GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After splitting their first two games of the trip, the 20^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team (5-2) continues a 4-game stretch in Florida this week playing at No. 14 Florida Tech on Wednesday in Melbourne before wrapping up the string on Friday against Flagler College in St. Augustine.
 
Wednesday's game against the Panthers (4-3) is slated for 4 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. Mountain) while Friday's against the Saints, currently 0-8, is slated for an 11 a.m. EDT (9 a.m. Mountain) start.
 
Live streams and live statistics for this week's games can be found on the links above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks began their Florida trip last Wednesday with a 14-10 win over Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach.  Carson Schwark, James Steinke and AJ Switzer combined for nine goals as the Mavericks jumped out to 4-1 and 9-3 leads before the Sailfish pulled back within 10-8 at the end of the third.
 
Steinke, Schwark and Sergio Pelayo then combined for four fourth-quarter goals to put the away.
 
Schwark matched a career-high with four goals while Steinke tallied four points with a hat-trick and an assist.  Switzer also scored two goals.
 
Reece Sullivan made nine saves while Dylan Checketts was 17-for-26 on face-offs while scooping up eight ground balls.  Drew Eickelman, who had four ground balls, and Riley Fisher finisher had three caused turnovers each.
 
The Mavs then traveled to Tampa to face the nation's second-ranked University of Tampa Spartans, who have now moved into the top spot of the national poll.  The Mavs had a pair of early 1-0 leads and were tied at 8 with 9:37 left in the third quarter before the Spartans scored three times over 2:11 of the latter stages of the quarter to go up 11-8.
 
The Mavericks then scored the opening two goals of the fourth quarter to pull within one at 12-11 before Luke McAnaney scored twice just 20 seconds apart to ice the victory.
 
Switzer led the Mavericks with three goals while James Steinke, Alex Blatt and Jed Brummett all had two.  Steinke also recorded three assists and finished with a team-high five points.
 
Sweep Times Three
 
The Mavericks swept the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors for the third time this season on Monday (Mar. 21) as midfielders James Steinke and Drew Eickelman were named as the offensive and defensive honorees, respectively.  Steinke had also received the award on Mar. 2 when Dylan Checketts claimed the defensive honor.
 
AJ Switzer (Offensive) and Jake Brummett (Defensive) were then honored on Mar. 7.  CMU was not eligible for the Mar. 14 awards as they did not play in the preceding week.
 
Winning the Face-off battle

The Mavericks have won more face-offs than their opponents in all seven games this season and have an impressive 148-61 face-off mark throughout the season.  That .708 team winning percentage is the fourth best in Division II.
 
Dylan Checketts ranks sixth in the country with his .710 individual winning percentage and has won 98 out of his 138 total draws.  Jake Brummett has an even better .731 winning percentage (38-14) but is not eligible for the NCAA statistical rankings as he has not taken more than 40 percent of the team's total draws.  If he were eligible, he would rank second nationally.
 
Joey Grzetic IV also has an .818 (9-2) percentage in his limited opportunities.
 
Scooping them up
 
Dylan Checketts also ranks amongst the nation's top 10 players for ground balls per game.  He has already scooped up 55, good for an average of 9.17 per game.  The Mavs rank 11^th as a team with their 39.57 per game average.  They have won the ground ball battle in six of seven games so far this season.
 
High Octane Offense
 
The Mavericks have scored 112 goals in their first seven games reaching double figures in six of the seven while netting 21 on two separate occasions.  The Mavs now sit sixth in the county for scoring offense, having averaged 16 per game.  They also rank 12t in scoring margin, having out-scored their opponents by 39 goals, an average of 5.57 per game.
 
CMU also ranks tenth for assists per game (9.00), having recorded 63 assists.
 
Moving up the scoring ladder
 
Fifth-year Maverick redshirt senior Carson Schwark has steadily moved up the Mavericks' career goal scoring charts this season.  He had a career-high four goals in Wednesday's win at Palm Beach Atlantic and tallied another goal against No. 2 Tampa on Saturday.
 
Those five goals have increased his career total to 62 in just 46 games.
 
The Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota native has now moved past Kade Robinson (61) and Joe Wulforst IV (57) and into seventh place on the Mavs' all-time goal scoring charts.  He now has his eyes set on Austin Pridham, who is in sixth place with 66 career goals.
 
Schwark is second on the Maverick squad and in the RMAC with his 13 goals this season and has now been in double figures during each of the last four seasons, including the 2020 and 2021 campaigns, 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.
 
Schwark is also now tied with Michael Dasch, Jr. (2016-19) for tenth in school history for offensive points with 85.  With one more goal or assist, Schwark would move into a tie with Michael Beimford (2013-15) for ninth.  Daniel Caddoo (2012-16) is eighth in CMU history for career points with 88.
 
Nearing 50
 
Two other current Mavericks are also approaching the 50 career goal milestone and are ranked amongst the top 15 in program history.
 
AJ Switzer now has 47 career goals to his credit and is 13^th in program history.  Jed Brummett is tied for 14^th with 44.  Only 11 other Mavericks have reached 50 in the history of the program.
 
In the poll
 
The Mavericks retained their No. 20 ranking in the latest USILA/Dynamic Coaches' Division II Poll, released on Monday afternoon.  The Mavs had also shared that ranking with Mount Olive in last week's (Mar. 14) poll after hanging around in the "others receiving votes" portion of the poll throughout the earlier stages of the season.  The Mavs are now receiving 32 points in the poll after picking up 28 last week.
 
CMU's last opponent— Tampa is the No. 1 in the poll and received 24 of the 25 first place votes.  Former No. 1 Le Moyne suffered a loss for the first time last week and is now ranked second.  The Dolphins received the other first place vote.
 
Florida Tech, CMU's next foe, is now ranked 14^th after sitting 13^th a week ago.  Undefeated Rollins, who the Mavs played last month, is now 12^th after occupying the No. 11 spot in last week's poll.
 
Top Four Scorers
 
The Mavericks have each of the top four goal scorers in the RMAC this season.  All four have already eclipsed double-figures.  AJ Switzer leads the group with 17 while Carson Schwark is second with 13.  James Steinke (11) and Trent Pernell (10) are right behind. 
 
Stretching the Scoring Streak
 
James Steinke extended his multiple-season scoring streak to eight games as he scored goals in both contests last week.  He has now scored goals in ten of the Mavs' last 11 games.
 
Steinke now has scored 28 goals and has tallied the same number of assists in 24 career games.
 
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 21 of their last 25 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 117-45 all-time, good for a .722 winning percentage that is fifth best amongst active Division II programs.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
After claiming a win over Westminster in their last and so far, only home game of 2022, the Mavericks have now posted a 49-8 all-time record at home since beginning their program in 2011, good for an .860 home field winning percentage.  The Mavericks had a 20-game home field winning streak from 2016-18 and have now won 29 of their last 32 games at Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
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 37-4 (.902) 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 86-24 career record.  His .782 career winning percentage ranks him seventh amongst active NCAA coaches (all three divisions) with a minimum of five years as a head coach at the NCAA level.  He ranks third amongst Division II coaches.
 
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 has never coached against either of this week's opponents nor his Florida Tech and Flagler counterparts.
 
About the Panthers
 
The Panthers have a 4-3 record.  Two of their losses have come by single goals to teams the Mavericks also lost to (Rollins & Tampa).
 
They fell 11-10 in double overtime to Tampa in their last outing on Mar. 12 and will have gone 11 days in between games when they face the Mavericks.
 
Hired last month shortly after the season started, Coach Brad MacArthur has already faced four other nationally-ranked foes. 
 
The Saints have played two overtime games and three of their seven games to date have been decided by a single goal.
 
Collin Stewart has already scored 18 goals while assisting on five others.  Zach Rozgonyi and Bennett Duffy have each scored a dozen goals as well. 
 
Meanwhile, Justin Williams has scored ten goals and ranks second in the entire Sunshine State Conference with 14 assists.  He also paces the Panthers with 24 points.
 
Jack Maranto (.508) and Ethan Tosheff (.504) have been won slightly more than half of their face-offs.  Tosheff and Josh Vetter are tied for the team lead with 28 ground balls.  Vetter, a USA Lacrosse Third Team Preseason All-American, has also caused 18 turnovers but is just behind Sam Balch, who has 23 to lead the squad and rank second in Division II.  Vetter ranks ninth while the Panthers as a team are second in the country with their 13.71 caused turnover per game average.
 
Josh Hulsman has made 73 saves and has a .507 save percentage and 10.59 goals against average as the Panthers' starting goalie.
 
About the Saints
 
The Saints are currently 0-8 and will play at Tampa on Tuesday afternoon before returning home to play the Mavericks.  This is their first ever season.
 
They were picked fourth (tie) in the 6-team Peach Belt Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
Brian Duncan's squad has been out-scored 137-69 in their first eight games.
 
However, they have four different players who have already reached double-figures for goals.  Thomas Pritchard leads the way with 14 while Ty Tom has 12 goals while leading the team in both assists (7) and points (19).  Tyler Douglas and Drew Flagg have also scored 10 goals each.  Douglass also has six assists and 16 points.
 
Jake Griffin (.489) and Matt Mitrega (.456) have split the face-off draws and lead the team with 31 and 28 ground balls, respectively.   Logan Patrick paces the squad with eight caused turnovers while Tom is second with six.
 
Nate Lehr and Tim Russell have split starts in goal.  Lehr has made five starts and has a .474 save percentage and 14.33 goals against average.  Russell has a .385 save percentage and 19.73 goals against average but has made 52 saves, six more than Lehr.  Two other Saints have also appeared briefly.
 
Series History
 
The Mavericks have played Florida Tech just once previously.  That meeting came more than a decade ago on Mar. 15, 2012.   The Mavs won on that day in Melbourne, 12-8.
 
Friday's game against Flagler will be the first meeting between the teams.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return home for their next two games facing Division III Colorado College on Saturday, Apr. 2 before resuming RMAC play with an Sunday, Apr. 10 game against CSU-Pueblo.  Both will begin at noon.  The game against Colorado College was originally scheduled for Apr. 3 but was moved up a day to accommodate a request from CC.