GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 9-match winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will head to Denver for a pair of weekend matches during the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Power Pod weekend.
 
The Mavs, ranked 16^th in the latest national poll, will take on Regis on Friday at 6 p.m. and then top-ranked MSU Denver on Saturday at 4 p.m.  Both matches will be played in MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center but neither will count for the RMAC standings.
 
Both matches will be streamed on the RMAC Network and live statistics can be found here.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks returned home from a 3-match, 5-day road trip and dispatched of visiting Colorado Christian University in straight sets on Saturday afternoon. 
 
The trio of outside hitter Sydney Leffler, middle hitter Nicole Martin and right side Sierra Hunt combined for 43 of the Mavericks' 50 kills as setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded her ninth double-double with 37 assists and 13 digs, both of which were match-highs, in the 25-20, 25-23, 25-20 win.
 
Leffler had 17 kills to lead the way while Hunt and Martin both had 13.  Martin hit at a .579 clip while Hunt hit .308.  She and Stormi Tadlock both finished with four blocks as well.
 
Click here for a complete match recap.
 
Third Player of the Week
 
Nicole Martin was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, becoming the third different Maverick to earn the honor in consecutive weeks. 
 
Sierra Hunt received the Week No. 6 award two weeks ago on Oct. 14 before Sydney Leffler claimed the Week No. 7 honor last week on Oct. 21.
 
Martin, recognized for the first time, tallied 27 kills on .539 hitting last week.  She averaged 4.50 kills per set to co-lead all RMAC players and had the second highest hitting percentage.
 
Clinched
 
The Mavericks clinched a spot in the RMAC Tournament over the weekend.  They and MSU Denver are the only teams to have clinched thus far.  The Roadrunners lead the conference standings at 10-0.  CMU is just one match behind at 9-1.
 
South Dakota Mines and Regis are tied for third at 7-3 after South Dakota Mines fell at Western Colorado in four sets on Tuesday night.  Colorado Christian, CSU Pueblo and Western are now all 6-4 and are tied for fifth.  Westminster currently occupies the eighth and final RMAC Tournament qualification spot at 5-5 with Fort Lewis (5-6), UCCS (4-6), Colorado School of Mines (4-6) and Adams State (4-7) all within striking distance.
 
The Mavericks will need just one more RMAC win to clinch the right to host a RMAC Tournament quarterfinal but would need to see MSU Denver drop two conference matches to gain the No. 1 seed.
 
Pod Explainer
 
For the second straight year, the RMAC's 15 teams will play in five groups of three teams during this week's RMAC Power Pod weekend.  Within each pod, each team will play each other in a round-robin format over three days, Thursday through Saturday.  The groupings were determined by last year's conference standings with the top three teams being grouped together at one location.  The fourth through sixth place finishers and seventh through ninth place finishers were also grouped and so on for each group of five.
 
CMU and Regis tied for second in the RMAC standings last year and was thus grouped with MSU Denver, the defending RMAC Champions in the top pod.
 
The intent of these Power Pods was to help teams of relative strength to play each other, while enhancing the NCAA Tournament selection resumes for the top teams, who are bound to receive a strength of schedule bump this weekend.
 
Earlier in the season, the 15 teams were grouped together geographically for a RMAC Regional pods.  The Mavs played Westminster and Western Colorado in their pod.
 
Although the pod matches during both the Regional and Power Pod weekends were against fellow conference schools, they do not count in the conference standings and are in essence the equivalent to a non-conference, yet in-region match-up.
 
The conference standings are based on a true round-robin with each team playing the other 14 one time.  In previous seasons, teams played an unbalanced 18-match conference schedule.  The four pod matches over the two weekends are in place of these extra four conference matches.
 
Nation's top killers
 
As of Wednesday, the Mavericks lead the NCAA Division II statistics in kills per set, averaging 15.24 per frame.  They also rank second in assists per set at 14.21.
 
St. Cloud State ranks second in the country for kills per set at 15.05
 
Nebraska-Kearney is the only team ahead of the Mavs in assists per set with a 14.33 average.
 
MSU Denver is ranked seventh in the country for kills per set (14.43) and eighth for assists per set (13.61).
 
The Veteran Court boss
 
Now in his 20^th year in charge of the Maverick program, Head Coach Dave Fleming is the longest-serving and winningest active head coach in the RMAC, racking up 384 overall career wins and a .680 winning percentage (384-181) in his tenure. 
 
He and his Maverick squads have fared even better in conference play, as Fleming now has an impressive .732 winning percentage (254-93) when coaching conference matches.
 
Fleming recently claimed his 250^th career RMAC win at home against CSU Pueblo.
 
He is just one of six RMAC Coaches to have 300 or more overall wins while coaching in the league.
 
Fleming has been named as the RMAC Coach of the Year four times and has guided the program to four total RMAC regular season and tournament titles and to three other RMAC West Division crowns.  They have had winning campaigns in 18 of his 19 previous seasons and have reached 20 wins eight times, including in each of the last three seasons after going 15-1 to win the RMAC title in the spring of 2021, an abbreviated season.
 
The Mavs also have reached the NCAA Tournament ten times under Fleming, including in each of the last three.
 
Mav-Tober
 
The Mavericks finished the month of October with a perfect 9-0 record, a feat they also were able to accomplish in 2022.  They also went 6-2 in that month last season and were 9-1 in the month during the 2021 campaign.
 
The Mavs have posted a 32-3 record in the month this decade.
 
Double-Double Setter
 
Maverick setter Sabrina VanDeList recorded her team-leading ninth double-double of the season against Colorado Christian, recording 37 assists and 13 digs to lead all players in the match.  VanDeList has tallied six of her double-doubles in the last eight matches and has now had double-doubles in each of the Mavs' last three matches against the Cougars over the past two seasons.
 
The fifth-year senior has recorded 48 career double-doubles and could reach the 50 mark as soon as this weekend.
 
She had the second of her nine double-doubles this season against MSU Denver on Sept. 27 with 37 assists and 13 digs.  She tallied 48 assists and eight digs in the earlier RMAC match at Regis on Oct. 19.
 
Quick Starters
 
In addition to continuing their overall winning streak last week, the Mavericks continued another winning streak of sorts as they have won the first set in all 20 of their matches this season.
 
CMU has gone on to sweep ten matches this year and have won six other times in four sets.  They have lost the second, third and fourth sets after taking the lead in in their three overall losses.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena, something they continued on Saturday.  With Saturday's win over Colorado Christian, the Mavs raised their 2024 home record to 9-1.  The Mavs have not lost more than a single home match in each of the previous six seasons, a streak they will try to extend this year.
 
The Mavs were 13-1 at home last year and went 8-1 in 2022.  After last weekend, the Mavericks are now 62-7 (.899) since the start of 2018 at home.  The Mavs are also 98-15 (.867) in their last 113 home matches since the start of 2014.
 
The Mavs also went 9-1 at home in 2021, with their only loss coming to MSU Denver, which has been the only conference team to beat CMU at home in the past three seasons.
 
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 13 seasons since and including 2012, going 113-24 (.825) since the start of 2012.
 
Including Saturday, the Mavs have three remaining regular season home matches and are currently in position to at least host the first round of the RMAC Tournament.
 
In the polls
 
The Mavericks moved up one spot to 16th in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II Coaches' Poll, which was released on Monday afternoon. 
 
CMU has now been ranked amongst the nation's top 25 in 36 consecutive polls since the first regular season poll of the 2022 campaign.  They have hovered between No. 15-18 in all nine editions of the poll this season, including the preseason poll.
 
MSU Denver, now 19-1 overall, remained in the No. 1 spot of the poll.  The Roadrunners received 34 of 47 first place votes and topped the poll with 1,157 points.
 
Ferris State (22-0) remained in the No. 2 spot of the poll and is receiving nine first place votes.  St. Cloud State is still ranked third while Cal Poly Pomona and Nebraska-Kearney both moved up a spot to round out the top five.
 
Concordia-St. Paul (16-4), a team the Mavericks defeated on the opening weekend of the season, is now ranked ninth while Angelo State (19-2), a team that beat the Mavericks a week later moved up a spot to 14^th.

Know Your Foes
 
Regis (Friday – 6 p.m.)
 
The Rangers, who will play at MSU Denver on Thursday night to begin the Power Pod, are currently 11-9 overall and sport a 7-3 conference record.  They went 1-1 last weekend, bouncing back from a 4-set loss at Fort Lewis with a 3-set win at Western Colorado.  They had won eight straight matches from Sept. 21-Oct. 18 before falling in four sets against the Mavericks on Oct. 19.
 
Graduate student outside hitter Halle Theis leads eighth-year Head Coach Joel List's squad with 255 kills and ranks sixth in the RMAC with her 3.45 per set average.  Amelia Davis, a senior middle blocker, is second on the team with 201 kills (2.72/set) and leads the RMAC with 102 blocks.  She is averaging 1.38 per set and ranks eighth in the national statistics.
 
Junior Braiziah Dixon is also averaging well over a block per set (1.29) and ranks second in the RMAC and 18th nationally with that average.  She is also fourth on the team in kills with 160 (2.32/set) and leads the RMAC with her .415 hitting percentage, the tenth best mark in the country.
 
Freshman setter Reagan Hickey is second in the RMAC statistics for assists per set (10.89) while Bre Skala ranks fourth in the conference for digs (4.61/set) and leads the Rangers with 21 service aces (0.36/set) but has gone without an ace in four straight matches.
 
As a team, the Rangers lead the country in blocking with a 2.97 per set average.  They also rank third in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .240 and third in opponent percentage at .182.
 
MSU Denver – Saturday (4 p.m.)
 
The Roadrunners have been ranked No. 1 in the AVCA national poll for two straight weeks and have been ranked in the top three in each of the eight regular season polls after starting the year seventh in the preseason poll.
 
They have a 19-1 overall record and led the RMAC standings with a perfect 10-0 mark.  They have won 13 straight matches, including six straight and eight of their last nine in 3-set sweeps.
 
They are the only RMAC team to have beaten the Mavs this season and are the only team to have knocked off CMU in the Mavs' last 13 matches after winning a Sept. 27, 4-set encounter at the Auraria Event Center.
 
They have been in the NCAA South Central Regional final in each of the last three years.
 
This year's Roadrunner squad is leading the country with an impressive .317 team attack percentage.  
 
Second Team AVCA All-American Riley Anderson leads the team in kills with 226 and ranks eighth in the RMAC with her 3.37 per set average.  She is also hitting .312 from her outside hitter position.
 
Junior College All-American Annika Helf, a native of Germany, is second on the team in kills with 203 and has an even better 3.63 per set average as she has not played in 11 of the Roadrunners' 67 total sets, only nine of which they have lost.  Helf is fifth in the RMAC for kills per set.
 
Maddy Williams also contributes in all phases of the game and is third on the team in both kills with 156 (2.33/set) and blocks with 63 (0.94/set).  She and Helf are both hitting .347 as well.
 
Alyssa Boyte leads the Roadrunners with 85 blocks (1.27/set) to rank third in the RMAC while Helf is second in the conference for service aces per set (0.45) having recorded 25 thus far.
 
Setter Delaney Eckhardt is second in the RMAC for total aces (29) and is fourth with her 0.43 per set average.    She also has 432 assists (6.45/set) as she and Amela Quershia (264; 4.98/set) split time in Coach Jenny Glenn's 6-2 offensive attack.
 
Abbie McCrimmon leads the back row with 265 digs (3.96/set).
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs are 20-26 against Regis since 1994 as the teams although the Mavericks have now won three of the last four and five of the last eight meetings after claiming what was their first road win over the Rangers in 15 years just two weeks ago on Oct. 19.
 
Each of the last three match-ups have been played in the city of Denver as the two teams met three times in 2023, with CMU claiming a home win in conference play and a RMAC Power Pod win at MSU Denver before falling to the Rangers in the RMAC Tournament Semifinals, also played at MSU Denver.
 
Maverick Head Coach Dave Fleming is Fleming is 15-17 against Regis and 6-6 against Joel List, who took over the Ranger program in 2017 after serving as an assistant for the Rangers for the prior 11 years.
 
The Roadrunners hold a 38-11 advantage in the series with the Mavs and have won the last eighth meetings since the Mavericks claimed a 2021 spring season win in Grand Junction.  The Mavs have won in the Auraria Events Center just three times in 25 tries against the Roadrunners, the last of which came in 2015.  CMU swept the 2018 season series winning a home match in September and the RMAC Tournament final in Golden.
 
Roadrunner Coach Jenny Glenn is 15-3 against the Mavs and Dave Fleming in her coaching tenure at MSU Denver.  Fleming is 10-27 against the Roadrunners in his time with the Mavs.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will be at home for their next two matches, taking on New Mexico Highlands next Saturday (Nov. 9) at 4 p.m. before facing Westminster on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 6 p.m.  The Mavs will recognize their parents before the New Mexico Highlands match and will honor their six seniors prior to the Westminster encounter.