GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After posting two wins during their 3-game, multi-state tour through the southeastern United States to begin the season, the Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team has returned home to prepare for their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and home-opener on Sunday against rival Westminster College.
 
The noon match-up with the Griffins will pit the RMAC's two top programs against each other for the first of three possible times and will likely go a long way to determining the 2022 RMAC's Regular Season Championship and home-field advantage for the RMAC Tournament in May.
 
A live stream of the game, one of just four home contests the Mavericks will have during the regular season, can be seen on the RMAC Network and live statistics can be accessed at the link above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks went 2-1 on their season-opening road trip to Alabama, Florida and South Carolina with flights to and from Atlanta, Georgia.  They opened the campaign with a 19-10 win at Alabama-Huntsville on Feb. 9 before dropping the middle leg of the stretch, 16-9 to Rollins in a neutral-site encounter in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, Feb. 12.  The Mavs then wrapped up the trip with a dominant 21-5 win over Coker in Hartsville, South Carolina on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14).
 
Balanced attack
 
Ten different Mavericks scored three or more goals during the trip, including Trent Pernell who had seven goals in the two wins.  He matched a career-high by scoring four times in the win over UAH and then netted his fifth career hat-trick with three goals against Coker.
 
AJ Switzer also had a hat-trick against UAH as ten different Mavericks scored, six of who had two more or goals.
 
The Mavericks were even more balanced against Coker as 15 different players found the back of the net, including Pernell and freshman JJ Brummett, who tallied his first hat-trick, against the Cobras.
 
Switzer, Brummett's older brother Jed, Carson Schwark and Hunter Holcomb all scored four goals during the road trip.  Jake Keyes, James Steinke and Alex Blatt all scored three.
 
Over 50
 
Schwark became just the 11^th Maverick in the program's history to surpass the 50 career goal mark doing so with his two goals against UAH.  He also led the Mavs with two against Rollins and now has 53 career goals in 42 games.  The fifth-year Maverick senior out of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota has put up double-figure tallies in each of the past three seasons, including the last two, which have been significantly shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
He scored a career-high 17 goals in just nine games played last season earning Second Team All-RMAC honors as the team's third leading scorer.  He also ranked sixth in the RMAC for goals last season.
 
With just two more goals, Schwark would move into the Mavericks' all-time top ten alongside Daniel Caddoo and Michael Dasch, Jr., who both scored 55 times for the Mavs, good for a ninth place tie on the program's current all-time goal-scoring charts.
 
Scoring streaks
 
Hunter Holcomb and James Steinke both scored goals in all three of the Mavs' season-opening games. 
 
Holcomb, a true sophomore out of Carver, Minnesota, has now scored 11 straight games dating back to the 2021 season, when he earned RMAC Attacker of the Year honors.   He has scored 22 career goals in just 14 games, finding the back of the net at least once in all but one of the Mavs' games since joining the program.  He has hat at least one offensive point in all 14.
 
Meanwhile, Steinke, the 2021 RMAC Midfielder of the Year has scored in the last four and six of the Mavs' last seven games dating back to last season.  The redshirt sophomore  out of Castle Rock, Colorado has scored 20 goals in as many career games over the past three seasons.
 
X Domination
 
The Mavericks have dominated at the face-off "X", winning 68 of 89 draws so far this season.  That .764 percentage is currently the fifth best in the early season NCAA Division II statistics.
 
The Mavericks won 90 percent of the draws (27-30) in their last outing against Coker after winning 21 of 30 against UAH and 20 of 28 against Rollins.

On an individual basis, starting face-off man Dylan Checketts has won 42 of his 51 draws, good for an .824 face-off wining percentage that is fourth best in the country.  Checketts also has scooped up 22 ground balls to rank 18^th in the country in that category.
 
Hampden-Sydney College transfer, a Division III Honorable Mention All-American last year, is also a solid 20-for-30 on face-offs (.667) this season while Joey Grzetic IV has won six of his eight draws, good for a .750 winning percentage.
 
Biggest rivalry
 
Sunday's game will be a renewal of the RMAC's biggest rivalry.  The Mavericks and Griffins and have combined to win all five previous RMAC regular season and all five RMAC Tournaments played to date.  They have met in all five of the RMAC Tournament Championship games.
 
The Mavericks swept both the regular season and tournament titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018 defeating the Griffins eight straight times during that stretch after the Griffins won the first of three 2016 meetings in Grand Junction.  The last three and five of those eight games during that stretch were decided by a single goal.
 
In 2019, the tables turned as the Griffins won the regular season and tournament titles, winning the latter in overtime in Salt Lake City.
 
Due to COVID, the teams did not square off in 2020. 
 
The rivalry then resumed last spring as the Mavericks won both regular season meetings en-route to claiming the conference's regular season crown for the fourth time and the right to host the conference tournament.  However, the Griffins went on to win the RMAC Tournament becoming the first away team to ever win the tournament championship game, which ended all of CMU's hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Mavericks lead the all-time series 11-5, including a 2011 game when Westminster was not a member of the NCAA, instead playing lacrosse in the MCLA (Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association).  The Mavericks are 7-3 at home against Westminster, the only team to have won multiple games at Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
The Mavs will conclude the regular season on Saturday, Apr. 30 at Westminster.
 
Sunday Funday
 
As is often the case for teams in the western portion of the country, the Mavericks will once again have a limited home schedule playing just four of their 16 season home games at Community Hospital Unity Hospital Field.  All four of those are to be played on Sundays and will feature noon start times, including this week's affair with the Griffins.
 
The Mavs' other three home games will all be in April and against three in-state rivals.  The Mavs will host Division III Colorado College in an inter-divisional contest on Apr. 3.  The Mavs then host CSU Pueblo on Apr. 10 before taking on Adams State on Apr. 24.
 
If the Mavs win the RMAC regular season title, they would host the RMAC Tournament on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7.
 
RMAC Poll
 
Sunday's game will also be a clash between the top two teams in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.  The Griffins received three of the four first place votes in the poll, announced on Jan. 27, topping the poll with nine points.  The Mavericks received the other first place vote, from Westminster's Head Coach Joe Kerwin, and were second in the poll with seven points overall.
 
Adams State was picked third with five points while CSU Pueblo was tabbed fourth with three.  Each of the conference's four head coaches were ask to rank their opposition first through third without voting for their own squad.
 
A look back
 
The Mavericks went 9-2 in 2021, winning nine straight games after dropping their season-opener in overtime at Mount Olive.  They played each of their first seven on the road and were not home until Apr. 25 and saw two of their four regular season home games thwarted by COVID issues within the opposing programs.
 
Despite the pandemic challenges, the Mavericks won all five of the RMAC contests they played to win the conference title for the fourth time in five completed seasons.  They then won their RMAC Tournament semifinal over Adams State, a team they beat three times, but were downed by RMAC rival Westminster in the RMAC Tournament Championship game, ending any potential hope for an NCAA Tournament bid.
 
On an individual basis, the Mavericks had 17 players earn All-RMAC honors, including RMAC Freshman of the Year Dylan Checketts, Attacker of the Year Hunter Holcomb and Midfielder of the Year James Steinke.  Vince Smith was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year.
 
Jed Brummett, Sergio Pelayo, Tanner Stopkoski, Brian Buckner, Cole Emmanuel, Jake Eickelman and Drew Eickelman joined Holcomb and Steinke on the First Team All-RMAC unit.    All but Buckner and Emmanuel, now at Division I Marquette, return to the Maverick roster in 2022.
 
On a statistical basis, the Mavericks ranked amongst the nation's top 10 in 11 different statistical categories and won the national statistical title in ground balls per game, racking up 44.36 per game.
 
The Mavs also ranked second in the country for assists per game (11.27) and clearing percentage (.901) and led the RMAC in all but three of the NCAA tracked statistical categories.
 
Long time success
 
The Mavericks' 2021 success was certainly not a "one-hit wonder".  The Mavericks went a perfect 7-0 in 2020 when that season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Including, this year's start, CMU has now won 18 of their last 21 games and have posted a winning record in each of the last ten seasons after going 6-8 in their inaugural 2011 season.
 
As a program, the Mavs are 114-44 all-time, good for a .722 winning percentage that is fifth best amongst active Division II programs.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks have posted a 48-8 all-time record at home since beginning their program in 2011, good for an .857 home field winning percentage.  The Mavericks had a 20-game home field winning streak from 2016-18 and have won 28 of their last 31 games at Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
Westminster, which has won three times in Grand Junction, is the only squad to have defeated the Mavs more than once.
 
Best in the West
 
The Mavericks have proven to be the best Division II program in the western half of the United States, winning four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles in the last five opportunities after claiming two Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association crowns in the program's earliest years. 
 
The Mavericks are an impressive 35-4 in RMAC play since the conference began sponsoring the sport in 2016.
 
CMU is the only RMAC team to have ever qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament doing so in 2018 after posting a school-record 17 wins (17-3) while going a perfect 8-0 in conference play that year.
 
It starts at the top
 
Maverick Head Coach Vince Smith, in his eighth season at the helm of the program, has a 83-23 career record.  His .783 career winning percentage ranks him seventh amongst active NCAA coaches (all three divisions) with a minimum of five years as ahead coach at the NCAA level.
 
Only Le Moyne's Dan Sheehan (334-54, .861) and Mercyhurst's Chris Ryan (242-62, .796)  have higher percentages than Smith in Division II.  Those two coaches will go head-to-head on Saturday.
 
Smith has been named as the RMAC Coach of the Year on two occasions, including in 2021 (2016), and was named as the WILA Coach of the Year in that organization's final year (2015).
 
His players have earned a combined 38 First Team All-RMAC honors since 2016 and have received a conference-high 15 "Of the Year" major awards since then.
 
Smith is 10-5 in his coaching career against Westminster and holds a 2-1 record against his Griffin counterpart Joe Kerwin, beginning his second year at the helm.
 
About the Griffins
 
Not much is yet known about the 2022 edition of the Griffins.  Sunday's game will be the Griffins' first official contest of the year.  The Griffins did drop a 10-9 exhibition decision to MCLA member BYU on Tuesday night, according to the MCLA website.  Results of a scheduled Feb. 10 exhibition against Utah Valley were not posted.
 
The Griffins were 7-5 overall and 3-2 in RMAC play in 2021.  Spencer Whinery, back for his senior season, scored 24 goals and had 37 offensive points to lead last year's team.  He scored ten goals and had seven assists in their two RMAC Tournament wins and was named as the RMAC Tournament MVP after earning First Team All-RMAC plaudits.
 
Andoni Odencrantz, Carson Capps and Quinn Lewis all earned First Team All-RMAC honors last year and return this season.  Gavin Beilman, Gabe Mein, Merritt McMahon and Hagan Buchanan all earned second team honors last season.
 
McMahon scored a team-high 25 goals last year while Odencrantz led the team with 20 assists.
 
Defensively, the Griffins are returning two of their top three leaders in caused turnovers in Cello Clark (11) and Capps (10) and their second-leading ground ball man in Lewis (28).
 
Beilman, who made 69 saves in seven games, and Jacob Miller return in net.
 
Up Next
 
After Sunday's home game, the Mavs will spend the entire month of March plying road games, the first of which will be on Mar. 5 at Adams State.  They Mavs then have a 4-game, 10-day swing through Florida from Mar. 16-25.