GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Now holding their best 17-match record in program history at 16-1 and still ranked tenth in the national poll, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will return home to play three key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matches in a span of five days, including a clash with 11^th-ranked Regis University.
 
The Mavs, who also hold a 6-1 RMAC mark, open the stretch on Friday at 6 p.m. when they will host UCCS (5-10, 3-2 RMAC).  They will then take on Regis, currently 12-3 overall and 5-0 in the RMAC at 4 p.m. on Saturday before wrapping up the homestand on Tuesday (Oct. 17) at 6 p.m. when the Mavs will take on Chadron State, currently enjoying a strong season, at 10-6 overall and 4-2 in RMAC play.
 
Tickets for all three matches are available and all three matches can be seen live on the RMAC Network.  Live statistics can also be accessed at the link above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavs recorded a pair of 4-set road wins last weekend, claiming the first, third and fourth sets against both CSU Pueblo on Friday and at Adams State on Saturday.
 
In Friday's 25-22, 15-25, 25-21, 27-25 win at CSU Pueblo, Sydney Leffler and Savannah Spitzer both recorded 17 kills while Sabrina VanDeList had a 40-assist, 20-dig double-double.  Spitzer hit .500 on 30 swings while Emma Shaddix added ten more kills while hitting .304.
 
Libero Allison Waller also recorded 17 digs while Hahni Johnson matched a career-high with 11 while recording a career-high five service aces.
 
In Saturday's win over Adams State, Leffler recorded a career-high 24 kills, including ten in the fourth set alone.  Leffler recorded kills on each of the final four and seven of the last nine rallies as the Mavs came from 22-17 and 23-21 down to take the fourth and decisive set, 25-23.  The Mavs had also won the first and third sets by 25-16 and 25-17 margins, respectively, but dropped the second, 25-21.
 
Three other Mavs in Riley Daugherty (12), Shaddix (11) and Spitzer (10) were also in double-figures for kills while libero Allison Waller recorded a career-high 27 digs.  VanDeList tallied 47 assists and nine digs while Johnson set a new career-high for digs with 12 while adding another four service aces.
 
Complete Recaps of both matches can be found here.
 
Friday, Oct. 6 - CSU Pueblo (25-22, 15-25, 25-21, 27-25)
Saturday Oct. 7 - @ Adams State (25-17, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23)
 
Still tenth and in 20 straight
 
The Mavericks retained their No. 10 national ranking in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II poll, released on Monday.  The Mavs were also ranked tenth last week after sitting 11^th in the previous two polls.
 
The Mavs had been ranked 21^st in the preseason poll, 14^th in the Week No. 1 poll and 12^th in the Week No. 2 poll.
 
The current ranking is the Mavs' highest in-season ranking for a normal fall season since 2014, when they were ranked seventh on Nov. 17, before finishing eighth in the final poll after a 29-4 season and regional tournament championship match appearance.  The Mavs were ranked tenth in the 2021 preseason poll and were ranked as high as second from a limited number of teams who played during the 2021 spring season, significantly impacted by COVID-related issues.
 
The Mavs were also ranked in all 12 of the regular season's weekly polls in 2022 before finishing 21^st in the final post-season poll.  CMU was not ranked in the 2022 preseason poll, but did reach as high as No. 15 in the Week #10 poll on Oct. 31 of last year.
 
Including the 2022 post-season and 2023 pre-season polls, the Mavs have now been ranked amongst the nation's top 25 for 20 straight polls.
 
In this week's poll, the Mavs remained in the No. 10 spot with 705 points in the balloting of 47 AVCA member coaches from around the country. 
 
The rest of the top 10 was also only minorly changed with MSU Denver and Southwest Minnesota State each moving up a spot at the expense of St. Cloud State, which dropped two spots to eighth after falling to Southwest Minnesota State in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference match last week.
 
The NSIC has four of the top eight teams in the country with Wayne State and Concordia St.-Paul continuing to hold down the top two spots.  Both teams have just one loss, coming to each other.  Tampa, still undefeated (14-0), is ranked third and received the other two first place votes while Missouri-St. Louis, also undefeated (17-0), remained in the No. 4 spot. 
 
Defending National Champion West Texas A&M is still ranked fifth while Nebraska-Kearney remained ninth.
 
Regis, CMU's Saturday afternoon opponent, also moved up a spot to a season-best 11^th, switching spots with now 12^th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth.
 
Northern Colorado Award Winners 
 
The Mavericks laid claim to two of the RMAC's Player of the Week honors that were announced on Monday.  Sydney Leffler was named as the Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season (Sept. 4) and the fourth time of her career while sophomore libero Allison Waller picked up her third defensive honor of the season.
 
Both hail from Northern Colorado and played their club volleyball for NORCO.  Leffler hails from Eaton while Waller is from Loveland and went to Berthoud High School.
 
Leffler led all RMAC players with 41 kills and 44.5 total points last week, extending her RMAC lead in both total kills, total points and her kill and point per set averages.  She had 17 kills against CSU Pueblo before adding a career-high 24 in Saturday's win at Adams State. 
 
The 24-kill effort was also the best of any RMAC player this season.
 
Meanwhile, Waller tallied 44 digs in the two victories, including a career-high 27 in Saturday's victory.
 
Nearing 1K
 
Leffler, a junior outside hitter, has quickly been approaching the 1,000 career kill milestone and will enter the homestand with 932 career kills and just 68 away from the milestone.  She leads the RMAC with 264 kills this season after recording 340 en-route to RMAC and AVCA South Central Region Freshman of the Year as well as First Team All-RMAC honors in 2021.  She was also named as an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American that year.
 
Leffler then had 328 kills last year while picking up Second Team All-RMAC honors.
 
Leffler ranks eighth in the Mavs' rally-scoring era (2001-Present) record book for career kills and would become the seventh Maverick to reach the 1K milestone in that era.  The last player to do so was MacKenzie Edwards, who recorded 1,102 kills in her 2015-18 career.
 
Nikki Kneuer (Green) is the era's record holder with 1,668 career kills while Amy Miller, an RMAC Hall of Famer, holds the program record of 2,228.
 
At the top
 
Three different Maverick players currently hold the RMAC lead in four of the seven statistical categories. 
 
Leffler leads the RMAC in kills per set (4.47) and points per set (4.86) while setter Sabrina VanDeList paces the league with her 11.66 assist-per-set average.  Another one of her favorite targets in middle hitter Savannah Spitzer is now the RMAC leader in attack percentage at .404.
 
The Mavericks also lead the RMAC as a team in both kills per set (14.85) and assists per set (14.02).
 
On a national scale, the Mavericks rank second in the country in kills per set, trailing only Concordia-St. Paul (15.39).  The Mavs are third in the country for assists per set, trailing only the Golden Bears, ranked second in the national poll, and Angelo State.
 
Career Weekend
 
Maverick redshirt junior Hahni Johnson had a career weekend.  The Anchorage, Alaska native tallied a career-high five service aces in Friday's win over CSU Pueblo while also matching her previous career-high with 11 digs.  Johnson then followed that up with a new career-high setting 12 digs in Saturday's win at Adams State.  She also added four more aces against the Grizzlies and now leads the Maverick team with 18 service aces this season.  She had just eight combined aces in her first three indoor seasons.
 
Johnson was also named as an AVCA Small College Beach Championship All-American in 2022 after helping the Maverick Beach Volleyball Team to the NCAA Division II title.
 
Johnson's 5-ace effort against CSU Pueblo was the best of any Maverick this season and was the best for any Maverick since current teammate Jordan Woods tallied six aces in an Oct. 23, 2021 match at CSU Pueblo.  It is also equal to the third best single-match effort of any RMAC player this season.
 
Historic Start
 
As mentioned in the opening of this preview, the Mavericks now have a 16-1 overall record, their best 17-match record in program history.  The Mavs had won their first 15 matches of a 15-1 2021 spring season.
 
The 2013 edition of the Mavericks went 15-2 at the start of a 21-8 season while the 2014 squad went 14-3 en-route to a 29-4 record, CMU's best in the NCAA Division II era in terms of wins and in the program's entire history by winning percentage (.879), excluding the COVID delayed and abbreviated 2021 spring season, when the Mavs had a .938 winning percentage.  The 1992, 1994 and 2016 teams all went 14-3 at the start of their seasons as well.
 
Both the 2021 (fall) (13-4) and 2022 Maverick squad also started 13-4 in their first 17 matches.
 
What Saturday means
 
Although the Mavs are focused on UCCS and Friday's match, the result of Saturday's match against Regis could be quite important to the Mavs' RMAC regular season title hopes, but only if they are able to take care of business on Friday against the Mountain Lions.
 
CMU currently sits third in the RMAC standings at 6-1, trailing only MSU Denver and Regis, both of whom are 5-0 in conference play, on percentage points.  If the Mavericks were to get through the weekend with two wins, they would still only have one conference loss with five conference matches to go and would hand the Regis Rangers their first while moving past them, again assuming a Friday night win.
 
No matter what, the Mavs will need MSU Denver to drop a conference match and Regis is certainly the most-likely candidate, at least on paper.  The Rangers and Roadrunners will play their conference match-up on Nov. 4 and one team will come out of that match with at least one loss, so a Maverick win on Saturday would keep them very much in the picture and turn them into Ranger fans at least on Nov. 4, assuming MSU Denver continues to remain unbeaten.
 
If the Mavs were to lose to Regis on Saturday, they would have two conference losses and would need both MSU Denver and Regis to both drop two matches in the second half of conference play.
 
If that was not enough, Saturday's match is also bound to have major implications on the qualification and seeding process for the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Tournament.  Eight teams from the region, made up of the 15 RMAC and 16 Lone Star Conference teams will qualify with the winners of each conference tournament qualifying automatically.  The other six teams will be selected at-large based on the regional rankings, which will be released for the first time in alphabetical order on Nov. 1.
 
CMU will play both Regis and MSU Denver in a RMAC Power Pod later this month (Oct. 27 & 28), but those matches will not count in the RMAC standings.  They will, however, have major implications for the regional ranking process.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 19^th season as the Mavs' head Coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 359 career victories.  Fleming is 359-174 in his time at CMU, good for a .674 winning percentage and reached the 350-career win milestone on Sept. 8 after the Mavs win over Sioux Falls.
 
The Mavs recorded their seventh 20-win season under Fleming last fall, going 22-7, while qualifying for their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.  This came after the Mavs won the 2021 spring season RMAC title while going 15-1 overall during the COVID related delayed and abbreviated schedule.
 
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has now led the Mavericks to nine 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 240-91 (.725) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
Heading into this homestand, the Mavs currently sport a 7-1 home-court record this season.  That Brownson Arena success is nothing new for the Mavs, who have not lost more than a single home match in each of the previous five seasons, going 8-1 last year and 47-6 (.887) since the start of 2018.  The Mavs are also 83-14 (.856) at home since the start of 2014.
 
CMU's last three home losses have all come against MSU Denver, who defeated the Mavs on Sept. 23 of last season in a tight match that saw all three sets decided by the minimum 2-point margin.  The Mavs also went 9-1 at home in 2021, with their only loss coming to MSU Denver.
 
The Mavs also 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 11 completed seasons since and including 2012, going 98-23 (.810) since the start of 2012.
 
About UCCS (Friday, 6 p.m.)
 
The Mountain Lions have dropped four straight matches overall and will enter Friday evening's encounter with a 5-10 overall record.  However, they are still above .500 in RMAC play (3-2) and had won three straight, four of five and five of seven before their recent struggles.  The dropped a 3-set home match to Chadron State last Friday before falling in five sets to Colorado Christian on Saturday.

UCCS had also fallen to Regis and CSU Pueblo in 3-set matches during the RMAC Regional Pod weekend in Denver.  The Mountain Lions are 1-2 in true away matches and 1-6 when not at home.
 
They have an incredibly offensive balanced attack with four players recording between 110-119 kills this season.  That group is led by graduate outside and right side hitter Lauryn Shockley, who also sits third on the team with 101 digs (1.84/set).
 
Nicole Medlin is second on the team in kills with 115 and is hitting .274 to lead Coach Tara Hittle's regulars in attack percentage.  The senior middle blocker also leads the Mountain Lions with 39 blocks while Shockley is second with 31.
 
Sophomore Joei Barela has recorded 356 assists (6.36/set) to rank tenth in the RMAC while freshman outside hitter Sydnee Walker has 113 kills (2.05/set), a team-high 21 service aces (0.38/set) and 112 digs (2.04/set) to her credit.   Walker is 12^th in the RMAC for service aces per set.  Sophomore Mackenzie Ransom leads the Mountain Lions with 157 digs (2.80/set).
 
About Regis (Saturday, 4 p.m.)

Like the Mavs, the Rangers are one of three RMAC teams amongst the nation's top 11 of this week's national poll and have won nine straight matches to move to 12-3 overall.  They are also 5-0 in RMAC matches and a perfect 7-0 against RMAC foes having swept their recent RMAC Regional Pod.

The Rangers started their season with a 3-3 mark against very tough opposition and then won the Silver Bracket title at the Colorado Premier Challenge, launching their current winning streak, which is tied with No. 6 MSU Denver for the longest active winning streak in the conference.  They have dropped just three sets in the winning streak.

The Rangers hit a combined .378 in two wins last week as they raised their season-long hitting percentage to .283, now good for the RMAC lead over the Mavericks, who had led the conference for much of the season. 
Fifth-year and graduate setter Mara LeGrand was named as the AVCA/Gamechanger NCAA Division II National Player of the Week and also earned RMAC Setter of the Week honors this week.  She is third in the RMAC for both total assists (553) and assists per set (10.43).  The Rangers also rank second in the conference behind the Mavs for team kills per set (13.58) and have a stout defense that ranks first or second in the league for every category, including blocking (2.50/set) and opponent hitting percentage (.140).

Graduate student and middle blocker/right side Klaudia Sowizral leads a group of five Rangers who have 100 or more kills this season.  She has 159 and is averaging 3.00 per set to rank ninth in the league.

Junior middle blocker Amelia Davis has recorded 65 total blocks, including 14 solos, and ranks second in the RMAC with her 1.23 per set average.  Graduate student middle blocker Nadine Burbrink is also averaging 1.13 blocks per set to rank third in the conference.  She is also hitting .345 to rank sixth in the RMAC while Sowizral is hitting .371, the fourth best mark in the conference.

Libero Haley Kennedy leads the team in service aces (24) and digs (196) and ranks fifth and seventh, respectively, in the RMAC with her 0.45 (aces) and 3.70 (digs) per set averages.

About Chadron State (Tuesday, 6 p.m.)
 
The Eagles are enjoying one of their best seasons in recent memory and are currently 10-6 overall and 4-2 in RMAC play to stand in a 3-way tie for fourth place in the RMAC standings.  They will host CSU Pueblo and Adams State this Thursday and Saturday, respectively, before making the long trip to Grand Junction before two more home matches on the following weekend.  The Eagles have already reached double-figures for wins for just the third time since 2007.  They went 14-12 in 2019 and 10-17 in 2017.
 
Graduate outside hitter Alexis Hurtado and senior right side Mayson Fago co-lead fifth-year coach Jennifer Stadler's squad with 167 kills.  Bella Adams has also put down another 124 and leads the team with 59 total blocks (1.05/set) to rank fifth in the RMAC.  Setter Kendyl Kirkwood is sixth in the RMAC with her 8.96 assist per set average and has registered 511 as Stadler's starter in all 16 matches. 
 
Alondra Hernandez has a team-high 22 service aces and ranks 13^th in the RMAC with her 0.38 per set average.  She also has tallied 259 digs (4.47/set) to rank fourth in the RMAC, one spot behind CMU's Allison Waller as a key-cog in the Eagle defense which ranks third in the RMAC for blocking (2.05/set) and fourth for digs (15.22/set).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs hold a 32-8 lead in the series with UCCS during the Mavs' NCAA Division II history (1992-Present).  They have won six straight matches and are 16-2 against the Mountain Lions at home.  The Mountain Lions last win in the rivalry came on Nov. 5, 2016 in Grand Junction in five sets.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is 15-6 against the Mountain Lions in his tenure and has 1-0 head-to-head record with his Mountain Lion counterpart Tara Hittle as the Mavs won a 3-set (26-24, 25-17, 25-17) match on Oct. 14 of last season in Hittle's first year with the Mountain Lions.
 
Regis has a 25-17 lead in the Division II series with the Mavs, although CMU is 10-8 against the Rangers in Grand Junction.  The Mavs have also won the last three home match-ups while the Rangers have won the last ten played in Denver, including a "neutral" site RMAC Tournament semifinal at MSU Denver last year.
 
The home team has won each of the last six meetings not played on a neutral-court.
 
The Rangers have been nationally-ranked when playing the Mavericks eight straight times since 2017.
 
Fleming is 12-16 all-time against Regis and is 3-5 against Regis' Joel List since List took over the helm of the Ranger program in 2017 after an 11-year stint as the Rangers' assistant coach under coaching legend Frank Lavrisha.  However, Fleming is 3-1 against List at home.
 
The Mavs won 28 straight matches against Chadron State and are 34-3 against the Eagles in the Division II era.  The Mavs are 18-0 at home against the Eagles, who last defeated the Mavs on Oct. 6, 1995 in Chadron, Nebraska.
 
The Mavs won last year's match-up, played in Grand Junction, 25-18, 25-8, 25-14 on Oct. 28.
 
Fleming is a perfect 18-0 against the Eagles and is 4-0 against his Eagle counterpart Jennifer Stadler.
 
Looking to the future
 
After this upcoming homestand, the Mavericks will play their next four matches away from home including three in the Denver metropolitan area.  The Mavs will play on Saturday, Oct. 21 in an RMAC match at Colorado Christian in Lakewood before competing in an RMAC Power Pod against No. 11 Regis and No. 6 MSU Denver at the Roadrunners' Auraria Events Center the following weekend.
 
CMU will then be at New Mexico Highlands on Nov. 3 before wrapping up the regular season at home against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines on Nov. 10 and 11, respectively.