GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Back on April 1, Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse got the RMAC season off to a flying start with a 23-8 rout over RMAC rivals Westminster. Then, the Mavericks took a week off to rest as the RMAC's other three teams battled one another. Now, the Mavs are set to begin their final road stretch of the regular season, traveling to play Adams State on Friday at 3 p.m. and CSU Pueblo on Sunday at noon.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa could not have scripted a better start to the 2023 RMAC season. Facing Westminster in a rematch of last year's RMAC Tournament title game, the Mavs outscored Westminster 5-0 in the first quarter and 10-0 in the third quarter of a 23-8 win that was never in doubt for a second.

RECAPS: #RV Westminster

The 15-goal margin of victory is the largest in any of the 20 total matchups between the two schools, which have met in all six all-time RMAC Tournament finals and split all six RMAC regular season championships. The Mavericks scored the first eight goals of the game and had a 12-0 run spanning the entire third quarter and one third of the fourth quarter that turned an 8-3 lead into a 20-3 cushion.

Assist Tracker
Just a couple weeks after James Steinke became the program's all-time assist leader, two of Steinke's assist records are seriously under threat from one of his teammates.

AJ Switzer enters this week's games with 25 assists this season, three away from tying the single season record of 28 set by Steinke last year. Switzer has at least one assist in every CMU game so far this season and has tied the program's single-game record of five assists in each of his past two games, against Palm Beach Atlantic and Westminster.

Thanks to the explosion of 10 assists over the past two games, Switzer is tied with Steinke with 60 career assists, meaning the two teammates will enter this week tied for the program's all-time lead.

Switzer's current season total of 25 assists is tied for fifth all-time in CMU history with David Solomon's 2015 campaign. Behind Steinke's 28, three Mavericks have recorded 26 assists in a season – Hunter Holcomb in 2022, James Booth in 2020 and Calen Ketcham in 2018. Switzer's current pace of 2.27 assists per game would be the second highest in program history.

Red Hot
Switzer has been on some kind of scoring run lately. In the past two games, the redshirt junior has 17 total points, including 10 assists. Switzer's nine points (four goals and five assists) against Westminster and eight points (three goals and five assists) against Palm Beach Atlantic are the top two single-game point performances by any RMAC player so far this season and the third and fourth highest in CMU program history, trailing Jack Griffin's 15 and Jason Kauo's 10 in lopsided wins over Notre Dame de Namur and Johnson and Wales during the 2019 season.

Over CMU's past six matches, Switzer has recorded four or more points in five of them, scoring a hat trick or better on three occasions and tallying four or more assists three times as well. Switzer leads the team and the RMAC with his 25 assists and 45 points, and with 45 points Switzer has already matched his career high in that category with an absolute minimum of six games left to play.

The offensive explosions led to Switzer winning two consecutive RMAC Offensive Player of the Week awards on March 27 and April 3. Switzer joins teammate Jed Brummett, a three-time winner, as the only players to win multiple offensive weekly awards in the RMAC this season.

If history is any indication, there's no reason for Switzer to slow down the pace this week. In four games last season against this week's opponents, Adams State and CSU Pueblo, Switzer recorded 13 points including a four-goal game against both schools.

Scoring Machine
With yet another hat trick against Westminster, Jed Brummett ended the match with 101 goals, becoming the third Maverick ever to reach triple digits in his career.

Brummett ranks third in program history in career goals, trailing 2013-17 alum Steve Brandenburg (145) and 2016-2019 alum Jack Griffin (135). Brummett has already risen to third after starting the 2023 season in 10^th place all-time. Brummett's 41 goals this season already rank tied for fourth all-time for a single season in CMU program history, with an absolute minimum of seven games left to play and potentially more if the Mavericks advance in the RMAC and NCAA Tournaments. On the single season goalscoring list, Brummett now trails only Brandenburg (58 in 2017), Griffin (49 in 2019), Brandenburg again (46 in 2016) and is tied with Reece Callies (41 in 2018).

The redshirt junior ranks tied for seventh in Division II with 3.73 goals per game. That scoring clip puts Brummett on pace to shatter the program record of 3.22 per game set by Brandenburg in 2017, when Brandenburg set the single season scoring record in 18 games played.

Getting a Shot
The lopsided nature of the Westminster game along with it being the first game of the season played in Grand Junction allowed Colorado Mesa to get a look at some new players seeing the field for the first time.

Six separate freshmen made their collegiate debuts against the Griffins, a contingent led by Seal Beach, California native Matt Carresi, who put a bow on CMU's rout with his first career goal with 24 seconds left in the game. Carresi finished the game with two shots, one on goal, and also caused a turnover while collecting two ground balls.

Kanyan Rhodes got his first action as possibly the next in a long tradition of dominant face-off men to wear the CMU uniform. Rhodes, who hails from Stanwood, Washington, took seven face-offs for CMU, winning four, and scooped four ground balls for the Mavericks. He also recorded a shot on goal that was saved.

Bayless Breakthrough
Although Calvin Doucette had started Colorado Mesa's previous 10 games, redshirt sophomore Mac Bayless got the starting nod for the conference opener against Westminster. It was the first collegiate start for Bayless, who spent two years on national powerhouse Tampa's roster without seeing game action and had totaled around 120 minutes of game time over nine relief appearances for CMU in 2022 and 2023.

Bayless showed out, making eight saves against four goals conceded for a .667 save percentage. The performance lifted his season save percentage to .576 and dropped his goals-against average to 6.70. Bayless has had a single-game save percentage of .500 or greater in six of his nine career appearances.

After netminding the opening 49:25, Bayless was lifted with a substantial lead and Doucette played the final 10 minutes of the game, maintaining his streak of appearing in every CMU game this season. Doucette has an 8-2 record with a 9.79 GAA and a .477 save percentage.

Series History
History has been kind to CMU against this week's scheduled foes. The Mavericks are a combined 43-0 all-time against this week's opponents, winning 26 times against Adams State and 17 times against CSU Pueblo.

Against Adams State, the Mavericks have won by fewer than 10 goals only twice in 13 meetings since the 2017 season. Adams State has failed to score more than six goals in any game since scoring 13 and nine in a pair of 2015 meetings. In the last four meetings between the two schools, Colorado Mesa has won 23-3, 22-5, 21-4 and 18-5.

On paper, last year's trip to Pueblo was the closest game ever between CSU Pueblo and the Mavs, with the 10-6 final score marking the smallest Maverick margin of victory and lowest CMU goal total in series history. Even that game wasn't down to the wire, however, as CMU led 3-0 and 9-3 before Pueblo closed the game with a late run.

Aside from the scoreline of 10 last season, the fewest goals the Mavericks have scored against the ThunderWolves is 16, in the first-ever meeting between the schools in 2015. In the 16 meetings since, the Mavericks have netted no fewer than 17 goals, including nine games with 20 or more goals and the high point of a 32-6 win in Grand Junction in 2018. Prior to the 10-6 game on the road, CMU beat CSU Pueblo 22-6 at home in 2022 and then beat the ThunderWolves 17-10 in the RMAC Tournament semifinals.

About Adams State
The Grizzlies of Adams State are 1-4 overall with an 0-2 record in RMAC play. Since winning its season opener 19-2 against NAIA opponent Missouri Baptist, Adams State has lost to Quincy, Benedictine College (Kan.) and RMAC foes CSU Pueblo and Westminster, losing to the Griffins 21-3 last Saturday.

Freshman attacker Travis Brave Heart burst onto the scene with six goals against Missouri Baptist and leads the Grizzlies with 11 goals and 14 points. Junior Tyler Hubbard had his own six-goal game against Benedictine and has 10 goals with 13 points on the season while Dawson Balabanoff is ASU's final double-digit points scorer with six goals and four assists.

Freshman goalie Ryan Berger has appeared in all five games in net for ASU and started three, including full outings in this past week's games against CSU Pueblo and Westminster. Berger has had to contend with an onslaught of shots, allowing 51 goals (including single-game totals of 11, 13 and 21) but also making 51 saves (including single-game totals of 12, 13 and 18 vs. CSU Pueblo).

About CSU Pueblo
CSU Pueblo is 1-8 on the season but halted a season-opening seven-game slide by beating Adams State 11-6 on April 1. The ThunderWolves are 1-2 in RMAC play, having played and lost to Westminster twice by scores of 22-1 and 25-11. Other common opponents with CMU are Rockhurst (CMU won 16-6 and CSUP lost 22-6) and Quincy (CMU won 21-7 while CSUP lost 13-8).

The ThunderWolves have only two losses by five goals or less, against Quincy and 9-7 in the season-opener against Tusculum. CSU Pueblo has scored 62 goals with 36 assists but have allowed opponents to more than double those numbers, conceding 139 goals and 73 assists while being outshot by nearly 20 shots per game (46.1-26.9). The ThunderWolves have been disciplined, with the fewest penalties (27) out of the four RMAC programs.

The overall star of the season thus far for CSUP has been graduate student goalie Ethan Ferrie, who leads the conference in total saves (134), saves per game (14.9) and save percentage (.519). Ferrie is a two-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Week this season, joining CMU's Dylan Checketts as the only players to win the award multiple times in 2023.

Offensively, Lane Lessley leads the team and ranks eighth in the RMAC with 14 goals and 21 points. Lessley, a freshman from Lakewood, Colorado, has 11 points in CSUP's past two conference games, tallying three goals and two assists against Adams State and three goals and three assists against Westminster. Senior Logan Naves also had a hat trick against Westminster and ranks second on the ThunderWolves with 11 goals and 19 points. Senior midfielder Ian Noonan leads the team with 10 assists, but only has two in his past five games.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa has been steadily improving up the national polls, clocking in at a season-high No. 12 in Monday's latest edition of the USILA National Top 20 Poll. Both teams to beat the 9-2 Mavericks this season are also ranked, with Tampa at No. 9 and Belmont Abbey at No. 20.

The highlight of CMU's resume is a win over No. 6 Rollins, the only loss of the season for the 9-1 Tars. Rollins has leapt up seven spots from No. 13 over the past two weeks thanks in large part to beating then-No. 3 Tampa and handing the defending national champion Spartans their second loss of the season.

The Mavs finished atop the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, earning all three possible first-place votes. This marks a return to the number one spot for CMU, which ranked second in last year's preseason poll behind Westminster.

Westminster finished second this year, receiving two second place votes and Colorado Mesa's first-place vote as no coach could vote for their own program. CSU Pueblo and Adams State tied for third in the poll with one second-place vote and two third-place votes each.