GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After winning their fourth Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season title but falling just short of a potential NCAA Division II Tournament bid, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick men's lacrosse squad is eager for the 2022 season.
 
The Mavs will begin the campaign with a trip to the southeastern part of the country, playing three games in a span of six days in Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
 
The trip begins with a Wednesday (Feb. 9) encounter at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  The Mavs will then take on Rollins College in a neutral-site encounter in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday (Feb. 12) before wrapping up the stretch two days later on Monday (Feb. 14) at Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina.
 
Live stream and live statistical links for the UAH and Coker games can be found at the link above.  There are currently no plans for live coverage of the Rollins game due to the fact that is being played at a neutral venue (The Bolles School).
 
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.  CMU has won 16 of their last 18 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 112-43 all-time, good for a .723 winning percentage that is fifth best in Division II history.
 
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 will enter 2022, his eighth at the helm of the program, with an 81-22 career record.  His .786 career winning percentage ranks him seventh amongst active NCAA Division II coaches with a minimum of five years as ahead coach at the NCAA level.
 
He 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.
 
In the polls
 
The Mavericks will begin the 2022 season second amongst the "others receiving votes" category in the USILA/Dynamic Division II Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
The Mavs, who received 18 points in the polling of coaches around the country, were also picked second in the RMAC Coaches' Poll just behind Westminster, which is also receiving votes (13) in the national poll. 
 
The Mavs are slated to play two teams in the national top 20 later this year in No. 4 Tampa and No. 20 Rockhurst.  Those games will both be on the road on Mar. 19 and Apr. 16.  The Mavs' first two games this season will also come against teams in the others receiving votes category of the USILA poll as Alabama-Huntsville picked up five points while Rollins nabbed one.
 
In total, the Mavericks have six games scheduled against teams ranked or receiving votes in the USILA poll.  Five of those will be on the road while the Mavs will open the home and RMAC portions of their schedule against Westminster on Feb. 27 in the first of two regular-season meetings against the Griffins.
 
Brotherly love
 
The Mavericks have three sets of brothers on this year's team, including two sets of twins in redshirt sophomores Drew and Jake Eickelman of Littleton, Colorado and incoming freshman Cade and Connor Vitto of Simi Valley, California.
 
Both Eickelman brothers were First Tam All-RMAC picks last season at the short stick defensive midfielder (Drew) and long stick midfielder (Jake) positions.
 
Meanwhile, now third-year Maverick Jed Brummett has been joined by both his younger and older brothers on the Mavs' 2022 squad.  His older brother Jake has come to CMU as a graduate student after a brilliant 4-year career at NCAA Division III Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he was an honorable mention all-American 2021.  Meanwhile, the youngest of the three— JJ Brummett is a true freshman.  The Brummett brothers all hail from Glen Rock, Pennsylvania and prepped at the Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland.
 
Jed Brummett was a First Team All-RMAC attack last year and led the 2021 edition of the Mavericks with 19 goals despite missing four of the team's 11 games due to injury.  He also led the 2020 team with 18 goals in seven games and has recorded hat-tricks in six of his 14 career outings.
 
About the Opponents/Series Histories
 
Alabama-Hunstville (Wednesday, Feb. 9 - 2 p.m. MST - Huntsville, Ala./Charger Park)
 
The UAH Chargers were picked second in the Peach Belt Conference Preseason All-Conference team amassing 21 points and one first place vote in the 6-team poll.  They also had three players land on the preseason all-PBC squad in Josh Campbell, Silas Herman and Brody Phillips. 

Campbell was third on the Charger team in 2019 with 19 goals while Herman led the conference with 153 face-off wins, good for a .567 percentage.  He also led the PBC with 73 ground balls.
 
Phillips scored 23 goals and assisted on 28 others last season, ranking third in the conference for a points per game.
 
The Chargers, who went 6-8 overall and 3-3 in conference last year while advancing to the PBC Tournament Championship game, opened their 2022 account with a dominating 16-3 victory over Lincoln Memorial this past Saturday (Feb. 4).  Eight different players scored for second-year head coach Connor Doyle, including Bryce Ferraro who scored four goals while firing 16 of the Chargers' 58 shots, 34 of which were on goal.
 
Campbell also added a hat-trick and an assist but did take face-offs, leaving those duties to Richie Mohr, who was 8-for-13, David Rembert, who won four of nine at the "X".  Zak Welsh had to make just four saves in net while Joseph Stuber nabbed eight ground balls.  Will Kastel also had four caused turnovers.
 
The Mavs held on to a 9-8 win over the Chargers in the only previous meeting between the teams.  That also came in Huntsville on Mar. 13, 2021 at Charger Park.  Carson Schwark scored four goals and assisted on two others in that Maverick victory.  CMU lead 9-4 with eight minutes to go in the third quarter before the Chargers comeback attempt ran out of time.
Rollins
 
Rollins (Saturday, Feb. 12 - 11 a.m. MST - Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School)

The Mavericks will renew what has been an intense rivalry with the Tars, playing them seven times since 2012 and in every year from 2014 through 2019.  The first six meetings between were all played at Rollins in Winter Park, Florida and were split evenly with each team claiming three wins with an average margin of victory of less than four.
 
In 2019, Rollins made their only visit to Colorado and came away from Grand Junction with a 12-8 victory, snapping what had been a 20-game home-field winning streak at Community Hospital Unity Field for CMU.
 
The Tars were a solid 7-3 overall and 3-3 in Sunshine State Conference play last year and have been picked third in the conference's preseason coaches' poll.
 
Senior defender Justin Isenhour has also been named as Honorable Mention Preseason All-American by Inside Lacrosse.
 
The Tars, coached by eighth-season head coach Chris Lewis, opened their season on Saturday, squeaking out a 10-9 road win over Florida Tech.  Bailey Pringle, Marshall Ellison, Finn Jent, Grant Hansen and Justin White all scored twice in a balanced offensive attack while Isenhour had four ground balls and three caused turnovers.  Freshman net-minder Bradley Peterson made 11 saves in his collegiate debut.
 
Lewis is 47-35 as the Tars' head coach, including a partial 2015 stint as the interim head coach.  His teams have been at or above. 500 in each of the last six campaigns.
 
Coker (Monday, Feb. 14 - Noon MST - Hartsville, S.C./Coker Athletic Field)
 
The Valentine's Day meeting at Coker will be the first ever meeting between the teams. 
 
Although they have a new head coach in John Snow, the Cobras return 12 players from last season's 6-8 squad.
 
Snow won four straight national championships from 2017-21 at the NAIA level and went 133-31 in ten seasons at Reinhard University, going 66-3 since 2017 before being named as the Cobras' head coach in July, 2021.
 
His new team opened the 2022 campaign on Sunday, falling 11-7 at home to No. 14 Mount Olive.  Zyaire Marshall had three goals in that game while Henry Haskett had two goals and an assist.  The Cobras were victorious on just four of 20 face-offs, but still managed to grab 3-0 and 5-3 leads before a 6-0 Trojan run during the second half of the second quarter and into the third proved to be the difference.
 
The Cobras were picked eighth out of 11 teams in this year's South Atlantic Conference Preseason Poll.
 
Up Next & Sunday "Funday"
 
The Mavericks will return home and begin preparation for their RMAC and home-opener against rival Westminster.  That game at the Community Hospital Unity Field will be played at noon on Sunday, Feb. 27.  All four of the Mavs' regular season home games are scheduled for Sundays at noon.  CMU will also face Colorado College (Apr. 3), CSU-Pueblo (Apr. 10) and Adams State (Apr. 24) on that day and time.