GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Up three spots in the national poll and coming off another winning tournament weekend, the now 21^st-ranked Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will turn its attention to Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
The Mavericks open the conference slate this week playing at No. 4 and defending RMAC Champion MSU Denver on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Denver before returning home to face unranked Westminster in their home-opener on Friday at 6 p.m. in Brownson Arena.
 
The Mavericks will enter the weekend with a 5-2 overall record while MSU Denver is 7-1 and coming off a third-place finish at the Colorado Premier Challenge last weekend.  Westminster is 2-6 overall and will begin the conference slate against the Mavericks.
 
A live stream for both 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 links above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks fared well last weekend in Tampa, Florida, going 2-1 against teams that were all in the NCAA Division II Tournament a year ago.  The Mavericks recorded 3-set wins over Wheeling, the Atlantic Region finalists from a year ago, and Tusculum on Saturday and took the No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Tampa Spartans to five sets earlier on Saturday afternoon.  The Mavericks won the first and third sets of that match.
 
Sydney Leffler (41 kills), Sierra Hunt (38) and Erin Curl (36) all had impressive offensive weekends while setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded a pair of double-doubles while recording 126 assists (11.45/set) and 35 digs (3.18/set).
 
Kerstin Layman tallied 50 digs (4.55/set) without committing a reception error as well and recorded a season-high 27 digs in Saturday's match against Tampa.  VanDeList also had 51 assists and matched a career-high with 20 digs against the Spartans.  Hunt had 17 kills in that match after leading the Mavs with 13 in Friday's win over Wheeling.
 
Leffler led the Mavericks in the win over Tusculum with 17 kills.
 
In the Polls
 
After beginning the season with the sixth most points in the "others receiving votes" category of the AVCA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll, the Mavericks moved into the top 25 in the No. 24 spot of last week's poll.  They then moved up three more spots to 21^st in this week's poll and are now garnering 238 total points.
 
Tampa retained the No. 1 spot in the poll with 1,152 points and received 40 of 47 first place votes this week.  MSU Denver also remained in the No. 4 spot with 972 points as the first of four RMAC teams in the top 25.
 
The Colorado School of Mines slipped one spot to 15^th in this week's poll while Regis surged into the top 25 at No. 23 after a strong 3-1 performance at the Colorado Premier Challenge.
 
CSU Pueblo remained in the others receiving votes category.
 
Clash of the Undefeated 2021 Champs
 
Thursday's match-up with MSU Denver will be a clash of the two RMAC Champions during the 2021 calendar year.  The Mavericks won the spring title after the normal 2020 fall season was postponed due to COVID-19 ramifications.  CMU went a perfect 14-0 in RMAC play that spring, becoming the first RMAC team to ever go undefeated in conference play.
 
MSU Denver then duplicated that feat in the fall, going 18-0 to win the RMAC's regular season title.
 
Double-Figure Streak
 
Sophomore outside hitter Sydney Leffler has reached double-figures for kills in each of CMU's last five matches.  She had 12 against both Wheeling and Tampa last week and then put down a season-high 17 in the 3-set sweep of Tusculum on Saturday.

Leffler, the RMAC Freshman of the Year and an honorable mention all-American, in the fall of 2021, is second on the team behind fellow outside hitter Sierra Hunt with 85 kills.  Leffler ranks sixth in the RMAC for kills per set at 3.40.
 
Hunt has tallied 93 kills thus far and ranks second in the RMAC with her 3.72 per set average.  She has been in double figures in five matches this year and has tallied nine in her other two.
 
Ms. Efficient
 
Maverick redshirt junior middle Savannah Spitzer continues to lead the RMAC in hitting percentage and is now hitting .475.  She has put down 53 kills with just six errors on 99 attempts.  Spitzer ranks 12^th in the national statistics as of Tuesday.
 
Top-level setter
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore Sabrina VanDeList has enjoyed a strong start to the 2022 season, recording 296 assists in the Mavs' 25 sets and seven matches, good for an average of 11.84 per set.  That average puts the 2-time First Team All-RMAC performer second in the RMAC statistics and fourth amongst the Division II statistical leaders as of Tuesday morning.
 
Meanwhile, she has orchestrated the Maverick attack that leads the RMAC in hitting percentage at .269.
 
Double Double-Double
 
Both Sabrina VanDeList and Erin Curl recorded double-doubles in Saturday's match against top-ranked Tampa.  VanDeList had 51 assists and a career-high-matching 20 digs to record her second straight double-double after recording 37 assists and ten digs against Wheeling on Friday.  She now has 18 double-doubles to her credit in her career.
 
Meanwhile, Curl, a graduate transfer, registered her first collegiate double-double with 14 kills and 12 digs against the Spartans from her right side position.
 
The last time the Mavericks had two players record a double-double in the same match was on Sept. 11, 2011 when both Holly Schmidt and VanDeList did so against Arkansas Tech.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks will enter Friday's home-opener against Westminster with lots of confidence in their ability to win at home.  The Mavericks 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 and are 68-12 (.850) at home over the past eight seasons since the start of 2014.
 
In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.
 
In the past four seasons, the Mavericks have won 32 of their 36 home matches, good for an .889 winning percentage, losing at home just once each season.
 
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 seasons since and including 2012, going 83-21 (.798) at home in that that span.
 
The RMAC's top leader
 
Now in his 18^th season as the Mavs' head Coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 326 career victories.  He is 326-168 in his time at CMU, good for a .660 winning percentage in nearly 500 matches (494). 
 
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 219-87 (.716) in conference play under Fleming.
 
About MSU Denver
 
MSU Denver, ranked fourth nationally throughout the young season, is off to a 7-1 overall start.  The Roadrunners went 4-0 at Cal Sate San Marcos' Cougar Classic to begin the season and then went 3-1 against four nationally-ranked foes at home last weekend during the Colorado Premier Challenge.  They finished third in the Gold Bracket after winning their pool thanks to Friday wins over then No. 16 Angelo State and No. 10 Northwest Missouri.  The Roadrunners then fell to No. 6 Concordia-St. Paul in the Gold Bracket semifinals but bounced back to sweep No. 12 West Texas A&M in the third place matche, picking up another key regional win while avenging their NCAA South Central Regional Championship match loss from 2021.
 
The Roadrunners stands second in the early-season RMAC statistics for hitting percentage at .264 and have the conference's top-ranked defense, holding opponents to a .128 clip.  The Mavs are second in that category at .142.
 
Junior outside hitter Rylee Hladky, a returning first team all-American, leads the team with 94 kills, good for a 3.36 per set average.  Sophomore outside Riley Anderson is right behind with 72 and a 3.27 per set average.  Hladky, who is seventh in the RMAC with her kill per set average also stands second (tie) in the RMAC for service aces, averaging one every other set (0.50).
 
Defensively, First Team All-RMAC middle blocker Ember Canty has recorded 33 blocks to rank second in the RMAC for blocks per set (1.18) while Ashlyn Cianciulli has a team-high 108 digs (3.86/set).  Hladky is second on the team in that category with 87.
 
Amela Quershia and Delaney Eckhardt have split time at the setter position with Quershia tallying 170 assists thus far.  Eckhardt has 142.
 
The Roadrunners lead the RMAC in service aces per set, averaging 2.04.
 
The Roadrunners have won at least 21 matches in every full season under Head Coach Jenny Glenn, who has a 141-38 career record (.788) entering Thursday.  They were 15-2 in the spring of 2021 and were 28-4 last year, enjoying a No. 1 national ranking for much of the season, while advancing to the South Central Regional final.
 
About Westminster
 
The Griffins are 2-6 thus far, having gone 1-3 in both of their non-conference tournaments thus far in Oklahoma City and Lacey, Washington.  Their victories have come over Southwest Baptist and Adelphi, both in four sets.
 
Lydia Parkinson (Miller) leads the team in kills with 75 while setter Leila Cornejo has shined in multiple categories.  She has recorded 207 assists and paces the team with 14 service aces to rank second (te) in the conference for aces per set (0.50).  She also has a .471 hitting percentage on limited attempts.
 
Malinda Messner leads the Griffins with 18 blocks while Alanna Lee has 74 digs, ten more than Cornejo, who is second on the team.
 
Sue Dulaney is the Griffins' new head coach this year after spending the past two decades at the junior college level, where she compiled over 500 career wins.
 
Series Histories
 
The Roadrunners and Mavericks have met at least once since at least 1993 in a long-standing rivalry that dates back before the Roadrunners joined the RMAC in 1996.  MSU Denver is 32-11 in the 43 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.
 
The Roadrunners are 10-5 against the Mavericks at home since 1993.  The Mavs' last win over them in the Auraria Events Center came on Sept. 18, 2015, when the Mavericks won a 5-set match.
 
Seventh-year Roadrunner Head Coach Jenny Glenn is 9-3 in the coaching battle with Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming, who is 10-21 against the Roadrunners in his tenure at CMU.
 
The Mavericks have dominated the all-time series with Westminster winning each of the last 13 matches and 15 of the 16 all-time meetings dating back to 2010.  Fleming and the Mavericks are a perfect 8-0 against the Griffins at home, but were pushed to the very limit last year, before pulling out a 15-13 victory in the fifth set.  The Mavs had lost just one set in the previous seven home matches.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will continue RMAC play on the road next week playing at Adams State in Alamosa next Friday (Sept. 16) at 7 p.m. before venturing south to Las Vegas, New Mexico to face New Mexico Highlands on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.  The Mavs will then return home for four straight and six of their next eight, a stretch that begins with a re-match against MSU Denver on Sept. 23.