MSU Denver, who ventures into Brownson Arena on Thursday, was picked second with 174 points after finishing second behind the Mavericks in last year's RMAC regular-season standings.  Mines was picked third with 172 points and received three first place votes as well.  Regis was picked fourth with one first place vote and 156 points.
 
Westminster, CMU's Friday night opponent, was picked 13^th.  Interestingly, the Mavericks next two opponents in Adams State and New Mexico Highlands were picked 14^th and 15^th, respectively.
 
300 & Counting
 
With CMU's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win over UCCS on Apr. 8, Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming became just the fifth coach 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.
 
Now in his 17^th season, Fleming is 305-161, good for a .654 winning percentage.  His 305 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 five times, including 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 MSU Denver
 
The Roadrunners will enter Thursday's match with a 6-2 record and hot off winning last weekend's Colorado Premier Challenge that they co-hosted with Regis in Denver last Friday and Saturday.  On Friday, the Roadrunners defeated Texas A&M-Commerce and No. 10 Central Missouri in 3-set sweeps.  They then took out No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul in three sets on Saturday morning before coming back to claim a 4-set win over No. 17 Wayne State (Neb.) in the Championship match on Saturday night.
The Roadrunners, who played three 5-set matches during a 2-2 overall performance at the Western Washington Invitational to begin the season, had last won the prestigious tournament, arguably the best in NCAA Division II volleyball in 2003.
 
Avaline Lai was named as the tournament MVP after putting down 21 kills on .485 hitting in the championship match over the Wildcats.  She was also named as the AVCA NCAA Division II National and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week after recording 63 kills (4.50/set) while hitting .491 throughout the weekend.
 
Fellow outside hitter Rylee Hladky was also named to the all-tournament team after posting 16 kills and 11 digs in the championship.
 
Both already have over 100 kills on the young season.  Lai has 107, an average of 3.34 per set, and is hitting lights out at a .397 clip from her outside hitter position.  She ranks fourth in the RMAC for kills per set and is sixth in attack percentage.  Hladky is sixth in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.19 and is third in total points per set at 3.89, thanks in part to her team-lead 16 service aces,  a mark that ranks her third in the conference.
 
Middle blocker Ember Canty has 30 blocks to her credit thus far while Ashlyn Cianciulli has recorded 129 digs, good for a 4.03 per set average to rank sixth in the conference.  Cianciulli is the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week.
 
Albanian freshman Amela Quershia and senior Jessa Megenhardt have been splitting time at the setter position in an 6-2 attack and are both averaging more than 5.50 assists per set.
 
As a team, the Roadrunners rank second in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .262.
 
About Westminster
 
The Griffins are 2-5 thus far after going 1-3 against California foes this past weekend at the SoCal Freeway Challenge, which was co-hosted by Cal State Dominguez Hills and Azusa Pacific.  Their one win of the weekend came in five sets over Dominguez Hills on Friday.  The Griffins had started the year with a 1-2 mark at the Dallas Baptist Patriot Tournament on Sept. 3-4, where they faced then No. 24 Wayne State, Arkansas Tech and Eastern New Mexico.  They defeated Eastern New Mexico in five sets.
 
Lydia Parkinson leads the Griffins with 70 kills while Olivia Curtis has 52.  Katie Jacox, who has 48, and Malinda Messner, who has 47, are right behind.  Messner is leading that group with a .255 attack percentage while Avery Alger is fifth in the conference with her .404 attack percentage in 19 sets.  She has 28 kills.
 
Alanna Lee has 97 digs to pace the squad while Jacox is second with 83.
 
Setter Bri Mortensen has 235 assists, an 8.10 per set average, and is tied with Jacox for the team lead in service aces with eight.  Mortensen ranks seventh in the conference for assists.
 
As a team, the Griffins stand tenth in the conference with a .166 attack percentage.
 
Series Histories
 
The Roadrunners and Mavericks have met at least once since at least 1993 in a long-standing rivalry that dates back before the Roadrunners joined the RMAC in 1996.  MSU Denver is 30-11 in the 41 meetings between the teams since 1993 although the Mavericks have won three out of the last four meetings, including in the 2018 RMAC Tournament Championship match in Golden.  The Mavs have also won at home in the last two meetings, including on Mar. 4, when the Mavericks won a 4-set match between the then nation's fourth-ranked Mavericks and third-ranked Roadrunners.
 
The Mavericks are 13-1 all-time against Westminster and sport a 10-1 record against the Griffins, since they joined the RMAC in 2015.  Westminster's lone win over the Mavericks came back on Sept 22, 2015 in Salt Lake City.  The Mavericks have won 11 straight matches in the series, nine of which have been in straight sets.  The other two have been decided in four sets, including a Jan. 30, 2021 encounter during the spring season in Salt Lake.
 
Up Next
 
After this week's two matches, the Mavericks will have a slight reprieve with six days off of competitive action before hosting Adams State and New Mexico Highlands on Friday, Sept. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 25, respectively.