­­GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will continue its post-season schedule and try to avenge its only loss since Sept. 24 when the Mavericks compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals for the third straight season on Friday evening at 5 p.m. in downtown Denver.
 
The nation's 17^th-ranked and tournament's third-seeded Mavericks (21-5 overall) will face 14^th-ranked and second-seeded Regis (21-6) for the second time in seven days when the teams tangle at MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center.
 
The Mavericks advanced to the semifinal with a 3-set sweep over Colorado Christian on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinal round after the Rangers got by seventh-seeded South Dakota Mines in four sets in the first quarterfinal on Thursday.
 
The top-seeded and host Roadrunners will take on No. 4 seed Colorado School of Mines in the other semifinal.  MSU Denver swept Fort Lewis on Thursday while Mines squeaked by CSU Pueblo by two points in the decisive fifth set of the final quarterfinal.
 
A live stream for the entire tournament be found on the RMAC Network.  Live statistics can be accessed here and tickets can be purchased through the RMAC Championship webpage.

Please click here for information and the free parking code.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks hit .432 as a team in a balanced and efficient attack that proved too much for sixth-seeded Colorado Christian in Thursday's RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win. 

Complete Match Recap

Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Leffler had a match-high 13 kills on .417 hitting in the win while middle blockers Tye Wedhorn and Savannah Spitzer finished with ten kills each.  Wedhorn hit .643 while Spitzer had a .474 attack percentage.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList also registered 39 assists, nine digs and two service aces to lead all players in the victory and reached two setting milestones.  More on that later.
 
Rematch Time
 
Friday's RMAC Tournament semifinal will be a rematch of the regular season finale for the Mavs and Regis Rangers.
 
On Nov. 5, the Rangers came from a set down (2-1) to win a 5-set classic in Denver and the Regis Field House.  The result snapped CMU's 12-match winning streak and gave the Rangers the No. 2 seed in the RMAC Tournament, pushing the Mavericks down to the No. 3 seed.
 
The Mavericks did have some strong efforts in the defeat as their outside hitters Sierra Hunt and Sydney Leffler combined for 38 kills.  Hunt had a season-high 21 while Leffler put down 17.  Sabrina VanDeList had 46 assists while Kerstin Layman had 18 digs.  Hahni Johnson also recorded a career-high 11 while Maddi Foutz added ten.
 
Tourney Time
 
The Mavericks are playing in their 11^th consecutive RMAC Tournament, having qualified in all but one (2011) of the 18 seasons with Head Coach Dave Fleming leading the program.  The Mavericks have won the RMAC Tournament twice under Fleming (2014, 2018) and are now 17-14 in it under Fleming, who began his tenure at CMU in 2005.
 
After winning on Thursday, the Mavs now have a winning 10-7 record in the quarterfinal round under Fleming, including a 3-1 mark against Colorado Christian, a team they have now defeated nine straight times overall.
 
The Mavs are now in the semifinals for the third straight season and for the fourth time in the last five years.  The Mavs will also be making their 11^th RMAC Tournament semifinal appearance in Fleming's tenure.  They are 5-5 in their previous ten RMAC Tournament semifinals matches.
 
The Mavs are 1-2 against Regis in RMAC Tournament matches under Fleming but have won their only previous semifinal round match-up in Fleming's tenure, taking a 2014 victory en-route to the Mavs' first tournament title in the Fleming era.
 
The Mavs are 1-3 against the rest of the remaining tournament field this season and now have an 8-3 record against the entire RMAC Tournament field this season.
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks are sitting 17^th in this this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, their second highest ranking of the entire season.
 
CMU, which was ranked 15^th last week, has now been ranked in the top 20 for six straight weeks and in the top 25 for all 11 regular season polls since Aug. 29 after starting out in the "others receiving votes" category of the preseason poll.
 
The Mavs received 403 points in the polling of 47 AVCA member coaches from around the country.
 
RMAC rival MSU Denver is ranked No. 1 for the third straight week and once again picked up 31 of the first place votes to top the poll with 1,155 total points.  Wayne State (Neb.) remained second with 15 first place votes and 1,141 points while Concordia-St. Paul remained third.  Minnesota Duluth and Alaska Anchorage, which is receiving one first place vote, both moved up a spot to round out the top five while Tampa dropped two spots to sixth.  Southwest Minnesota State remained seventh while St. Cloud State, one of five Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference teams, dropped a spot to ninth while switching with Western Washington.
 
Northwest Missouri State continues to round out the top 10.
 
CMU's only five losses this season have come to ranked teams in MSU Denver (twice), Tampa and Southwest Minnesota State and Regis, which continues to sit 14^th.
 
The Mavericks are still of four RMAC teams in the top 25 as the Colorado School of Mines remained in the No. 22 spot.
 
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.

Regional Rankings
 
More importantly, the Mavericks were fourth in this week's NCAA Division II South Central Regional Rankings, released on Wednesday.  The final set of rankings, which will incorporate results from this week's conference tournaments, will shape the region's portion of the NCAA Division II Tournament, which will be unveiled on the selection show which will air at NCAA.com at 8:30 p.m. MST this Sunday evening.
 
The Mavs had been third in the initial set of ordered rankings on Nov. 2 and were amongst the ten teams in the initial (Oct. 29) rankings, which were officially released in alphabetical order.
 
The Mavs and Regis flip-flopped in the rankings after Saturday's head-to-head match.
 
MSU Denver continues to the top-ranked team, ahead of West Texas A&M, which is hosting the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
 
The Colorado School of Mines continues to sit fifth while Dallas Baptist and UT Tyler are sixth and seventh.  CSU Pueblo was eighth while Texas A&M International sits ninth ahead of Texas A&M-Kingsville.
 
The top seven teams in the ranking all won their respective conference tournament quarterfinal match-ups on Thursday.  CSU Pueblo fell to Mines while Texas A&M International claimed a win over St. Mary's to make the battle for the last spot very interesting.  Texas A&M-Kingsville was defeated by UT Tyler, likely ending the Javelinas' season.
 
Entering the week, the Mavs had a 20-5 overall and Division II record and were 18-3 in in-region play.  They also have head-to-head victories over Mines, UT Tyler and CSU Pueblo and have the region's fourth best RPI figure at .593 and the fifth highest strength of schedule figure at .541.
 
CMU is also 2-0 in in-region non-conference results and is 9-1 in the last ten matches.
 
Record-setting All-Conference haul
 
The Mavericks had a program-record seven players named to the All-RMAC teams, which were announced on Wednesday, just before the RMAC Tournament got underway.  The Mavs had three first team selections in redshirt senior libero Kerstin Layman, recognized as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, and redshirt sophomores Sierra Hunt and Sabrina VanDeList.
 
VanDeList is now a 3-time First Team honoree while Layman was named to the first team for the initial time in her career, which includes four consecutive overall all-conference recognitions.  Layman had been a second team honoree for the past two seasons after earning honorable mention status in 2019.
 
Hunt was also an honorable mention selection as a true freshman in the spring of 2021.
 
The Mavs also had three second team selections this year in outside hitter Sydney Leffler and middle blockers Savannah Spitzer and Tye Wedhorn.  Right side Erin Curl was an honorable mention pick.
 
Leffler, a true sophomore, was a first team honoree and the RMAC Freshman of the Year last year.  Wedhorn, a fifth-year senior, is now a 3-time second team honoree, having earned the honors in 2018 as a freshman at Fort Lewis, and again last fall for CMU.  Spitzer is also now a 3-time honoree having picked up first team plaudits as a true freshman in 2020-21 before pickup second team honors last year.
 
Curl, a Division I graduate transfer, is in her first year as a Maverick.
 
CMU had three first team and six overall picks in 1991, the spring of 2021 and in 2014, when they won RMAC regular season titles, but had never had seven players honored in the same season until Thursday.
 
Milestone Setter
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList reached or surpassed a pair of historic setting milestones in Thursday's RMAC Quarterfinal win and surpassed another with her setting prowess.

She recorded 39 assists in Thursday's 3-set sweep of Colorado Christian and hit the 2,500-career assist milestone on the mark.  She is just the fourth Maverick in the rally scoring era (2001-Present) to reach that milestone and is the eighth to reach it in CMU's entire volleyball history.
 
She joins all-time school-record holder Jordyn Moody (4,202), Tara King (3,436) and Allison Krug (2,563) as the only Maverick setters to reach the mark in the rally-scoring era.  Four other side-out scoring era Maverick setters have also reached the milestone in Jeanie Sutter (4,138), Erin Fiack (3,385), Kelly Beer (3,082) and Lora Houdek (2,862).
 
VanDeList also became the first Maverick since Ali Svornic in 2015-16 to surpass the 1,000-assist mark in consecutive seasons on Thursday.  She now has 1,016 this year.
 
VanDeList is currently averaging 11.42 assists per set this year and ranks second in the RMAC and fifth in all of Division II volleyball with that figure as of Friday morning.  She averaged 10.72 per set last year, when the Mavs played 28 matches and 105 total sets.  CMU has played 89 sets over 26 matches to date this season.
 
VanDeList's average this season currently has her on pace to finish seventh in CMU's single-season assist per set chart and would be the highest since Moody averaged 11.78 per set in 2014.
 
Serving tough
 
VanDeList also recorded her RMAC-leading 50^th and 51^st service aces of the season in Thursday's win after being held without an ace in her previous two matches.
 
She is just the second Maverick in the rally-scoring era to have recorded 50 or more joining the era's single-season and career record holder Drew Choules, who had 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 112 aces.  Choules had 153 while Taylor Woods recorded 120.
 
VanDeList has accomplished her total in just 70 career matches and still has more than two years of eligibility remaining.
 
20-Win seasons
 
Last Tuesday's win over Westminster was the Mavs' 20^th of the season and allowed them to reach the 20-win mark for the seventh time under the direction of 18^th-year Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming. 
 
The Mavs now have back-to-back 20-win seasons and are guaranteed of at least equaling last year's mark when the Mavs went 21-7 after going 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).
 
Historic Libero
 
Kerstin Layman earned her second consecutive RMAC Defensive Player of the Year award on Wednesday and became the first Maverick since RMAC Hall of Famer Amy Miller to earn a major RMAC award in back-to-back seasons.  Miller was the conference's overall player of the year in 1993 and 1994.
 
Layman also picked up her fourth consecutive All-RMAC honor becoming the first Maverick since her libero predecessor Taylor Woods to have done so.  Layman played alongside Woods as a defensive specialist in 2018, Layman's freshman year and Woods' senior campaign, before taking over as the Mavs' starting libero in 2019.
 
Layman now has 449 digs this season, averaging a career-best 5.04 per set, a mark that puts her second in the RMAC statistics.  She also now has 1,552 career digs to rank fifth in CMU's all-time history.
 
Miller, an outside hitter, holds the all-time Maverick record of 2,542 career digs from 1991-94 while Taylor Woods, had 2,028 in her 2015-18 career.  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 needs just 26 more digs this season to do so. 
 
Continued Cougar Killer
 
Sydney Leffler led the Mavericks with 13 kills in Thursday's win over the Colorado Christian and has now led or been tied for the team-lead in kills in all five of her career matches against the Cougars, reaching double-figures in each.  She has recorded 36 kills against the Cougars in three meetings this season, tallying 13 in a Aug. 27 neutral-court non-conference match in Golden as the only player in double figures.  She again led the Mavs with ten kills in the Sept. 24 conference home win in Grand Junction.
 
In 2021, Leffler led the Mavs and all players with 16 kills in the RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal win last year.  She had also tallied ten in the Oct. 2, 2021 road win at CCU, sharing team-high honors with Holly Schmidt and Haley Hahn on that day.
 
Flirting with 400
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle blocker Savannah Spitzer hit .474 in Thursday's victory and raised her season-long hitting percentage back to .400, which now leads the RMAC.  She also now ranks ninth in Division II with that figure.
 
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 in the RMAC with her .358 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 200 kills and has committed just 42 errors in 395 attempts this season.
 
Smart Mavs
 
The Mavericks had two first team and ten total selections to the RMAC All-Academic Teams, which were announced on Tuesday.  That list includes Sabrina VanDeList, named as the RMAC Academic Player of the Year, and fellow First Team selection Tye Wedhorn.
 
Libby Borgerding, Maddi Foutz, Sierra Hunt, Hahni Johnson, Kerstin Layman, Sydney Leffler, Brooklyn Leggett and Jordan Woods were all honor roll selections.
 
VanDeList, who is just the second Maverick to receive RMAC Academic Player of the Year honors (Taylor Woods, 2018) has a perfect 4.000 GPA.  Wedhorn completed her bachelor's degree with a 3.929 mark and is now enrolled in graduate work.
 
To be eligible for selection to the elite 10-player first team, student-athletes must have a 3.500 or higher GPA, up from previous year's 3.30 cut-off, be in at least their second year at the nominating institution and have used a season of eligibility.  Sports information directors from the RMAC member institutions nominated and selected the first team based on a combination of athletic and academic accomplishments.
 
Those not selected were automatically placed on the honor roll, which has a minimum GPA requirement of 3.30 or higher.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 18^th season as the Mavs' head coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 342 career victories.  He has won exactly two out of every three matches in his career, posting a 342-171 mark in his time at CMU, good for a .667 winning percentage in over 500 matches (513). 
 
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 231-89 (.722) in conference play under Fleming.
 
About Regis
 
The Rangers are ranked 14th in this week's AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll and finished second in the RMAC standings with a 16-2 conference record.  They are 21-6 overall and are ranked third in the region, one spot ahead of the Mavs after flip-flopping with them following last Saturday's 5-set head-to-head victory.
 
The Rangers have won five straight, seven of their last eight, and 20 of their last 22 matches since starting the year 1-4.
 
They had six players claim All-RMAC recognition on Thursday with setter Mara LeGrand and middle blocker Amelia Davis claiming first team honors.  Three Rangers in senior middle blocker Nadine Burbrink right side Klaudia Sowizral and outside hitter Halle Theis earning second team plaudits.  Defensive specialist Haley Kennedy was an honorable mention selection and is the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week while Sowizral was tabbed as the conference's offensive player of the week honoree on Monday.
 
Theis has 300 kills to lead the team while Davis has recorded 292 while hitting .335 to rank fifth in the RMAC for hitting percentage. Theis is ranked tenth for kills per set (3.06) while Davis is 12^th with a 2.98 per set average.
 
Davis also leads the Rangers with 106 blocks (1.08/set) and ranks third in the conference for that category.  She is also eighth in the RMAC for total points at 3.65 per frame.
 
Burbrink is also hitting a solid .295 and is third on the team with 249 kills.  She is also ninth in the RMAC for blocking at 0.86 per set.
 
LeGrand has tallied 1,021 assists, good for an average of 10.42 per set and ranks third, one spot behind CMU's VanDeList in the conference.  LeGrand, who has played in nine more sets than VanDeList and the Mavericks is second in the league for total assists.
 
Kennedy is fifth in the RMAC with her 4.46 dig per set average.  She has 437 to her credit this season.  LeGrand has 258 digs.
 
Kennedy also has a team-high 37 service aces and is sixth in the RMAC with her per-set average of 0.38.
 
As a team, the Rangers are hitting .252 to rank fifth in the RMAC.  They and the Mavs both have .155 opponent hitting percentage figures, tied for second best in the conference.
 
Theis had 16 kills and hit .351 in Thursday's RMAC Tournament win over South Dakota Mines while Davis put down 14 on .346 efficiency.  She was also involved in seven of the Rangers' nine blocks. 
 
LeGrand had a fine 51-assist, 20-dig double-double while Kennedy recorded 19 digs.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks are now 17-24 against Regis in the NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) after losing last week's regular season finale.  However, the Mavericks have won three out of the last five meetings with the Rangers, who had won each of the previous five in 2016-17.
 
Regis has won the last nine matches over the Mavericks within the Denver city limits since CMU last defeated the Rangers there in 2009. 
 
The home team has won each of the last six meetings in the rivalry.
 
Friday's RMAC Tournament semifinal will be the first neutral-court meeting between the teams in 14 years since the 2008 RMAC Tournament Championship in Kearney, Nebraska.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 12-15 all-time against Regis and is 3-4 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
 
With a win over Regis on Friday, the Mavericks would advance to the RMAC Tournament Championship Match for the sixth time under Fleming. 
 
That match would be played at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening and would be against the winner of the second semifinal between MSU Denver and the Colorado School of Mines, which will be played Friday at 7:30 p.m.
 
The Mavs last made the championship match in 2018, when they won the title over MSU Denver in Golden and Mines' Lockridge Arena.
 
The Mavericks are 0-2 against the top-seeded Roadrunners, who are ranked first in the country, this year but won their earlier match against No. 22 Mines this season on Oct. 29.
 
CMU is 11-34 against the Roadrunners in the Division II era (1992-Present), but have a winning record (23-19) against Mines.
 
Regardless of the rest of this week's results, the Mavericks look to be in solid position to earn a bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.  The field will be announced during a tournament selection show, which will air via NCAA.com on Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m. MST.
 
The regional tournament will begin either next Thursday (Nov. 17) or Friday (Nov. 18).