GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After a pair of dominant wins that improved the team to 3-0 in RMAC play, Colorado men's lacrosse will play on the road this weekend for what they hope will be the final time through the end of the RMAC Tournament.

The Mavericks will take on Westminster on the road in Salt Lake City at 2 p.m. on Sunday. If the Mavericks win Sunday, CMU will clinch at least a share of the RMAC title and the right to host the conference tournament. The Mavs would then clinch the outright title by winning either of next week's two games against CSU Pueblo and Adams State, which will both be played at home.

Colorado Mesa will certainly get Westminster's best shot, however, as the Griffins will not be too fond of the Mavericks handing them their worst loss of the 2023 season and in the all-time rivalry with CMU in a 23-8 win at Community Hospital Unity Field on April 1 that was an 18-3 game after three quarters. The Griffins, who shared last year's RMAC title with Colorado Mesa and are in second place in the conference standings, will be motivated to not cede further ground in the regular season championship race.

Looking Back
The Mavericks rolled through their annual Colorado road trip in style, defeating Adams State 22-3 and CSU Pueblo 22-5 last Friday and Sunday. The Mavericks raced out to huge halftime leads in both games, leading ASU 16-0 at the break and CSU Pueblo 17-2 after 30 minutes of play.

RECAPS: Adams State | CSU Pueblo

Levi McCoy went off for a career-high four goals and six points against Adams State, while AJ Switzer recorded four assists to give him 14 in a three-game stretch. Switzer than turned his focus to goalscoring against CSU Pueblo, notching a season-high five goals with two assists while Hunter Holcomb added a hat trick.

McGuire and Sosa
Possibly the biggest emerging storyline of the season is the two-horse race to rewrite CMU's assist record books between AJ Switzer and James Steinke.

Both players have passed the previous CMU all-time career mark this season, which was previously held by 2016-18 alum Reece Callies with 56. Steinke was the first to pass the record with a three-assist night against Florida Tech that put him at 58 on March 18.

Switzer has caught absolute fire over the past couple of weeks, however, tallying 14 assists in a three-game span from March 22-April 14. Switzer now has 66 career assists and counting, three ahead of Steinke's total of 63.

Switzer also passed up Steinke's single season assist record, set last year when Steinke tallied 28 assists in 18 games played. Switzer has already blown past that total with 31 in 13 games with a minimum of four games left to play.

Regional Rankings
The first NCAA regional rankings were released earlier this week, as a preview for how the NCAA is evaluating teams for selection to the NCAA Tournament. The first edition of the rankings is an alphabetical list of teams under consideration, while the subsequent weekly rankings will seed teams in a numerical order.

Colorado Mesa (alphabetically) led an eight-team list for the South Region. Joining the Mavericks on the initial list are Lenoir-Rhyne, Limestone, Newberry, Rollins, Tampa, UIndy and Wingate. All eight of those teams are ranked in the nation's top 20 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Poll (which is a separate ranking committee from the NCAA).

UIndy, Wingate, Rollins, Lenoir-Rhyne and Tampa ranked Nos. 3-7, with CMU at No. 12, Limestone at No. 13 and Newberry at No. 17.

Six total teams will be selected in each of the North and South regions to form a 12-team NCAA Tournament. The Mavericks have lost to Tampa but have a head-to-head win over Rollins, which is the No. 5 Tars' only loss of the season to date, that could pay huge dividends when comparing resumes at the end of the year. The Mavs have made the NCAA Tournament just once in program history.

Seeding Scenarios
Sunday's game at Westminster will be huge in terms of sorting out the pecking order for the upcoming RMAC Tournament. With each team playing six RMAC games, Colorado Mesa is 3-0 in the standings with Westminster at 3-1, CSU Pueblo at 1-3 and Adams State at 0-3.

Should the Mavs win and hand Westminster a second conference loss on Sunday, that would clinch at least a share of the RMAC regular season title and the guaranteed right to host the conference tournament since CMU would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Westminster having beat them twice. A win over Westminster means that CMU would need to win only one of their final two games against CSU Pueblo and Adams State (neither of whom have ever beaten the Mavericks) to clinch the outright championship.

The Mavericks are gunning for their fourth outright RMAC title. Westminster has one outright conference crown, while the two schools have shared the regular season title twice, including in 2022. No other RMAC school has ever won all or part of a league title or reached a tournament final since the inception of the sport in the conference.

Hat Trick Away
Despite scoring two or fewer goals for just the second and third time this season in limited minutes against Adams State and CSU Pueblo, Jed Brummett continues to be one of the most prolific scorers in the country, let alone the RMAC.

Brummett leads the conference with 44 goals on the season, which is tied for 10^th in Division II. Brummett's per-game average of 3.38 goals per game ranks 11^th nationally. Brummett has scored a hat-trick (three goals) or better in 10 of CMU's 13 games this season, including three games with five goals and six against Lees-McRae.

Earlier this season, Brummett became the third Maverick ever with over 100 career goals. He trails only 2013-17 alum Steve Brandenburg (145) and 2016-2019 alum Jack Griffin (135) on the all-time scoring list with his 104 career strikes to date. Brummett has already risen to third after starting the 2023 season in 10^th place all-time in the program.

Brummett's 44 goals this season already ranks fourth all-time for a single season in CMU program history, with an absolute minimum of four games left to play, 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) and Brandenburg again (46 in 2016), meaning that if Brummett notches his 11^th hat trick of the season against Westminster, he would vault into the top three.

15-Minute Shifts
The Mavs employed a unique approach to last week's games, utilizing all four goalies on the roster in equal amounts.

In both matches, redshirt sophomore Mac Bayless got the start and played the opening 15 minutes in goal before sophomore Calvin Doucette, who has appeared in every CMU game this season, played the second quarter. Freshmen Luke Parrish and Dom Pasquale entered in the second half to play the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

Bayless allowed just one goal while making five saves in his two 15-minute stints. Bayless has a team-high .615 save percentage this season. Doucette ended up not having much to do, stopping the only shot he faced against ASU while making two saves and allowing one goal against Pueblo.
Luke Parrish was the busiest of the four, saving three of six shots on goal against Adams State and four of six on goal against CSUP. Pasquale didn't record a stat in his 15 minutes against Adams before stopping two of three shots on goal faced against the ThunderWolves.

Series History
Colorado Mesa and Westminster have developed a rivalry over the years, as the two schools have combined to win every RMAC regular season and tournament championship since the conference began sponsoring men's lacrosse in 2016.

The Mavericks lead the all-time series 14-6 but have split the last 10 matchups evenly at 5-5 with the Griffins. CMU recorded three game sweeps of Westminster (two regular season wins plus an RMAC Tournament final victory) in 2017 and 2018 before Westminster turned the tables and went 3-0 against the Mavs during the 2019 season.

The Mavericks won both regular season matchups by a combined 19 goals in 2021, but the Griffins sprung a 16-13 upset in the RMAC Tournament final that year to steal the championship away from the Mavs. Last season in 2022, each team recorded three-goal victories at home in the regular season before the Mavs prevailed 16-10 in last year's RMAC Tournament final in Grand Junction.

About Westminster
The Westminster Griffins are 5-6 with a 3-1 record in conference play. Since suffering the 15-goal loss to Colorado Mesa on April 1, the Griffins have topped CSU Pueblo 25-11, Adams State 21-3 and nonconference opponent Whitter 21-5. Although the Griffins are under .500 overall, their nonconference strength of schedule has been solid. Including CMU, the Griffins are 0-5 this season against currently nationally-ranked teams, which include nonconference losses to three of the top seven national teams with a one-goal loss to No. 7 and defending national champion Tampa.

Merritt McMahon leads offensively, ranking second behind CMU's Jed Brummett with 28 goals this season. Freshman Luke Sillstrop, who has won the only RMAC Offensive Player of the Week award in the past four weeks that CMU's AJ Switzer didn't win, is having a strong debut with 24 goals. Mike Spaeth has a team-high 17 assists while Skyler Weathers has 12 goals and 14 assists, the only Griffin with more than 10 of each.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa remained at No. 12 in Monday's latest edition of the USILA National Top 20 Poll, standing pat at what was their highest selection of the season when the Mavs moved up to No. 12 last week. Both teams to beat the 9-2 Mavericks this season are also ranked, with Tampa at No. 7 and Belmont Abbey at No. 19. The highlight of CMU's resume is a win over No. 5 Rollins, the only loss of the season for the 9-1 Tars.

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.