GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University Director of Athletics Joan McDermott has announced that 20-year Maverick head volleyball coach Dave Fleming has resigned to take the same position at NCAA Division I University of North Texas, which announced Fleming's hiring earlier on Tuesday.

"I thank Coach Fleming for all his dedication and hard work at CMU," McDermott said.

"He is not only a great coach, but a special person and will be greatly missed," she continued.

Fleming will depart CMU with a 390-184 (.679) career record and as one of just six coaches in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference history to reach the 300 career win milestone while coaching in the league.  His squads also combined for 258 RMAC match wins, good for an impressive .733 winning percentage (258-94) within the conference.

He was just the fourth Maverick head coach in program history and had the longest tenure of all active RMAC coaches prior to this announcement. 

Fleming was named as the RMAC Coach of the Year four times, most recently in the spring of 2021, when the Mavs went 15-1 and won the RMAC's Regular Season title with a perfect 12-0 record while finishing third in the final edition of the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll after reaching as high as No. 2, both of which were program bests.

The Mavericks have since recorded four straight 20-plus win seasons  and NCAA Tournament appearances in each of the last four seasons (2021-24).  They went 23-6 overall and 12-2 in RMAC play to finish second in the conference standings this fall.

The Mavs were ranked as high as 14th nationally and ended the 2024 season ranked 23^rd in the AVCA/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll. 

CMU has been nationally-ranked in 41 consecutive polls since the first regular season poll of 2022.

The success was nothing new for Fleming, who in his 20 seasons, led the Mavericks to three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles (2014, 2018, 2021-Spring), a 2014 RMAC Regular Season Championship and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).  The Mavericks recorded winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and his teams reached the 20-win mark nine times.

At North Texas, whose campus is in the Dallas suburb of Denton, Fleming will inherit a program that finished 10-18 overall with a 7-9 mark in the American Athletic Conference during the 2024 season.  The Mean Green fell to Rice in the quarterfinal round of The American Tournament.

CMU will begin a national search for Fleming's replacement immediately.