SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—The Colorado Mesa University Maverick men's lacrosse team advanced to their sixth consecutive RMAC Tournament Championship game with a 17-10 semifinal round win over CSU Pueblo on Friday night at Judge Memorial Catholic High School.

Trent Pernell, Carson Schwark, James Steinke all recorded hat-tricks for the Mavericks while Pernell also added two assists.
 
The Mavs, 13-4 on the season, trailed 7-6 at the half but scored each of the first seven third-quarter goals and out-scored the ThunderWolves, 11-3 in the final 30 minutes to claim the victory that sends them into Saturday evening's title game against top-seed and tournament host Westminster College, which won the first semifinal over No. 4 seed Adams State, 19-2.
 
The Mavericks will now play tournament host Westminster at 6 p.m. on Saturday on the Griffins' on-campus Dumke Field in the championship game looking to avenge last week's regular season finale and last year's RMAC Tournament Championship game defeats.
 
The two teams have met in all five previous RMAC Tournament finals.  The Mavs have won three of those.
 
The Mavs, seeded second in the tournament after sharing the 2022 regular season title with the Griffins, won 23 of the 28 face-offs in Friday night's win over No. 3 seed CSU Pueblo (3-9), as Jake Brummett went 12-for-13 with seven ground balls while Dylan Checketts was 9-for-11 with five ground balls.
 
Brummett's younger brothers Jed and JJ also scored two goals apiece in the victory.
 
The Mavericks outshot the ThunderWolves, 63-33 in the game and had nearly twice as many (50-26) ground balls.
 
Reece Sullivan made five saves in net to earn the complete game win.
 
The Mavs had gone on a 4-0 run in the first quarter and into the second as Pernell and JJ Brummett, both had two goals in the stretch, which gave CMU a 5-2 lead.
 
However, the ThunderWolves came roaring back to score five of the next six goals to take their half-time lead.
 
Steinke, who had scored a short-handed goal in that second quarter stretch then tallied his second of the night to tie the game with 12:13 left in the third before Schwark took over, scoring three times in a span of less than five minutes to give the Mavs  an 11-7 lead.
 
Jed Brummett and AJ Switzer then got in on the scoring act, tallying markers just 64 seconds a part off assists from Drew Eickelman and Pernell.
 
The Pack would score the final goal of the third quarter to close the deficit to 13-8 before Steinke, Pernell, and Jed Brummett all helped put the game way.
 
Hunter Holcomb and Jake Keyes also scored for the Mavs during the night.
 
CMU is now a perfect 17-0 all-time against the ThunderWolves.