GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 7-match winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will be on the road this weekend facing Western Slope rivals Western Colorado University and Fort Lewis College on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
 
The Mavericks, 15-4 overall, will be looking for a season sweep of both opponents and enter the weekend ranked 20th in the national poll and tied for third in the RMAC standings with a 10-2 conference record.
 
Western Colorado will enter Friday's 6 p.m. match in Gunnison with a 2-17 overall record and is tied for last in the conference with a 1-11 record.
 
The Mavs will then head to Durango for Saturday's match, which will begin at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than originally planned.
 
Fort Lewis, 7-11 overall, is currently in a 3-way tie for seventh in the conference standings with a 5-7 league mark.
 
A live stream for both of this week's and all of the Mavs' conference matches can be found on the RMAC Network.
 
Live statistics for this weekend's matches can be found at the links above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks shook off a slow start and swept UCCS last Friday.  The Mavs trailed 18-13 in the first set but came back to win it, 26-24.  They then trailed 13-10 in the second before winning 15 of the final 19 points to win it 25-17.  They also won the third set, 25-17.
 
Sydney Leffler recorded 13 kills on .417 hitting while Erin Curl recorded ten throughout the bench.  Maddi Foutz also came off the bench to provide a much-needed spark and finished with a season-high seven kills.
 
Defensively, Kerstin Layman had 18 digs and three aces.
 
On Saturday, the Mavericks claimed a 4-set win (26-24, 15-25, 25-20, 25-22) over CSU Pueblo, which was tied with the Mavs in the RMAC standings and receiving votes in the national poll coming into the match.  Leffler matched a career-high by putting down 22 kills on .487 hitting while fellow outside hitter Sierra Hunt registered 14.  Curl also had one of the Mavs' two double-doubles with 13 kills and 10 digs.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList also had a double-double after recording a season-high 58 assists while coming up with 11 digs.  She also had five service aces to match a career-high.
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks held on to the No. 20 spot in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll.  The Mavs have now been ranked in the top 20 for three straight weeks and in the top 25 for all eight regular season polls since Aug. 29 after starting out in the "others receiving votes" category of the preseason poll.
 
The Mavs received 292 points in the polling of 47 AVCA member coaches from around the country.
 
They are still one of four RMAC teams in the top 25.  MSU Denver continues to hold down the No. 2 spot while Regis dropped two spots to No. 18 after falling to the Colorado School of Mines, which moved up one rung to No. 22, in a battle of nationally ranked squads last Friday.
 
MSU Denver and Regis will play this Saturday.
 
CSU Pueblo, who the Mavs defeated, is still in the others receiving votes category of the poll.
 
Wayne State (Neb.) continues to hold down the No. 1 spot as a unanimous first place pick.  Concordia St.-Paul is still third while Minnesota Duluth moved up a spot to No. 4.  Southwest Minnesota State is the fourth Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference team in the top five at No. 5.
 
CMU's four losses have come against teams in the top eight in MSU Denver, twice, Southwest Minnesota State, and Tampa, who have a combined 55-5 record.  Tampa slipped four spots to eighth in this week's poll after losing for just the second time last week.
 
On a regional basis, there are five NCAA Division II South Central Regional teams in the top 25 with No. 11 West Texas A&M being the lone Lone Star Conference representative while joining the four aforementioned RMAC teams.  Dallas Baptist is also receiving votes in the AVCA poll.
 
Another milestone approaching
 
Having already reached the 2,000 assist and 500 dig career milestones in recent weeks, Maverick redshirt sophomore Sabrina VanDeList is quickly approaching another milestone and will enter Friday's match just three service aces away from 100 in her career.  She has recorded 20 of her 97 career service aces in the last six matches alone, registering a pair of 4 and pair of 5-ace efforts.
 
If she reaches 100, VanDeList would become just the fourth Maverick in the rally scoring era (2001-Present) to reach the milestone joining Drew Choules (153), Taylor Woods (120) and Megan Rush (107).
 
VanDeList leads the RMAC with 36 service aces and her 0.56 per set average that also puts her 27th in all of Division II.  She had 44 aces (0.42/set) during the 2021 fall season, finishing the year ranked fourth in the conference.
 
A day early
 
Maverick sophomore outside hitter Sydney Leffler received her second career RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honor on Monday (Oct. 17), which came a day before the anniversary of her first such career honor.  Leffler had been the Oct. 18, 2021 RMAC Offensive Player of the Week and earned her second award after leading all RMAC players with 35 kills over the weekend.  She averaged 5.00 per set and hit a combined .460 in the Mavs' two weekend victories over UCCS and CSU Pueblo.
 
Three straight weeks
 
With Leffler's selection, the Mavericks have now had at least one RMAC Player of the Week award-winner in each of the last three weeks.  Sabrina VanDeList had received back-to-back RMAC Setter of the Week awards on Oct. 3 and 10 while Kerstin Layman was also selected as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 3.
 
Leffler is CMU's first offensive award winner of the 2022 campaign.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 18^th season as the Mavs' head coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 336 career victories.  He is 336-170 in his time at CMU, good for a .663 winning percentage in over 500 matches (506). 
 
The Mavs recorded their sixth 20-win season under Fleming in the fall of 2021 after going 15-1 while winning the RMAC's 2021 Spring Season.
 
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has now led the Mavericks to eight NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season titles (2014, 2021-Spring), two RMAC Tournament crowns (2014, 2018) and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).

The Mavericks have had winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and are a combined 226-88 (.720) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks continued their strong home-court form last weekend.
 
With the weekend wins over UCCS and CSU Pueblo, the Mavs raised their home record to 6-1 this year.  The Mavs are now 74-13 (.851) at home since the start of 2014.  They have not lost more than one home match in each of the previous 4 ½ seasons, going 38-5 (.884) since the start of 2019.
 
They went 9-1 at home last year with their only loss coming to MSU Denver, which is the only team to have knocked off the Mavs at home this year as well.
 
The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavs went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season.  In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.
  
The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 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 ten completed seasons since and including 2012, going 89-22 (.802) since the start of 2012.
 
About Fort Lewis
 
The Skyhawks are currently 7-11 overall and sport a 5-7 conference record, good to be part of a 3-way tie for seventh place in the conference standings and fighting for a spot in next month's 8-team RMAC Tournament.  They have won two of their last three and three of their last five after falling to CMU in Grand Junction on Sept. 30.
 
They play four of their final six at home, including on Friday when they host Westminster.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Alexis Hobie leads the Skyhawks with 190 kills (3.28/set) and is second on the team in hitting percentage at .209.  She also ranks fourth in the RMAC for total points (3.72/set) and is sixth in the conference for kills.
 
Lauren Shea is second on the team in kills with 133.
 
Rylee Johnson leads the team with her .219 hitting percentage and 44 blocks (0.68/set) while Shea and Ella Butler have 34 blocks apiece.
 
Kamryn Lopez has 209 digs (4.10/set) and ranks ninth in the RMAC.
 
Setter Natalia Lambos has 419 assists (7.62/set) while Jade Martinez has averaged 5.78 per set while making five starts.
 
Butler leads the team with 23 service aces and ranks fifth in the conference with her 0.43 per set average.
 
About Western Colorado
 
The Mountaineers will enter a Friday night match against Westminster with a 2-17 overall record.  They are currently 1-11 in RMAC play and have lost 11 straight since edging South Dakota Mines in five sets at home on Sept. 9.
 
Their other win was also in five sets at Cal State Dominguez Hill in non-conference play on Sept. 2.
 
Emily Mangone leads the team with 162 kills (2.61/set) and service aces with 20 (0.32/set), ranking fourth in the latter.  However, she has also been guilty of 56 service and 93 hitting errors.
 
Jaeda Davis-Golliher, one of two Mountaineers to start all 19 matches, is second on the team with 146 kills (2.28/set) and is hitting an impressive .347, third best in the conference, from her middle blocker position.  She also has 50 blocks (0.78/set)
 
Lexi Wilmoth and Hailee Martinez have split starts at the setter position and have combined for 590 assists.
 
Elizabeth Rupprecht leads the team with 178 digs (2.87/set) while Mangone is second with 159 (2.53/set).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks lead the Division II era (1992-Present) series against Fort Lewis by a wide 44-12 margin.  They are 23-4 at home against the Skyhawks in that span and have won four straight overall.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 22-7 against the Skyhawks and is 4-0 against Skyhawk Head Coach Giedre Tarnauskaite, in her third season at FLC.
 
The Mavs have been even more dominant against Western in recent memory, winning 18 straight matches to extend their Division II era series lead to 53-12 over the Mountaineers.  The Mavs have won 30 of the last 31 matches in the series.
 
CMU is 25-5 at home against the Mountaineers in the era.
 
Fleming is 32-2 against the Mountaineers and is 1-0 against new Mountaineer Coach Eric Ballelos after the Oct. 1 home-court win over Western.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will be back in Brownson Arena next weekend for their final two home matches of the regular season.  They will host Chadron State next Friday (Oct. 28) at 6 p.m. before taking on 22^nd-ranked Colorado School of Mines, in a critical match for conference and regional tournament seeding on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 4 p.m.