SALT LAKE CITY, Utah— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team won their fourth Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title with a 16-10 Saturday night championship game win over Westminster College on the Griffins' Dumke Field.
 
The Mavs led 6-3 after the first quarter and 10-3 at the half en-route to the victory, which avenged a 2021 home-field title game defeat and last Saturday's 13-10 Griffin victory in the regular season finale for both teams, a result that meant the sharing of the conference's regular season championship. 
 
That result also sent this weekend's tournament to Utah.
 
Meeting for the sixth consecutive time in the tournament final, the second-seeded Mavericks won their first tournament cup as the away team.  The had won their previous three in 2016, 2017 and 2018 at home in Grand Junction.
 
The nation's 19th-ranked Mavs also claimed their ninth win in the last ten games of this season and barring what a surprise selection to the NCAA Division II Tournament, the Mavs will finish with a 14-4 record while taking two of three games over their biggest rivals, who finish the season with a 10-4 mark.
 
Tournament MVP Carson Schwark led the Mavericks offensively with four goals in Saturday's game after scoring three in Friday's 17-10 semifinal win over CSU Pueblo. 
 
Freshman JJ Brummett also recorded a hat-trick, his third of the year, to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team alongside three other Mavs in Dylan Checketts, James Steinke and AJ Switzer
 
Checketts was once again a monster on face-offs.  He won 19 of his 28 draws and scooped up 14 ground balls as the Mavs dominated the possession game, which led to a significant 54-29 advantage in total shots.
 
Steinke, Switzer and Levi McCoy also added two goals a piece while Checketts, Trent Pernell and Braden Lowe also tickled the twine.
 
The Mavs never trailed as Schwark scored on their opening possession of the game, just 33 seconds in on an assist from Logan Smith.  Steinke, who finished with two assists to set a new Maverick single-season record of 28, then doubled the lead just 1:59 into the game before the teams exchanged blows for most of the first quarter.
 
Leading 6-3 with Lowe's goal that answered a Dylan Brauer goal for the Griffins at the end of the first quarter, the Mavs then dominated the second. 
 
Switzer scored his two goals at the 9:46 and 2:50 mark of the quarter before Schwark assisted and scored on two more Maverick goals in the final 30 seconds of the quarter.
 
The Mavs out-shot the Griffins 17-5 in the second frame and held the Griffins without a goal with some impressive defense.
 
The Griffins would come out of the half-time intermission to score two goals to cut their deficit to 10-5 but would get no closer as Schwark converted a Griffin cross-checking penalty for what was the Mavs' school-record matching 30^th man-up goal of the season.
 
Leading 11-5 at that point, Brummett and Pernell then scored later in the third quarter putting the Mavs up by seven goals (13-6).
 
The Griffins would fight back to within 14-10 with 6:33 left on a Gabe Mein man-up goal but would get no closer as Brummett and McCoy scored the final two goals of the game.
 
Schwark, a fifth year senior from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, won three regular season and two RMAC Tournament titles in his career.  He also scored 80 career goals, tied for fifth most in program history, and will depart CMU with 108 career offensive points, sixth most in a Maverick uniform.