GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After playing their first nine matches and having another called off in the first 15 days of the season, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball has been able to enjoy a slower cadence of matches in lead-up to a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tilts at home in Brownson Arena this weekend.
 
The Mavericks, 6-3 overall and 1-1 in the early RMAC standings after a split in the opening weekend of conference play, will host Adams State University on Friday at 7 p.m. and New Mexico Highlands on Saturday at 6 p.m.  Both opponents will play at Westminster on the evening prior to facing the Mavericks.
 
Tickets are available for both matches and a live stream can be found on the RMAC Network for those who can not attend in person.  Live statistics can also be accessed at the link above.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
Although the Mavericks dropped a tight 4-setter against then No. 6 and now No. 3 MSU Denver at home last Thursday, the Mavs have enjoyed a lot of success on their home court.  The Mavericks went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season and are 59-12 (.831) at home over the past eight seasons since the start of 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 four seasons, the Mavericks have won 23 of their 27 home matches, good for an .852 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 74-21 (.779) at home in that that span.
 
The Mavericks are slated to play nine regular season home matches this season, including the two this weekend.
 
Getting Defensive
 
Maverick redshirt junior libero Kerstin Layman was named as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Week for the third time in the 2021 calendar year on Monday.  Layman, who had earned the honor twice during the spring season, recorded 44 digs over seven sets last week, good for an impressive average of 6.29 per.  She had a match and season-high 26 in Thursday's match against MSU Denver and then finished with a match-high 18 in Friday's 3-set sweep of Westminster.
 
In CMU's first nine matches, Layman has recorded 154 total digs to average 4.81, the third best average in the conference and the best average of her career to date.  She had 146 digs in 37 sets during the spring season and earned Second Team All-RMAC honors.  She was an Honorable Mention All-RMAC pick as a sophomore in the fall of 2019 when she had 442 total digs, good for a 4.56 per set average over 97 sets.
 
Layman has recorded 804 digs in her career thus far.
 
Impact Hunt
 
Maverick redshirt freshman Sierra Hunt, an All-RMAC Honorable Mention pick during the 2021 spring season, made a big impact coming off the bench in last Friday's 3-set sweep of Westminster.  She finished the match with a career-high 14 kills while hitting .667 on 21 errorless swings, even more impressive considering she did not enter the match until well into the second set with the Mavericks trailing 15-14 in that frame.  She put down five kills on nine kills during the rest of that set, which the Mavs pulled out 25-23 and then recorded nine kills on 12 swings in the third set, which the Mavericks dominated, 25-14.
 
Hunt had played sparingly in non-conference tournament play early this season making appearances in four matches and four total sets prior to Friday.  Her previous career-high for kills had been 12, a total she had in three separate matches during the spring season.
 
Freshman Killer
 
Hunt came on in place of true freshman Sydney Leffler who has been a mainstay and shining star in the Maverick lineup early this season.  The Eaton, Colorado native had a match and career-high 22 kills in last Thursday night's match against then No. 6 MSU Denver.
 
In the process, Leffler became the first Maverick freshman to record 20 or more kills in a single match since Allison Smith put down 24 in a 5-set match against Colorado Christian on Oct. 14, 2016.
 
Leffler leads the Mavericks with 113 total kills this season and is second in the RMAC with her per set average of 3.65.  Leffler also ranks fourth in the RMAC for points per set (3.87) and has been in double figures for seven for kills in seven of her first nine collegiate matches. 
 
Benefiting from a 5-1
 
Maverick redshirt freshman Sabrina VanDeList has unsurprisingly benefitted, at least statistically, from running a primarily 5-1 offense this fall after serving as the primary setter in CMU's 6-2 offensive attack in the spring.
 
In the first nine matches and 32 sets of the fall, VanDeList has recorded 327 assists, good for a 10.22 per set average, nearly four higher than her spring season average of 6.28 that helped her earn First Team All-RMAC and RMAC Freshman of the Year accolades.
 
VanDeList, who also leads the Mavs with 14 aces, has also been able to register 12 kills and 11 blocks in her front-row rotations this season.
 
She has also been able to record a team-high four double-doubles and had her first three 40-plus assist nights of her still young career in consecutive matches from Sept. 11-16.  She matched her career-high with 42 assists in last Thursday's match against MSU Denver while also recording ten digs, four blocks and three kills against the Roadrunners.  She then had 37 assists, eight digs and two blocks and a kill against Westminster and averaged 11.28 assists per set last week.
 
The only one
 
The Mavericks continue to have an individual ranked amongst the RMAC's top ten in all seven individual statistical categories, a claim that no other RMAC school can currently claim.
 
Leffler, mentioned above, leads the way with her No. 2 ranking in kills per set and fourth in points per set.  Layman is third in digs per set as is VanDeList for assists. 
 
Meanwhile, Savannah Spitzer is ranked fourth in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .381 while Tye Wedhorn ranks sixth for blocking averaging 1.08 block per set.
 
As a team, the Mavericks sit in the top half of the RMAC statistics in numerous categories, standing third in five of them.  They are hitting .226 and holding opponents to a .169 clip, ranking third in the RMAC in both.  The Mavs also stand third in blocking (2.16/set), assists (12.72/set) and kills (13.44/set).
 
300 & Counting
 
With CMU's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win over UCCS on Apr. 8, Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming became just the fifth of now six coaches 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 306-162, good for a .654 winning percentage.  His 306 career wins are the most of any active RMAC Coach and his tenure is equal to the longest in the conference amongst active coaches.  He shares that distinction with Lindy Mortensen at Adams State, who he and the Mavericks will face-off against on Friday.
 
The Colorado School of Mines' Jamie Magalei recently joined the 300 win club, picking up her 300^th of now 301 career wins over Regis last Thursday.
 
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.
 
The end of a run
 
The Mavericks' run of nine consecutive times to be included in the AVCA Division II Top 25' Coaches Poll came to an end on Monday as they dropped from the No. 24 spot out of the poll.  However, the Mavericks are still well positioned amongst the "others receiving votes and listed on two more ballots category" coming in No. 29 in the overall voting with 58 total points, and could very well find themselves back in the top 25 with a pair of wins.
 
All three of CMU's losses have come to other teams in the poll this season, two of which have come against teams currently ranked in the top five.  MSU Denver (8-2) is now receiving seven first place votes and is third overall while undefeated (10-0) Southwest Minnesota State is now ranked fifth while receiving nine first place votes.  The Mavericks took a set off both of those foes.
 
Grand Valley State, the only other team to have defeated the Mavericks, is also in the "others receiving votes" category with 23 points.

Washburn is the new No. 1 after knocking off former No. 1 Nebraska-Kearney, now ranked fourth.  Angelo State remained in the No. 2 spot.
 
The Mavericks had been ranked in the top 25 in each of the past nine polls, reaching a school-record ranking of No. 2 before finishing third in the final AVCA poll of the spring season, which only included teams who played in the spring.
 
The Mavs then began the season ranked 10^th in the fall preseason poll and were No. 22 in the Sept. 6 poll and No. 24 last week.
 
About Adams State
 
The Grizzlies have enjoyed a solid start to the fall season going 6-5 overall thus far while winning their first two RMAC matches heading into a Thursday night encounter at Westminster in Salt Lake City.  They have won five of their last seven overall, starting that streak with a Sept. 7 home sweep of the nation's second-ranked Angelo State University Rambelles.  They then won a 5-set match at Colorado Christian last Tuesday (Sept. 14) to begin conference play before coming home for a Friday (Sept. 17) 3-set sweep of Chadron State.
 
In the spring season, the Grizzlies went just 2-12 overall and 2-11 in RMAC play.
 
This year's Grizzly squad is in the lower half of many of the RMAC's team statistical categories but is ranked second in the conference for blocking, averaging 2.30 per set.
 
Individually, Shannon Mulkey is tied for seventh in that category with an even one block per set.  Graduate transfer outside hitter Sai Collins, who used to play at Dixie State, leads the team with 104 kills (2.60/set) while Mulkey, a senior middle hitter is right behind with 90 kills and her 2.95 per set average.  She is also hitting .240 while Chasey Blach, a junior middle and outside hitter, is hitting at a .257 clip with 72 kills as the only Grizzly to have been in the starting lineup all 11 times.
 
Freshman Madeleine Benally and junior Bailey Schlosser have split time at the setter position as Benally having made seven starts while recording 189 assists in 25 sets, good for a 7.56 per set average.  She ranks eighth in the RMAC while Schlosser has made four starts and ranks ninth in the RMAC with her 7.46 per set average (179 assists) in 24 sets played.
 
Sierra Leone Sanchez freshman leads the back row with 132 digs (3.30/set).
 
About New Mexico Highlands
 
The Cowgirls will enter the weekend and a Friday night match at Westminster with a 4-7 overall record.  They are 1-1 in conference play and have won three of their last four overall.
 
On Tuesday night, the Cowgirls won a 5-set match at Eastern New Mexico as Lisi Langi put down 19 kills while Terayah Stukes had 17.  Stacy Johnson also added 12 kills and four blocks while hitting .524 while setter Soleil Gandara registered 59 assists.
 
Langi, a junior outside and opposite hitter, is seventh in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.18 having recorded a league-high 143 in total. 
 
Gandara is now tenth in the RMAC for assists per set (7.38) while Elena Rivera stands fourth for digs per set at 4.38 having recorded a conference-leading 197 in total.  Johnson ranks eighth in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .342.
 
Tom Duke has returned as the head coach of the Cowgirl program, which did not play in 2020-21 due to COVID and governmental restrictions.  He previously coached at NMHU from 2003-07 leading the team their second best season in program history (19-8) in 2005 while finishing second in the RMAC West Division standings twice.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have won five straight and nine out of the last ten matches against Adams State to take a 37-16 lead in the Division II era (1992-Present) series history.  Adams State's last win in Grand Junction came back in 2012, the only year the Grizzlies have qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament.  The Mavericks are 19-7 against the Grizzlies at home.
 
Maverick Coach Dave Fleming is 20-7 all-time against Lindy Mortensen in the coaching battle.
 
The Mavericks have been even more impressive against New Mexico Highlands going 42-10 against the Cowgirls in the Division II era.  They have won 12 straight and 19 of the last 20 matches in the series and are 23-1 against them at home.  NMHU's last win in Brownson Arena came back in 2000.
 
The Cowgirls have won a set in three of the last five encounters and took the Mavericks to five sets in Grand Junction back in 2013.
 
Fleming is 5-1 against Duke and 23-2 against the Cowgirls in his coaching tenure.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's home matches, the Mavericks will play their next four away from home, beginning with a Friday, Oct. 1 re-match with MSU Denver.  They are then at Colorado Christian on Oct. 2, at Fort Lewis on Oct. 8 and at Western Colorado on Oct. 9 before playing their next home match on Oct. 15 against Black Hills State.