GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After suffering a setback in the season opener against top-10 Grand Valley State, Colorado Mesa finished off its four-game homestead with three consecutive wins, setting the No. 24 Mavericks up as a key regional contender ahead of an important trip to Florida.

Colorado Mesa will go on a three-game tour of Florida, playing three times in a five-day span. They are starting slightly later than the men's team, which is doing the same thing from last Saturday until Wednesday. The Mavericks face No. 19 Saint Leo on Tuesday at 5 p.m., No. 8 Rollins on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and No. 6 Florida Southern on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (all times Mountain).

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa notched a pair of conference wins over Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo before defeating former RMAC foe Rockhurst in the midweek. The Mavericks had a double-digit margin of victory in all three games and scored 17 goals or more in each game.

RECAP: Fort Lewis | CSU Pueblo | Rockhurst

Kiley Davis shone offensively for the Mavericks, leading the team in goals all three times including a career-high seven against Rockhurst. Davis has 15 goals in the past three games. She currently leads the RMAC with 19 goals and 23 points, and ranks fourth in all of Division II with 4.75 goals per game.

Running the Gauntlet
The next two weeks will certainly make or break Colorado Mesa's season from a national and even conference perspective.

All three games that No. 24 CMU are scheduled to play in Florida are against top-20 opponents – No. 19 Saint Leo, No. 8 Rollins and No. 6 Florida Southern. Following that, April 6 is the first highly-anticipated showdown with Regis, the defending RMAC champions and the No. 2 team in the country. Win most or all of those games, and the Mavs have a bona fide NCAA Tournament resume.

Pack Your Suitcases
Colorado Mesa got to enjoy its first four games of the season at home but will not have that luxury too often moving forward. The three games in Florida kick off a stretch of seven road games in the next eight for the CMU team.

Fortunately, after Florida, the trips won't be nearly as long. After hosting Westminster, the Mavericks make two straight weekend trips across the mountains to face Regis and UCCS, then Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo.

Justine Time
Freshman Justine Anderson is emerging as a secondary scoring threat to the prolific Davis, as Anderson has set a new career high for goals in three straight games.

After not finding the net in her collegiate debut against Grand Valley State, Anderson scored twice on three shots against Fort Lewis, three times on four shots against CSU Pueblo and then four times on five shots against Rockhurst, scoring all four goals against the Hawks in the second half with three in the fourth quarter.

Along the way, Anderson has also distributed four assists to rank second on the team in both goals (nine) and points (13). Four games into her college career, Anderson has a staggering .929 shot on goal percentage, finding frame with 13 of her 14 total shot attempts.

If It Ain't Broke
The Mavericks only needed four people to score 17 goals against Rockhurst on Tuesday, with Davis (seven), Taylor Jakeman (five), Justine Anderson (four) and Brianna Anderson (one) doing all the work.  

Through four games, only four Mavericks have scored more than three goals on the season: Davis (19), Justine Anderson (nine), Jakeman (seven) and Ali Bryant (six). But going to the same options over and over isn't hurting the Mavericks – they rank second in the RMAC behind No. 2 Regis in goals scored (64) and shot percentage (46 percent of shots are goals) while leading the conference in scoring margin (+8.0).

Since being held to eight goals by Grand Valley State,  the Mavericks have scored 19, 20 and 17 goals in the past three games. CMU's past three wins are the top three single-game performances by an RMAC team so far this season in total points (35 vs. CSU Pueblo, 30 vs. Fort Lewis, 29 vs. Rockhurst) and assists (15 vs. CSU Pueblo, 12 vs. Rockhurst, 11 vs. Fort Lewis).

Defensive Duo
Junior defender Peyton Ivey snagged the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award back on March 13 after accumulating five ground balls in the Pueblo and Fort Lewis wins. Ivey has eight ground balls on the season to lead the Mavs and has caused six turnovers.

Redshirt junior Kelsey Viger has a good case to take home the award that will be announced later Monday. Viger had five of her conference-leading 12 caused turnovers against Rockhurst, leading the charge for a Maverick program that caused 17 on the day against the Hawks.

About Saint Leo
Saint Leo got off to a 6-0 start but have slipped to 6-2 due to two ranked losses last week. The Lions have been clutch when they needed to be, tallying half of their six wins by three goals or less. Saint Leo lost 13-12 to No. 21 Bentley and 18-11 to No. 15 Flagler in its two most recent outings.

The Lions aren't afraid to get into shootouts, scoring 105 goals on the year while allowing 80 (compared to 64 and 32 for CMU). Junior Fiona McLaughlin leads the Lions with 27 goals so far this season, including five games with four goals or more. Senior Ashlee Wilsynski is also a points machine with 16 goals and 10 assists.  

Colorado Mesa and Saint Leo have three previous meetings against one another, with two going to overtime. The Lions won the first encounter in 2013 by a 12-11 margin in OT, but CMU countered with a 10-8 victory in 2017. Last season, the Mavs and Lions again needed an extra period to sort things out, but Taylor Jakeman netted the overtime winner to give CMU a 13-12 win. All three games plus this upcoming one are being played at Saint Leo.

About Rollins
The Rollins Tars are ranked No. 8 in the country after starting the season 9-0. The Tars' resume already includes wins over then-No. 5 Grand Valley State, No. 17 Seton Hill and No. 20 New Haven. The match with New Haven was Rollins' most recent and closest match, as the Tars needed overtime to win 11-10, but in doing so, they gave head coach Dennis Short his 200^th career win, with 179 coming at Rollins.

Like CMU, Rollins is doubling its opponents' scoring numbers, netting 133 goals while conceding 65. Caroline Gastonguay has 24 goals and 18 asssists, ranking fifth in the NCAA with 42 points scored. Senior Abigail Cawley is fifth in Division II with 22 assists and also has 19 goals to be hot on Gastonguay's heels with 41 points. A second Gastonguay, sophomore Charlotte, has provided 16 goals while Rollins has six total players in double digits so far.

Colorado Mesa and Rollins met for the first time ever last season, with the Mavericks losing a 16-6 contest. Regan Wentz, Ali Bryant and Kiley Davis had two goals apiece in the losing effort. Coincidentally, Rollins was also ranked No. 8 in the one previous meeting between the schools.

About Florida Southern
The Florida Southern Mocs are a perennial power in Division II women's lacrosse. From 2016-2018, Florida Southern reached the national championship game for three consecutive seasons, winning a national title in 2016. Mavericks head coach Shannon McHale came on as an assistant at Florida Southern for the third of those three title game appearances in 2018 and was on staff with the Mocs from 2018-2020 when she departed for the CMU job.

The Mocs have a high-octane offense with six players already above 15 goals on the season, led by graduate attacker Hailey Daleo with 25 goals and midfielder Jackie Stoller with 23 goals and 40 points. Lizzy Lynch is another player over the 10-10 plateau with 17 goals and 11 assists, while Gianna Murphy needs one more assist to get there (19 goals, nine assists).

Along with Saint Leo and Rollins, Florida Southern plays in the very competitive Sunshine State Conference, but the Mocs have scheduled extremely tough nonconference action as well. Based on the current Top-25 poll, CMU will be the fourth out of nine consecutive games against ranked opponents for Florida Southern, with the No. 24 Mavericks currently the lowest-seeded team the Mocs will face in that stretch. The Mocs beat No. 6 Pace and No. 13 Mercy before losing last Saturday to No. 21 Bentley in overtime, dropping them to 8-1 on the season.

Florida Southern and Colorado Mesa have two previous meetings, both comfortable victories for the host Mocs. Florida Southern beat CMU 22-9 in 2013 and 20-8 last season as the Mavs allowed 10 goals in the first period. Kiley Davis did have four goals in last year's encounter.