SALT LAKE CITY. – A fourth-quarter comeback by a motivated Westminster team made things interesting, but in the end, Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse did just enough to hold off the Griffins, winning 14-13 on the road. In the process, the Mavericks clinched at least a share of the RMAC's regular season title and secured the rights to host the upcoming RMAC Tournament.

AJ Switzer led the way with five goals and two assists while Jed Brummett returned to his high-scoring form with his 11^th hat trick of the season. Sal Iaria knotted a hat trick of assists and added a goal for a four-point night. Mac Bayless played the entire game in net for the Mavericks, making a career-high 13 saves.

With the win, CMU is 12-2 overall and 4-0 in RMAC play. Westminster drops to 5-7 overall and 3-2 in the RMAC with a loss. Colorado Mesa needs to win just one of their remaining two games against Adams State and CSU Pueblo to clinch the outright RMAC championship. Even if the Mavs were to stumble and lose both games (which would each be firsts in program history to those opponents), they can finish no worse than tied with Westminster at 4-2 and would still host based on the head-to-head tiebreaker with these Griffins.

Unlike the 23-8 win over Westminster in Grand Junction earlier this year, however, the Mavericks were unable to put the Griffins away despite jumping out to an early lead. AJ Switzer scored two goals exactly 60 seconds apart to put the Mavs on top 2-0 and completed his hat trick with 2:47 left in the period to make it 5-2, CMU. The Mavs led by as many as 8-3 when Switzer scored a shorthanded goal for his fourth of the game.

The Mavs kept Westminster at arms length through the third quarter, maintaining leads of 10-6 and 12-8 after Hunter Holcomb, James Steinke and Drew Eickelman all scored. The tide turned in a massive way in the fourth quarter, however, with Westminster scoring five of six goals in a 14-minute plan to cut the lead to one at 13-12. Switzer's fifth of the game provided some insurance that was needed when Westminster's Jack Lenthall scored with 2:06 to play to make it a 14-13 score.

But the Mavericks defended well down the stretch, forcing a turnover with 59 seconds left and stonewalling the Griffins on the game's final possession by forcing an errant backpass that required the Griffins to chase back to midfield to pick up the ball as the clock was expiring.

Colorado Mesa has two more games left against CSU Pueblo on Friday at 6 p.m. and Adams State next Sunday at noon. They will be just the second and third home games of the season for the Mavs, who thankfully have clinched more home games coming up in the postseason.