GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 3-match winning streak and up to a season-best 20^th in the national poll, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks are now preparing for a pair of re-matches against talented foes that they will host this weekend in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks will enter the weekend with an 8-3 overall and 3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference marks and will look to avenge their only conference loss on Friday night when they take on now second-ranked MSU Denver (11-1, 4-0 RMAC) at 6 p.m.
 
On Saturday, the Mavericks will host Colorado Christian at 4 p.m.  The Cougars are 8-5 overall and 3-1 in conference play entering a Friday night match at Westminster.  Like the Mavericks on Friday, they will be looking to turn the tables after CMU won a non-conference affair during the Oredigger Volleyball Classic on Aug. 27.
 
A live stream for both of this week's and all of the Mavs' conference matches can be found on the RMAC Network.
 
Live statistics for this weekend's matches can be found at the link above.
 
Tickets are also available at www.cmumavericks.com/tickets.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks took care of business on the road last week, recording 3-set sweeps over both Adams State and New Mexico Highlands last Friday and Saturday, respectively.
 
The Mavs were quite balanced offensively in both matches while clamping down defensively as they held both the Grizzlies and Cowgirls to .076 hitting efforts.
 
In Friday's win over Adams State in Alamosa, Tye Wedhorn and Sierra Hunt both finished with ten kills while Erin Curl, Sydney Leffler and Savannah Spitzer each had five.  Wedhorn hit .500 and recorded five blocks in that match.
 
Meanwhile, Sabrina VanDeList tallied 29 assists while Kerstin Layman finished with 16 digs.
 
On Saturday in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Curl, Hunt, Leffler and Spitzer all finished with nine kills while Wedhorn added seven more.
 
VanDeList also celebrated her 21^st birthday by registering her fourth double-double of the season with 38 assists and 12 digs.
 
Layman also recorded 21 digs while Maddi Foutz got a start as a defensive specialist, recording eight more.
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks moved up one spot to 20^th in this week's AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll. The Mavericks are now in the top 25 for the fourth straight week after beginning the season with the sixth most points in the "others receiving votes" category of the preseason poll.
 
In this week's poll, the Mavs have 241 total points, two fewer than a week ago.  They are one of four RMAC teams in the poll.
 
MSU Denver moved up two spots two second as the top of the poll was shuffled following losses by the former No. 1 and 2.
 
Wayne State (Neb.) is the new No. 1 and sports a perfect 14-0 record and the kudos of winning the Colorado Premier Challenge.
 
Despite beating MSU Denver at that tournament, Concordia-St. Paul is third with a 10-2 record while St. Cloud State also moved up two spots to fourth.
 
Former No. 1 and defending national champion Tampa lost a 5-setter to now No. 25 Nova Southeastern last week and slipped four spots to fifth while Washburn also lost for the first time this year dropping to sixth.
 
Friday's match will be the Mavs' fourth of the season against a team currently ranked in the top 8.  The Mavs have played Southwest Minnesota State, ranked eighth, Tampa and MSU Denver already this season.  Those are the Mavs' only losses.
 
Further down in the poll, Regis is now ranked 19^th, up one spot.  The Colorado School of Mines is now ranked 21^st, down two rungs from a week ago.
 
CSU Pueblo is still in the others receiving votes category.
 
Match 500
 
Saturday's match against Colorado Christian will mark the 500^th time that 18^th year Head Coach Dave Fleming will be in charge of the Mavericks.
 
Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 329 career victories.  He is 329-169 in his time at CMU, good for a .661 winning percentage in his 498 career matches to date. 
 
The Mavs recorded their sixth 20-win season under Fleming in the fall of 2021 after going 15-1 while winning the RMAC's 2021 Spring Season.
 
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has now led the Mavericks to eight NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season titles (2014, 2021-Spring), two RMAC Tournament crowns (2014, 2018) and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).

The Mavericks have had winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and are a combined 222-88 (.716) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Defensive success continues
 
The Mavericks held both Adams State and New Mexico Highlands to .076 team attack percentages last week and in the process, lowered their season-long opponent percentage mark to .127, good for second in the RMAC statistics.
 
The Mavs have surrendered a league-low 365 total kills and pace the conference in opponent kills per set (9.86).
 
MSU Denver leads the conference in opponent hitting percentage at .117.
 
The Mavs' passing success has also shown in serve reception.  They have given up just 30 aces (0.81/set) to their opponents this year, 12 fewer than both MSU Denver and CSU Pueblo who are second and third in that defensive category. 
 
Redshirt senior libero Kerstin Layman has been a large part of that.  She ranks second in the RMAC for digs per set (5.03) and has committed just two reception errors in more than 100 attempts (114), good for an impressive .982 reception percentage.  Layman was the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Year last season.
 
Meanwhile, defensive specialists Maddi Foutz and Allison Waller have also been strong on serve reception.  Foutz, a redshirt senior who was the 2021 Spring RMAC Player of the Year as an outside hitter, has committed just four reception errors in 98 attempts, good for a .959 percentage.
 
Waller, a freshman, has made just one error in 107 attempts and has a .991 percentage.
 
Clean Sweeps & Quick Starts
 
All eight of the Maverick' victories have come in straight set sweeps this year.  The Mavericks also won two sets in two of their three losses and have a 28-9 set record thus far in 2022.
 
The Mavericks have also been impressive in the opening set of matches this year, winning ten of the 11 first sets they have played.  The Mavs are also 10-1 in the third set of matches and are 8-3 in the second set.
 
However, the Mavs have yet to win a fourth or fifth set, dropping both in the matches against Southwest Minnesota State and Tampa having 1-0 and 2-1 leads.
 
On the verge of milestones
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore setter Sabrina VanDeList is less than 100 assists away from the 2,000-career assist milestone and will likely reach that mark sometime during the Mavs' homestand, possibly as soon as Saturday afternoon against Colorado Christian.
 
VanDeList currently has 1,904 assists in 55 matches and 199 sets thus far and is just 96 assists away from the milestone.
 
Already a 2-time First Team All-RMAC selection, she has tallied 420 in 37 sets this year, good for a career-best 11.35 per set average.  She ranks second in the RMAC and fifth in all of Division II with that average.
 
The Severance, Colorado native could also reach the 500-career dig milestone during the homestand.  She has registered 470 thus far and is second on this year's squad behind only reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Year Kerstin Layman.  VanDeList has 91 digs this year.
 
At the Top
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle hitter moved up to seventh in this week's NCAA Division II statistics (through Tuesday's matches) with her .444 hitting percentage.  She also leads the RMAC with that figure, stemming from her 79 kills and 153 attempts.  She has made just 11 hitting errors.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks will look to continue making their home fans happy this weekend and have been historically strong at home.
 
With their win over Westminster in their only previous home match of the season back on Sept. 9, the Mavs are now 69-12 (.852) at home since the start of 2014 and have not lost more than one home match in each of the previous four-plus seasons, going 33-4 (.892) since the start of 2019.
 
They went 9-1 at home last year with their only loss coming to MSU Denver.
 
The home-court success is nothing new as the Mavs went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season.  In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.
  
The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 2016 and 2017.  CMU was also an impressive 15-1 in 2014 en-route to a RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last ten completed seasons since and including 2012, going 84-21 (.800) since the start of 2012.
 
Start of Home Stretch

This weekend's home matches will also be the start of what is CMU's longest homestand of the season.  The Mavs will be playing their next four at home facing Fort Lewis (Friday, Sept. 30) and Western Colorado (Saturday, Oct. 1) next week following this week's encounters with MSU Denver and Colorado Christian.
 
The Mavs will also have four other home matches this season, but only in stretches of two straight on Oct. 14-15 and Oct. 28-29.
 
About MSU Denver
 
The Roadrunners moved up two spots to second in this week's national poll and hold the RMAC's best overall record at 11-1.  They also co-lead the RMAC standings with Regis with a 4-0 mark and enter Friday's match as winners of five straight.
 
They lead the RMAC in both hitting percentage (.274) and opponent hitting percentage (.117).  They also lead the nation in blocks (2.78/set) and recorded 14 blocks in the earlier meeting against the Mavericks.
 
Individually, all-America outside hitter Rylee Hladky has put down 148 kills to rank second in the RMAC with her 3.61 per set average.  She also ranks second in the conference for service aces with 21 and her per set average of 0.51.
 
The reigning RMAC Player of the Year, Hladky also leads the conference in points per set (4.44). 
 
Riley Anderson is also in triple figures for kills with 105 (3.09/set) while Mikayla McClinton (.358) and Kelsey Gordon (3.205) are both hitting over .300.
 
Amelia Qershia and Delaney Eckhardt split setting duties and have combined for 468 assists and 27 service aces.

Defensively, Ember Canty has recorded 50 blocks (1.25/set) to rank second in the RMAC while McClinton (39; 1.00/set) and Gordon (37, 0.95/set) are also talented at they net.  They rank fifth and ninth in the conference, respectively.
 
Ashlyn Cianciulli paces the team with 176 digs (4.29/set) and ranks seventh in the RMAC.  She recently surpassed the 1,000 career dig mark.  Hladky also surpassed the 1,000 career kill milestone in the same match last Friday against UCCS.
 
They were then named as the RMAC Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week on Tuesday.
 
About Colorado Christian
 
After a 2-4 start, the Cougars have won six of their last seven matches and will enter Friday's match with Westminster in Salt Lake City with an 8-5 overall mark.  They are also 3-1 in RMAC play and are tied with the Mavericks and three others for third place in the conference standings.
 
Offensively, they rank fourth in the RMAC for team hitting percentage (.247), just one spot ahead of the Mavs.
 
Outside hitter Libby Goodman is a large part of that attack and paces the RMAC with 180 kills and her 3.91 per set average.  Goodman is also third in the RMAC for total points, averaging 4.15 per set.
 
Meanwhile, middle hitter Lilly Woods sits third in the conference for hitting percentage (.345) while Goodman ranks ninth at .297.

Setter Izzy Jones is also third in the conference for assists, averaging 10.17 per set.
 
Defensively, Madelyn Long is eighth in the league for digs with 169 (4.02/set).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks and Roadrunners have met at least once every season since at least 1993 in a long-standing rivalry that dates back before the Roadrunners joined the RMAC in 1996.  MSU Denver is 33-11 in the 44 meetings between the teams in that time span and swept last year's series, winning in four sets on Sept. 16 in Grand Junction before pulling out a 5-set win just over two weeks later on Oct. 1 in Denver.
 
They will be going for the sweep again.
 
Conversely, the Mavericks will be looking for their third win in the last four home matches against the Roadrunners. 
 
Seventh-year Roadrunner Head Coach Jenny Glenn is 10-3 in the coaching battle with Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming, who is 10-22 against the Roadrunners in his tenure at CMU.
 
The Mavs' history with Colorado Christian is nearly as extensive, considering the two squads have been fellow conference members since 1996.
 
The Mavs have won each of the last seven match-ups and hold a 24-14 series advantage in the program's  NCAA Division II era (1992-Present).  They swept last year's season series winning a regular season RMAC match on Oct. 2 in five sets in Lakewood before ending the Cougars' season in the quarterfinal round of the RMAC Tournament on Nov. 16 in Grand Junction.  The Mavs won that match in four sets.
 
The Mavs won the Aug. 27 neutral-court meeting in Golden in straight sets.
 
The Mavericks are 12-6 at home against the Cougars and have won six straight home matches against the Cougars, who last won over CMU in Grand Junction back on Nov. 19, 2013 in the RMAC Tournament quarterfinals.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 15-6 against the Cougars in his time at CMU and is 7-1 against Cougar counterpart Bobby Blanken, in his sixth season at the helm of the CCU program.
 
Up Next
 
As mentioned earlier, the Mavericks will remain at home next weekend as well, facing Fort Lewis next Friday (Sept. 30) at 6 p.m. and Western Colorado next Saturday (Oct. 1) for a 3 p.m. matinee.