­­GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Hot off a pair of 3-set sweeps, including a crushing win over nationally-ranked Colorado School of Mines in their Senior Day match, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will wrap-up their regular season with a pair of road matches this week.
 
Now ranked a season-best 15th nationally, the Mavericks (19-4, 14-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) will take an 11-match winning streak into Salt Lake City for a Tuesday evening match at Westminster before returning home and then heading the opposite direction on I-70 to face No. 14 Regis in their regular season finale on Saturday in Denver.
 
Tuesday's match against the Griffins (6-18, 4-12 RMAC) will begin at 6 p.m. in the Benhken Field House.  Saturday's match at Regis (18-6, 14-2 RMAC), currently tied with the Mavs for second place in the RMAC standings, will begin at 3 p.m. in the Regis Field House.
 
Regis will host Westminster on Friday before facing the Mavs.
 
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 extended their overall winning streak to 11 and their home-court winning streak to seven with a pair of quick 3-set home sweeps over the weekend.  The Mavericks were highly efficient, hitting a combined .405 in the victories over Chadron State and No. 21 Mines.
 
In Friday's victory over Chadron State, the Mavs' 28th straight over the Eagles since 1995, the Mavs hit .363 while holding the Eagles to a .040 attack percentage and needed just 68 minutes to dispatch the Eagles, 25-18, 25-8, 25-14.  Outside hitter Sierra Hunt finished with 11 kills on .458 hitting while middle blocker Tye Wedhorn and Erin Curl both finished with ten kills.  Wedhorn hit .588 and had three blocks while Curl hit .318 from the right side.  Libero Kerstin Layman had 22 digs while setter Sabrina VanDeList tallied 36 assists, eight digs and four service aces.
 
Sydney Leffler also added eight kills in the victory.

Full Recap: Chadron State Match
 
On Saturday against the Orediggers, the Mavs hit an incredible .455 as Hunt finished with a match-high 15 kills on .583 hitting while Wedhorn put down 12 while hitting .688.  Leffler added seven kills while Savannah Spitzer managed six on an errorless .667 hitting night.
 
Layman tallied a match-high 16 digs while VanDeList had 35 assists, five digs and matched a career-high five service aces while out-dueling her counterpart and all-American Drew Stokes in all three categories in a battle of the RMAC's top two setters.
 
The match, decided by a 25-17, 25-22, 25-11 margin, lasted just 74 minutes.

Full Recap: Mines Match
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks moved up four spots to a season-high 15th 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 five straight weeks and in the top 25 for all ten regular season polls since Aug. 29 after starting out in the "others receiving votes" category of the preseason poll.
 
Their four-spot improvement from No. 19 in last week's was equal to the highest of any team this week along with new No. 19 Cal State LA. And new No. 20 Quincy.
 
The Mavs received a season-high 451 points in the polling of 47 AVCA member coaches from around the country, 142 more than they had received last week, meaning that each voter moved the Mavericks up by an average of slightly more than three spots.
 
RMAC rival MSU Denver is ranked No. 1 for the second straight week and picked up 31 of the first place votes to top the poll with 1,155 total points.  Wayne State (Neb.) switched spots with Concordia-St. Paul and is now second with 15 first place votes and 1,139 points.  Tampa also moved up two spots to fourth while Minnesota Duluth rounds out the top five. 
 
Alaska Anchorage is up three spots to sixth and received one first place vote while Southwest Minnesota State slipped two spots to seventh.
 
CMU's only four losses this season have come to the top seven teams in MSU Denver (twice), Tampa and Southwest Minnesota State and Tampa.
 
The Mavericks are still of four RMAC teams in the top 25.
 
Regis moved up three spots to 14^th while the Colorado School of Mines slipped a rung to 22^nd after falling to the Mavericks.
 
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 only Lone Star Conference representative while joining the four aforementioned RMAC teams.   The RMAC's CSU Pueblo and the Lone Star's Dallas Baptist had been receiving votes in last week's poll but are no longer listed in the AVCA's "others receiving votes and listed on two or more ballots" category this week.

Regional "Rankings"
 
Although the AVCA poll plaudits are nice, it is the NCAA regional rankings that will ultimately mean qualification for the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Mavericks appeared in those, which were released for the first time last Wednesday.  Although not listed with an official rank, the Mavericks were originally listed fourth amongst ten teams in the South Central Region, made up of the Lone Star and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferences.  The other seven regions had the teams listed alphabetically in accordance to new policies this year that call for first set of rankings are due to be released in that format.
 
The rankings were then later corrected and shown in alphabetical order.
 
Both South Central Region conferences had five teams listed with CMU, MSU Denver, Regis, Mines and CSU Pueblo representing the RMAC.  West Texas A&M, Dallas Baptist, UT Tyler, Texas A&M International and Texas A&M-Kingsville were the Lone Star's representatives.
 
The rankings will also be updated, in order, and released on Wednesday and again on Nov. 9 before the official NCAA Tournament selection show, which will air at 8 p.m. MST on Sunday, Nov. 13.
 
A total of eight teams from the region will be selected, with the LSC and RMAC Tournament Champions earning automatic berths.  The remaining selections and the No. 1-8 seeding will then be determined by the regional rankings.
 
Tournament seedings
 
As mentioned earlier, the Mavericks enter the weekend tied for second in the RMAC standings and can finisher no lower than the fourth seed in next week's RMAC Tournament, which will be hosted by national No. 1 MSU Denver, which is 16-0 in RMAC play and guaranteed of the No. 1 seed.
 
A victory on Tuesday over Westminster, would assure the Mavericks of the No. 3 seed and thus keep them on the opposite half of the RMAC Tournament bracket from MSU Denver.  A victory over Regis this week would give the Mavs the No. 2 seed.
 
Regis could earn the No. 2 seed with two wins this week.
 
Mines is currently in fourth place at 13-3 and is also guaranteed of at least a No. 4 seed.
 
CSU Pueblo is fifth at 11-5 and will battle with Colorado Christian (10-6) for the No. 5 and 6 seeds.
 
UCCS and South Dakota Mines are currently tied for seventh and the last two RMAC Tournament spots at 7-9 while Fort Lewis (6-10) still has tournament qualification hopes still very much alive, especially considering they have a head-to-head win over UCCS, which must play MSU Denver and Colorado Christian this weekend.
 
Adams State and Chadron State are mathematically alive at 5-11 but will need weekend sweeps and a help to sneak into the 8-team RMAC tournament.
 
Top-10 Winning Streak
 
The Mavericks will enter Tuesday's match at Westminster as winners of 11 straight matches, tied for the seventh longest active winning streak in all of Division II volleyball.  A total of ten teams have active streaks of ten matches or longer as of Monday.  Harding has won 23 straight while Spring Hill is right behind with 22.
 
RMAC-leading MSU Denver has won 17 straight while Lone Star Conference leaders West Texas A&M have won 15 straight.
 
Double-figure winning streaks are nothing new to the Mavericks who have already had such a streak in each of the last two seasons.  In the spring of 2021, the Mavericks won their first 15 matches en-route to the RMAC title and finished the season 15-1.  Last fall, the Mavericks had a 10-game winning streak from Oct. 2-Nov. 5, winning their tenth straight match against Chadron State, something they were able to replicate this year.
 
Quest for 20
 
The Mavericks could reach the 20-win mark for the seventh time under the direction of 18^th-year Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming this week and will need just one more victory to do so.  The Mavs won 21 matches (7 losses) last fall and went 15-1 in the spring of 2021 during the COVID-shortened and delayed season.
 
The Mavs were also 20-match winners in 2018 (24), 2014 (29), 2013 (21), 2010 (20) and 2005 (23).
 
Double-Figure Streak
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sierra Hunt has recorded double-digit kill totals in each of her last five matches and in the process has moved into the RMAC's top five for kills per set, currently averaging 3.38.  She has put down 257 this year and now has 460 career kills to her credit.
 
Hunt has been in double figures in 14 of the Mavs' matches this season.
 
Flirting with 400 and the RMAC lead
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle blocker Savannah Spitzer currently holds a .398 attack percentage and is just one point behind RMAC-leader Jazzy Espinoza, who has a .399 mark through this weekend.
 
Maverick All-American and Regional Player of the Year Kasie Gilfert is the only former Maverick hitter (with 200 or more attempts) to have ever surpassed the .400 mark for a complete season, hitting an RMAC record .451 in 2018 before hitting .391 a year later in 2019.
 
Fellow Maverick middle Tye Wedhorn is now ranked fourth in the RMAC with her .344 mark.
 
For those unfamiliar with attack percentage calculations, they are compiled by taking the total number of kills and subtracting hitting errors and then dividing that number by the number of total attack attempts. 
 
Spitzer has recorded 176 kills and has committed just 37 errors in 349 attempts this season.
 
Ace-ing her way up the charts
 
Sabrina VanDeList recorded a career and season-high matching five service aces in Saturday's win over Colorado School of Mines after recording four in the victory over Chadron State on Friday.  In the process, she raised her season-long total to 49, ten more than any other RMAC player this season.
 
VanDeList also now ranks 11^th in Division II for aces per set (0.63) and moved up an incredible seven spots to second place on CMU's single-season ace charts during the rally-scoring era (2001-Present) over the weekend.  Only Drew Choules, who also holds the career record, has had more, tallying 69 back in 2005.
 
VanDeList, who had 44 aces last year, now fifth most in the era, also currently ranks third in the rally-scoring era career chart with 110 aces.  Choules had 153 while Taylor Woods recorded 120.
 
VanDeList has accomplished her total in just 67 career matches and still has more than two years of eligibility remaining.
 
Dig Milestone & RMAC Honor
 
Maverick redshirt senior libero Kerstin Layman became just the third Maverick in the rally-scoring era and the fifth overall to surpass the 1,500-career dig milestone on Saturday against Mines.  Layman, who was honored before the match during Senior Day festivities, had 16 digs in that match and has now tallied 1,510 in her career.
 
She also had 22 digs in Friday's 3-set win over Chadron State and took over the RMAC digs per set lead over the weekend and is now averaging 5.22 per set.
 
Layman was named as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season and in the month of October on Monday.  She now has five such honors in her illustrious career.
 
RMAC Hall of Famer Amy Miller holds the all-time Maverick record of 2,542 career digs from 1991-94 while Taylor Woods, Layman's predecessor, had 2,028 in her 2015-18 career, which is the rally-scoring era record.  Layman played alongside Woods as a defensive specialist in 2018 and has been the Mavs' starting libero in each of the last four seasons following Woods' graduation.
 
Pam Glenn (1,783) and Ashley Loftsgard (1,578) are the third and fourth ranking Mavericks of all time and Layman is certainly within reach of catching Loftsgard for second place in the rally-scoring era, and would need just 68 more digs this season to do so. 
 
The Mavs have at least three and highly likely at least four matches remaining to play this year, assuming they are selected for the NCAA Tournament, and could play as many as 11 more with deep runs in the RMAC and NCAA Tournaments.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 18^th season as the Mavs' head coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 340 career victories.  He has won exactly two out of every three matches he has coached and is 340-170 in his time at CMU, good for a .667 winning percentage in over 500 matches (510). 
 
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 title and can reach the 20-win plateau for the seventh time under Fleming this week.
 
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 230-88 (.723) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks' two home wins last week continued an impressive run of home-court success.
 
The Mavs finished the regular season with an 8-1 home-court record and have now lost just one home match in each of the previous five seasons, going 40-5 (.889) in Brownson Arena, since the start of 2019.  They are also 76-13 (.854) at home since the start of 2014.
 
Their only loss at home this season was to national No. 1 MSU Denver, ranked second at the time, in a match that all three sets were decided by the minimum 2-point margins back on Sept. 23.  The Mavs have since rattled off seven straight at home while dropping just two total sets in those matches.
 
They went 9-1 at home last year with their only loss coming to MSU Denver.
 
The Mavs were also 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.
 
Mines was the only team to have come into Brownson Arena to win in the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2021.
  
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 11 seasons since and including 2012, going 91-22 (.805) in that stretch.
 
About Westminster
 
The Griffins snapped an 8-match losing streak on Saturday, sweeping Chadron State to improve to 6-18 overall and to 4-12 in RMAC play.  They have been eliminated from RMAC Tournament competition but will look to play the role of seed-spoiler against the Mavericks on Tuesday and Regis, who they play on Friday.
 
Senior outside hitter Lydia (Miller) Parkinson leads the team with 215 kills (2.56/set) while junior outside hitter Olivia Curtis has put down 156 in 64 sets, good for an average of 2.44 per. 
 
Freshman Mailei Myers has 134 kills to her credit and is leading the Griffin regulars with a .282 attack percentage.  She also leads the team with 62 blocks (0.74/set) and is second behind Parkinson for total points.
 
Freshman setter Leila Cornejo has tallied 635 assists (7.47/set) and leads the team with 29 service aces (0.34/set).  Sophomore libero Alanna Lee has 311 digs (3.89/set) while Cornejo has tallied 195 (2.29).
 
As a team, the Griffins rank tenth in the RMAC with their .170 hitting percentage.  They are 14th out of 15 teams in opponent hitting percentage at .246.­
 
About Regis
 
The Rangers are ranked 14th in this week's AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll and enter the week tied with the Mavs for second place in the RMAC standings at 14-2.  The Rangers are 18-6 overall and are also regionally-ranked.
 
They are 8-1 at home this season with their lone home-court loss coming to MSU Denver, yet another thing they have in common with the Mavs.
 
Junior outside hitter Halle Theis and sophomore middle blocker Amelia Davis lead the team in kills with 262 and 259, respectively and are just outside the RMAC's top ten in kills per set.
 
Davis also leads the Rangers with 94 blocks (1.09/set) and ranks fourth in the conference for that category and is seventh for total points at 3.70 per frame.  Davis also ranked fifth in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .334.
 
Senior middle Nadine Burbank is also hitting a solid .331 and is third on the team with 223 kills.
 
Senior Setter Mara LeGrand has tallied 880 assists, good for an average of 10.23 per set and ranks third, one spot behind CMU's VanDeList.
 
Libero Haley Kennedy is fifth in the RMAC with her 4.44 dig per set average.  She has 382 to her credit this season.  LeGrand has 215 digs.
 
Kennedy also has a team-high 32 service aces and is seventh in the RMAC with her per-set average of 0.37.
 
As a team, the Rangers are hitting .249 to rank fifth in the RMAC.  They are third in opponent hitting percentage at .150.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have dominated the all-time series with Westminster winning each of the last 14 matches and 16 of the 17 all-time meetings dating back to 2010.  One of those victories came in straight sets (25-16, 25-12, 25-18) on Sept. 9 in Grand Junction earlier this season.
 
The Mavericks are 7-1 against the Griffins in Salt Lake City, winning each of the last six visits to Behnken Field House.  Five of those victories have come by 3-0 margins.
 
The Mavericks are 17-23 all-time against Regis in the NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) but have won each of the last two and three of the last four meetings with the Rangers.
 
However, the Mavericks have lost eight straight matches to the Rangers in Denver, last winning there in 2009.  The home team has won each of the last five meetings in the rivalry.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 16-1 against Westminster and 12-14 all-time against Regis.  He is 1-0 against new Westminster Coach Sue Delaney and is 3-3 against Regis' Joel List since List took over the helm of the Ranger program in 2017 after an 11-year stint as the Rangers' assistant coach under coaching legend Frank Lavrisha.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will compete in next week's RMAC Tournament in downtown Denver. 
 
By virtue of claiming the No. 1 seed, MSU Denver will host the tournament at the Auraria Event Center.  Action will begin next Thursday (Nov. 10) with the four quarterfinal matches.  The semifinals will be on Friday, Nov. 11 with the championship match to be held on Saturday, Nov. 12. 
 
The tournament winner will earn the conference's automatic berth into the South Central Regional portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament.  The Lone Star Conference Tournament champion and six at-large teams from the two conferences will also be selected and seeded, based on the regional rankings.
 
The NCAA field will be announced via a selection show on NCAA.com, which will air next Sunday (Nov. 13) at 8 p.m. MST.