GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After three straight weekends on the road, the nation's 11^th-ranked Colorado Mesa University volleyball team has returned home to Brownson Arena close out the regular season this weekend against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's two South Dakota Institutions.
 
The Mavericks (21-3, 10-2 RMAC), currently just a half-match out of the RMAC standings lead, will host Black Hills State (5-19, 0-12 RMAC) before taking on South Dakota Mines, currently 16-8 overall and 9-3 in RMAC play, in a Saturday matinee on at 2 o'clock.  The Hardrockers are currently just one match behind the Mavs and are tied for fourth in the conference standings heading into their Friday night encounter at Westminster.
 
Friday's match will include Parent's Night festivities before the match and a Senior Night recognition afterwards.
 
The volleyball matches are at unusual start times and being held in conjunction with the Mavs' women's basketball team's D2 Conference Challenge tournament, which will give local fans the opportunity at checking out both Maverick squads.  CMU's women's basketball team plays at 4 p.m. on Friday and at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday following neutral-site basketball encounters featuring South Dakota Mines.
 
Live streams of all the events can be found for free on the RMAC Network and live statistics can be accessed at the link above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks played just one match last weekend, making their longest road trip of the regular season to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where the Mavs recorded a 3-set sweep over host New Mexico Highlands.
 
The Mavs dominated the first set, 25-13 but had to fight through some difficulties to win the second and third sets by 25-21 and 25-22 margins.  Redshirt senior middle hitter Savannah Spitzer finished with a match-high 12 kills and hit .486 while setter Sabrina VanDeList tallied her fourth consecutive and 12^th double-double of the season with 38 assists and ten digs.
 
Outside hitter Riley Daugherty also chipped in nine kills and a team-high 13 digs while defensive specialist Jordan Woods matched a career-high with six service aces while racking up 11 digs.
 
The Mavs had nine service aces as a team and did not allow a single ace to the Cowgirls.

A full recap of the match can be found here.
 
History-Making team
 
Already having claimed 21 wins, the Mavericks have now won 20 or more matches in three consecutive seasons after going 15-1 during the COVID delayed and abbreviated 2021 spring campaign.
 
The Mavs have now reached 20 wins for the eighth time in 19 total seasons under Head Coach Dave Fleming and have now recorded three consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time under his direction.
 
The last time that CMU had such a streak was way back in 1994-96, when the then Mesa State College Mavericks went 31-14 in 1994, 25-11 in 1995 and 26-9 in 1996.
 
The Mavs' other 20-win seasons under Fleming  were 2005 (23-7), 2010 (20-9), 2013 (21-8), 2014 (29-4), 2018 (24-7), 2021 (21-7) and 2022 (22-7).
 
The Mavs' current 21-3 record is equal to the best 24-match start in program history, joining the 2014 team that had a 20-match winning streak that took the Mavs into the final of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.  That team finished 29-4.
 
The 2021 spring season squad went 15-1 to lead the program's history in terms of winning percentage at .938.  The overall CMU record for wins in a season is 42, set by the 1986 squad that went 42-9 as members of the NAIA.  Teams regularly played substantially more matches in that era.
 
Last year's team was 20-4 through 24 matches.  The 2021 team was also 19-5 as was the 2013 squad.
 
Steady in the polls
 
The Mavs retained their No. 11 spot in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II poll (Week No. 10), released on Monday.  The Mavs have now been ranked 11^th for three straight and five total weeks this season, holding down that spot on Week No. 3 and 4 before their recent run.
 
The Mavs were ranked a season-best ninth three weeks ago and were tenth in the preceding two polls (Weeks 5 & 6).  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.  They were also ranked in each of the last 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 24 straight polls.
 
This week's poll had little changes from last week with Missouri-St. Louis and Tampa flipping spots in second and third after Tampa (24-1) suffered its first loss of the campaign.  Undefeated Missouri-St. Louis (26-0) is now second but is receiving four first place votes, trailing only 26-1 Wayne State (Neb.), which received 43 first place votes.
 
Concordia-St. Paul, West Texas A&M, Southwest Minnesota State, Cal State San Bernardino are next in the poll while MSU Denver retained the No. 8 spot ahead of St. Cloud State and Nebraska-Kearney.  Regis, Lewis, Minnesota Duluth and Chaminade round out the rest of the unchanged top 15.
 
Angelo State is receiving votes in the poll as the only other South Central Region squad under consideration.  The Mavs also hold a win over San Francisco State, which is also receiving votes.
 
Regional Ranking
 
Although the national ranking is nice, in the grander scheme of NCAA Tournament selection and seeding, it is meaningless as those things are decided by the NCAA Division II Regional Rankings, which were released for the first time in ranked order on Wednesday after ten teams from the region were listed to be "under consideration" in alphabetical order a week ago.
 
The Mavs were slotted third in the South Central Regional rankings on Wednesday as the second of three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams.  MSU Denver is ranked second while Regis is fourth.  West Texas A&M, ranked fifth in the AVCA poll, leads the regional rankings as the first of seven Lone Star Conference teams in the top ten.
 
Angelo State, Dallas Baptist, Texas Woman's, Texas A&M-Kingsville, UT Tyler and Arkansas-Fort Smith are ranked fifth through tenth.
 
The ranking criteria includes Division II in-region winning percentage, Division II winning percentage, Division II strength of schedule (opponents' average winning percentage and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage), head-to-head competition, results versus Division II common opponents, In-region Rating Percentage Index,  In-region non-conference won-lost record and late-season performance (last 10 matches).
 
The Mavericks are strong in each of those categories, having the region's second-best overall (21-3) and in-region (20-3) record as well as a perfect 7-0 record in "in-region" non-conference matches and an 8-2 record in their last ten.  The Mavs have a .509 Division II strength of schedule mark and are ranked fourth in the region with their .597 in-region RPI.
 
They are also a combined 3-2 against the other nine regionally-ranked teams having defeated Regis twice and Dallas Baptist once.  They also hold a common opponent advantage over several of the other regionally-ranked teams.
 
A new set of regional rankings will be released next Wednesday (Nov. 15) before the final regional tournament field will be unveiled on a NCAA Selection Show, which will be aired on Monday, Nov. 20 via NCAA.com.
 
Eight total teams will be selected and seeded based on those updated rankings with the winners of the LSC and RMAC Tournaments earning automatic bids even if they were not amongst the top eight rankings, thus making it possibly important to be in the top six of the final regional rankings to ensure qualification.
 
Tournament & Title Scenarios
 
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Mavericks are tied for second in the RMAC standings at 10-2, just a half-match behind MSU Denver (10-1) and even with Regis.  South Dakota Mines and CSU Pueblo are tied for fourth in the RMAC standings at 9-3, just a match behind CMU and Regis.
 
The Mavericks are guaranteed of at least the No. 5 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament and in the simplest way can a clinch a top-four spot and the right to host a quarterfinal match by beating South Dakota Mines on Saturday with other scenarios as possibilities as well.
 
MSU Denver has three matches remaining, including a Wednesday night home encounter with the Colorado School of Mines and additional weekend home matches with Western Colorado and Fort Lewis.  The Roadrunners can win a third straight RMAC regular season title outright with three wins.  They can clinch the No. 1 seed with just two wins thanks to their head-to-head wins over both CMU and Regis after having knocked off the Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
 
CMU can claim the No. 2 seed by simply winning both of their matches this weekend and could potentially share the RMAC title two wins combined with a MSU Denver loss at some point this week.  The Mavs would win any head-to-head seeding tie-breakers with Regis having defeating the Rangers in conference play back on Oct. 14.
 
The Mavs also hold a direct head-to-head tiebreaker with CSU Pueblo thanks to a Oct. 6 win over the ThunderWolves but would lose a tiebreaker to South Dakota Mines if the Hardrockers were able to come into Brownson Arena to claim a Saturday afternoon win.
 
In looking further down the standings to see who the Mavericks might play next week, Chadron State leads a pack of teams in sixth place overall at 7-6.  Fort Lewis and Westminster are tied for seventh and eighth at 6-6 while Colorado Christian is currently outside looking in at 6-7 but will play at home against 14^th place New Mexico Highlands in their lone match of the week on Friday.
Mines (5-6) and UCCS (5-7) are also still in the playoff picture while Adams State (4-8) has the faintest of hopes but would need two wins at home over Regis and UCCS and the right combination of results plus the right combination of teams they would tied with to get in the 8-team tournament.
 
Western Colorado (2-10), New Mexico Highlands (1-11) and Black Hills State (0-12) are eliminated from tournament contention.
 
3X 1K
 
Maverick redshirt junior setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded 38 assists in Friday's win at New Mexico Highlands and now has 1,004 this season.  She has now surpassed the 1,000 mark in three consecutive seasons after having tallied 1,156 last year and 1,126 in 2021.  VanDeList is the first CMU setter since Tara King (2008-10) and just the third in the Division II era to have three consecutive 1K seasons.  Erin Fiack (1999-2001) is the other.
 
VanDeList now has 3,644 career assists, third most in all-time program history behind only Jordyn Moody (4,202; 2011-14) and Jeanie Sutter (4,138; 1995-98).
 
She is also ranked ninth amongst active NCAA Division II setters in career assists.
 
VanDeList leads the RMAC in both total assists and assists per set (11.81), an average that ranks her third in Division II.  Her average is also currently fifth best in CMU history and the highest for any Maverick setter since Allison Krug averaged 12.18 assists per set in 2005.
 
She is bidding to become a 4-time First Team All-RMAC selection after earning RMAC Freshman of the Year honors in the spring of 2021, while earning First Team honors that season, in the fall of 2021 and last year.
 
Double-double streak
 
Sabrina VanDeList recorded her fourth consecutive double-double on Friday night at New Mexico Highlands, recording 38 assists and ten digs.  She now has 12 double-doubles this season.
 
VanDeList is the first Maverick since former teammate and setting target Maddi Foutz to have recorded four straight double-doubles.  Foutz had six double-doubles in the spring of 2021, including in the Mavs' second, third, fourth and fifth matches of the RMAC title-winning campaign during that COVID delayed and abbreviated season en-route to RMAC Player of the Year honors.
 
VanDeList has now hhad double-doubles in six of the last seven and eight of the Mavs' last ten matches.  She now has 12 double-doubles this season, her highest total in four seasons with the Mavs.  VanDeList now has 36 career double-doubles, ten of which were in the fall of 2021.  She had eight last year and six in the spring of 2021.
 
Her 12 double-doubles this season are the most of any Maverick since 2017 when outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards had 14 while setter Samantha Ritter had a dozen in the same season.

Senior & Parent's Night
 
The Mavericks will honor two players who will play their final regular season home matches this weekend in fifth-year redshirt senior Savannah Spitzer and graduate transfer Emma Shaddix.  The recognition will take place after Friday's match with Black Hills State.

Prior to that match, the Maverick players will honor their Parent's.
 
Shaddix spent five years at Florida Southern, redshirting in 2018 before recording 332 kills, 115 blocks and 425.5 total points in 66 career matches with the Mocs from 2019-22.  In her lone season at CMU, the Jupiter, Florida native has recorded 174 kills and 40 blocks while hitting a solid .318 from her starting right side position. She has been in double figures for kills ten times this season, including in five straight and seven out of eight matches from Sept. 22 through Oct. 14.  She had a career-high 17 kills and hit .571 on Sept. 2, against Findlay.
 
Spitzer has been with the Mavericks for five years of an award-winning career.  She was named as an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American last year and was named to the First Team D2CCA All-South Central Region squad year.  The Aurora, Colorado native has also been a 3-time All-RMAC selection and a 5-time RMAC Player of the Week.
 
Spitzer has recorded a career-high 264 kills this season and has 819 career kills to her credit.  She also leads the RMAC with her .392 attack percentage and has a .371 career percentage, the second best in Maverick history.
 
RMAC leaders and National Rankings
 
The Mavs continues to have three individuals leading the RMAC in four combined statistical categories.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList continues to leads the RMAC by comfortable margins in both total sets and assists per set.  She has 1,004 assists, 81 more than Mines freshman Presley Powell, who has 923 in the same number of sets (85).  VanDeList is averaging 11.91 assists per set, which ranks her third nationally and well ahead of Powell, who is at 10.86 per set.  VanDeList also ranks 21^st nationally in total assists.
 
Meanwhile, Sydney Leffler paces the RMAC by a wide margin with 375 kills and 403 1/2 total points.  MSU Denver's Riley Anderson is second with 304 kills and 347 1/2 total points.  Leffler also leads the conference with her 4.41 kill and 4.75 point per set averages.  She ranks 12th nationally in kills per set and 16^th in points per set.  She is 26^th in total kills.  The NCAA does not do official statistical rankings for total points.
 
The Mavs' other RMAC statistical leader is Savannah Spitzer, who leads the league with her .392 attack percentage, the 18^th best mark nationally.
 
Team rankings
 
The Mavs' offensive attack is also ranked highly as a team in the national statistics.  They lead the RMAC and are ranked third nationally in kills per set (14.75) and fourth in assists per set (13.91).  They also lead the conference in total kills (1,254) and assists (1,182).
 
CMU is also ranked 16^th in the country for hitting percentage at .263, the third best mark in the RMAC.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 19^th season as the Mavs' head Coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 364 career victories.  Fleming is 364-176 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 have now recorded 20 or more wins eight times under Fleming, who guided the Mavs to a 22-7 record while qualifying for their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.  They had gone 21-7 in the fall of 2021 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 244-92 (.726) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
Enter this weekend, the Mavs are a strong 10-1 at home this year.  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 50-6 (.893) since the start of 2018.  The Mavs are also 86-14 (.860) in their last 100 home matches 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 and again on Sept 22 of this season.  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 101-23 (.815) since the start of 2012.
 
After this weekend's matches, The Mavs are also in good position to likely host at least a RMAC Tournament quarterfinal match on Tuesday, Nov. 14, a right the top four teams in the final RMAC standings will earn.
 
About the Yellow Jackets
 
The Yellow Jackets will enter Friday's match with a 5-19 overall record.  They are 0-12 in RMAC play and have lost 11 straight since defeating South Dakota Mines in a RMAC Regional pod match on Sept. 29.
 
They do have three solid attackers in junior outside hitter Abigail Renner and sophomore pins Emily Freeland and Audrey Brgoch.  Renner has tallied 302 kills (3.28/set) while Freeland and Brgoch have put down 236 and 213, respectively.  Renner has also eclipsed 20 mor more kills in four different matches this season and has taken 930 swings, nearly 39 per match.
 
Setter Hannah Mamon has tallied 730 assists to rank ninth in the RMAC with her 7.93 per set average.  She also paces second-year head coach Bree Davis' team with 30 service aces (0.33/set), the 15^th best average in the conference.
 
Defensively, Haedyn Rhodes has recorded 436 digs and leads the RMAC with her 4.74 per set average.
 
Renner also has 226 digs and ten double-doubles to her credit this season.
 
Junior Randi Wellhoefer, who played at Western Colorado last year, is the Jackets' top blocker with 58 (0.69/set), including 16 solos.
 
About the Hardrockers
 
The Hardrockers are enjoying their best season moving to the NCAA Division II ranks and into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, posting a 16-8 overall record and a 9-3 RMAC mark heading into their Friday night match at Westminster.
 
They have already clinched a spot in the RMAC Tournament for the third time, all three of which have come in the last four seasons and are fighting for the right to host a RMAC Tournament match for the first time in program history if they can finish fourth or higher in the RMAC standings.  They are currently tied for fourth with CSU Pueblo and would hold a direct tiebreaker over the ThunderWolves thanks to their Sept. 23 home win over the Pack.
 
Sixth-year Hardrocker Coach Lauren Torvi-Prochazka has six different players who have all recorded more than 100 kills, including junior opposite Alessandra Meoni, who has put down 289 (3.36/set).    She is fifth in the RMAC for that per ser average and also ranks eighth in the conference for hitting percentage at .325.
 
Freshman outside hitter Ivy Vindivich has also emerged to average 3.27 kills per set, the seventh best average in the conference, but has played in just 13 of the Hardrockers' 24 matches and only 44 of their 86 sets.
 
Setter Kiley Metzger has 689 assists (8.95/set) to her credit  and ranks sixth in the RMAC while sophomore Kiera Walsh has been a standout blocker.  She has 76 blocks in as many sets to stand fourth with her 1.00 per set average.  She is also second on the team with 33 service aces.
 
The Hardrockers lead the RMAC as a team in service aces by a considerable margin with 189 (2.20/set) and have the conference leader in Hannah Benes, who has 53 and a 0.62 per set average. She ranks sixth nationally in that category. Josey Wickersham (0.45), Kiera Walsh (0.43) and Rachel Mau (0.39) all rank amongst the RMAC's top eight deadliest servers.
 
Benes also ranks second in the RMAC with her dig per set average, having amassed 396 thus far.
 
They have won their last two and five of the last six matches.
 
Series History
 
The Mavs have dominated the rivalry with both of their opponents this week.
 
They have won 11 of the 12 all-time meetings with Black Hills State, including each of the last six.  They are also a perfect 6-0 against the Yellow Jackets at home and have won seven matches in straight sets.  BHSUs' lone win came in five sets back in 2016 in Spearfish, South Dakota.
 
Dave Fleming is 11-1 against the Yellow Jackets and 1-0 against his BHSU counterpart, Bree Davis in her second season as the Yellow Jackets' head coach.
 
Fleming and the Mavs are 10-0 all-time against South Dakota Mines and have won five matches in straight sets and another five matches by 3-1 decisions.  The Mavericks are 4-0 all-time at home against South Dakota Mines and have dropped just two sets.
 
Fleming is 5-0 against his Hardrocker counterpart Lauren Torvi-Prochazka.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavs will learn their final seed and opponent for the quarterfinal round of the RMAC Tournament on Saturday night and will play that match on Tuesday (Nov. 14).  The four quarterfinal winners will then advance to the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 17, which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed.