GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After playing three matches in five days on the road and going 2-1, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks, who continue to sit at the No. 18 spot in the national poll, have returned home to begin a 3-match homestand on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. in Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks, 10-3 overall, will host Western Colorado University, currently 3-10, in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Regional Pod match-up. The match will not count in the conference standings but will mark the second time in 15 days that the Mountaineers will have visited Brownson Arena after the Mavericks claimed a 3-set sweep to open up RMAC play on Sept. 21.
Saturday's match will be streamed RMAC Network and
live stat links can be found here.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks played their first three away matches of the season between last Friday (Sept. 27) and Tuesday (Oct. 1), dropping the first in four sets at No. 2 MSU Denver before bouncing back for a 3-set sweep over the Colorado School of Mines last Saturday evening in Golden. The Mavs then returned home for a brief respite and then headed to Salt Lake City, Utah on Monday evening.
On Tuesday evening, the Mavs wrapped up the stretch by taking care of business in Utah with a 4-set win at Westminster in the first leg of this week's RMAC Regional Pod schedule.
Complete Recaps of all three matches can be found at the links below.
"Hunt"-ing Trip
Maverick right side hitter
Sierra Hunt led the Mavericks in kills during all three matches of the recent road trip, putting down 11 against MSU Denver, 12 in the sweep of Mines and a season-high 17 on Tuesday at Westminster to total 40 during over the road trip. She also hit over .300 in all three matches, including at a .424 clip in the Westminster win.
Hunt, who was moved to the right side for this season, averaged 3.64 kills per set and hit .366 during the stretch and is second on the team with 150 total kills, good for an average of 3.41 per set, a mark that puts her seventh in the RMAC statistics. She also ranks 13
th in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .298.
Still the leader
Meanwhile, Maverick outside hitter
Sydney Leffler continues to lead the RMAC in both kills and total points per set. Leffler is now averaging 4.07 kills and 4.78 total points per set to sit ahead of South Dakota Mines counterpart Allesandra Meoni in both categories. Meoni has played in 53 sets, nine more than the Mavs, and does have more total kills (213) and total points (241), but has lower per set averages than Leffler, who led the RMAC in all four categories in 2023 en route to RMAC Player of the Year accolades.
Put a Ring On It
Hunt and Leffler will be two of the four current Maverick indoor players who will receive National Championship rings as part of the CMU Beach Volleyball team that won the NCAA Division II title at the 2022 AVCA Small College Beach Championships. The ceremony will be held between the second and third sets of Saturday's match.
CMU record-setting setter
Sabrina VanDeList and 2-time AVCA Small College Beach Championship All-American
Hahni Johnson are also amongst the group.
The Maverick beach squad, which has prominently featured numerous indoor players throughout the years, has finished in the top three at the AVCA national tournament in each of the last three years. Johnson co-set the Mavs' single-season wins record last year with her partner Amanda Ollinger while VanDeList is the beach program's all-time winningest player, having claimed 68 career wins, one more than Johnson.
Swing for Life
Saturday's match against Western Colorado will be a renewal of CMU's annual Swing for Life match, generating awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer.
The promotion, ran by CMU Softball Alumna Kathy Howa's foundation, will be donated to the Huntsman Cancer Institute for breast cancer research. To date, through her efforts, Swing for Life has raised over $1.4 million dollars, including over $40,000 specifically from the CMU Community over the years.
Howa has nearly 30 years of experience as an educator and teaches Health at West Jordan Middle School while coaching softball at Rowland Hall in Salt Lake City.
She was inducted into the Utah Softball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach.
In 2019 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Colorado Mesa University, an award she will hold close to her heart forever.
In 2002, Howa was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. Today she is cancer free for more than 20 years. Her students and Kendra Tomsic helped rally her through this and help start the SWING FOR LIFE Foundation.
Quick Starters
The Mavericks have won the first set in all 13 of their matches this season and have held their opponents to 19 or fewer points in nine of those opening sets. The most lop-sided first set win came by a 25-11 margin over Western Colorado.
Home Sweet Home
The Mavericks have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena. The Mavs are 5-1 at home thus far in 2024 and 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 and went 8-1 in 2022. After last weekend, the Mavericks are now 58-7 (.892) since the start of 2018 at home. The Mavs are also 94-15 (.862) in their last 109 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 11 seasons since and including 2012, going 109-24 (.820) since the start of 2012.
In the polls
The Mavericks remained in the No. 18 spot of 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 32 consecutive polls since early in the 2022 season.
Tampa (8-0 as of Monday) retained the No. 1 spot in this week's poll and is receiving 43 of the 47 possible first place votes while MSU Denver remained in the No. 2 spot after getting past the Mavs last Friday. The Roadrunners are now 12-1 overall and received one first place vote. Nebraska-Kearney, Southwest Minnesota State and Ferris State, up two spots from seventh, round out the top five in the poll.
Wayne State (Neb.), Cal Poly Pomona and St. Cloud State also moved up into the No. 6-8 spots while Chaminade dropped three spots into a tie for ninth along with West Texas A&M, which was tenth in the previous poll. Cal Poly Pomona received three first place votes.
Angelo State, the only team to have defeated the Mavs at home this season, continues to sit at the No. 14 spot in the poll and is 12-1 this season.
Veteran Floor Boss
Maverick Head Coach
Dave Fleming is now in his 20
th season in charge of the Maverick program.
Fleming is the longest-serving and winningest active head coach in the RMAC, racking up 377 career wins and a .676 winning percentage (377-181) in his tenure. He has also won 249 RMAC matches and has an impressive .728 winning percentage (249-93) within the conference and is one of just six RMAC Coaches to have 300 or more overall wins while coaching in the league.
He will go for his 250
th RMAC win next Friday against CSU Pueblo.
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.
About the Opponents
Western Colorado – Friday (6 p.m.)
The Mountaineers are currently 3-10 heading into a Friday night RMAC Regional Pod match at Westminster in Salt Lake City. They have gone 1-3 in RMAC play thus far, sweeping Chadron State last Friday (Sept. 27) at home before falling in four sets to Colorado Christian a night later.
Senior Setter Nur Turkmenoglu leads the Mountaineers and ranks fifth in the RMAC for assists (9.27/set) and 13th for service aces (0.36/set).
Sophomore libero Chinaru Inoue is ranked sixth in the RMAC for digs per set (4.33).
Senior middle blocker Seyun Park leads the Mountaineer offensive attack with 119 total kills while fellow senior middle Kennedy Kelly is second with 102, just two more than Pelin Aksoy, who has 100. Olivia Rolseth is also averaging more than two kills per set.
Sophomore Kyra Kidd has 35 total blocks to lead the Mountaineers, while Kelly has 27. Kidd and Turkmenoglu are the only two Mountaineers to have started all 13 matches for Head Coach Jordan Bruere, who is in her second year as the Mountaineers' Head Coach. Her team was picked 13
th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after going 5-21 overall and 2-12 in RMAC play during her first season in 2023.
Series Histories
The Mavericks have won 22 straight matches against Western Colorado, building a 57-12 lead in the Division II era (1992-Present) series. The Mavs, who have won 33 of the last 35, are also 28-5 against the Mountaineers at home. Western's last win overall was in 2012 in Grand Junction and Maverick Head Coach
Dave Fleming has a 36-2 record against the Mountaineers. He is3-0 against Mountaineer counterpart Jordan Bruere.
Up Next
The Mavericks will remain at home next weekend as they resume official RMAC play. They will host CSU Pueblo in a key match-up next Friday (Oct. 11) at 6 p.m. will and then take on Adams State next Saturday (Oct. 12) at 4 p.m.
CSU Pueblo is currently 10-3 overall and is a perfect 4-0 in RMAC play to sit alongside MSU Denver at the top of the RMAC standings. They have won six straight matches heading into Friday night home match against Regis.
Adams State is 4-10 overall but has won two straight. They host Fort Lewis tonight.
