GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse opens its 2024 season in the Golden State, facing one school in its first season in the RMAC and another school who will officially join the conference for men's lacrosse in 2025.

The No. 16 nationally ranked Mavericks will play a pair of games in Irvine, California, opening the year against Dominican on Friday at 4 p.m. in a neutral site contest before a true road game against Concordia-Irvine on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game against Concordia-Irvine will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools after CUI joined the RMAC this season in its first year as a varsity program.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa finished 16-2 in the 2023 season, tied for the best winning percentage and tied for the second-most number of wins in school history with the 2017 team that also went 16-2.

The only time that CMU won more games was during the 2018 season, when the Mavs went 17-3 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the only time in program history. Despite the lofty record, the Mavericks did not receive an invitation to the 12-team NCAA tournament in 2023.

The Mavericks enjoyed some signature nonconference wins during the 2023 season, defeating then-No. 7 Rollins and then-No. 20 Florida Tech on the road. Colorado Mesa was the only team to beat Rollins during the regular season, as the Tars were ranked No. 2 in the nation entering the NCAA Tournament.

The Mavs swept the table in the RMAC, going a perfect 6-0 in conference play and outscoring RMAC opponents 130-36 in the regular season. Colorado Mesa won the right to host the RMAC tournament in Grand Junction and took that down as well, defeating Adams State 23-3 in the tournament semifinal and Westminster 21-16 in the championship game.

The Squad
Colorado Mesa returns a pair of All-Americans in senior face-off specialist Dylan Checketts (USA Lacrosse Second Team All-American and Honorable Mention USILA All-American) and redshirt senior midfielder James Steinke (Honorable Mention USA Lacrosse and USILA).

Checketts returns after leading the RMAC with a .650 faceoff percentage (minimum 15 attempts), winning 243 of his 374 draws. Checketts also led the league in ground balls, collecting 118 total and 6.21 per game, and chipped in five goals and an assist. For his career, Checketts has a career .694 winning percentage, which ranks second all-time in program history. He was also named an Academic All-American last year.

Steinke returns after scoring 34 goals and 23 assists a year ago. The Castle Rock, Colorado native will enter the season having scored the seventh-most goals in CMU history (84) and the second-most assists (68), trailing former teammate AJ Switzer by just three for the all-time program career lead. Steinke was previously the school's all-time assist leader before Switzer passed him up last season, but Steinke will now have an extra season in Maverick maroon and gold to all but assuredly take back the record.

Other returning attackers include senior Hunter Holcomb (20 goals, 15 assists in 2023), junior JJ Brummett (25 goals, six assists) and senior Philip Petersen (16 goals, 10 assists), who were all within the club's top eight point-getters last season. Redshirt seniors Alex Blatt (13 goals, four assists) and Braden Lowe (10 goals, five assists) will provide veteran goalscoring options.

The defense should be strong, led by senior Trey Corkin III, who ranked second in the RMAC with 77 ground balls and 20 caused turnovers, redshirt senior Riley Fisher and junior Caden Hathaway. Mac Bayless will likely be the starting goaltender in 2024 after going 8-0 in eight starts during the second half of last season.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa was picked to finish first in the RMAC in a poll of the league's five head coaches. The Mavericks received three first-place votes and one second-place vote from the conference's other schools (head coaches rank other programs without voting for their own) and finished with 15 points in the poll.

Longtime rival Westminster received two first-place votes and two second-place votes from the other RMAC schools and finished second in the poll with 14 points. RMAC newcomer Concordia University Irvine, in its first year as a Division II varsity program but straight off winning a club lacrosse national championship, finished third in the poll with nine points while Adams State (seven points) and CSU Pueblo (five) rounded things out.

The United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division II national poll has Colorado Mesa ranked at No. 16 in the country. There have been three iterations of the poll in 2024, but CMU's ranking hasn't changed due to the Mavericks not playing a game yet.

No other RMAC teams are ranked in the poll's top 20, although Westminster received one vote. Three of CMU's future opponents in 2024 are currently ranked – No. 4 Tampa (road game March 16), No. 15 Florida Southern (road game March 19) and No. 18 Maryville (neutral site game March 8).

About Dominican
Dominican University, located in San Rafael, California, is a full-time member of the PacWest Conference but is operating as an independent in men's lacrosse for 2024 before joining the RMAC as an affiliate member for the 2025 season.

The Penguins had a competitive varsity program in the now-defunct Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (WILA) up until 2015, when the program was discontinued and became a club sport. Colorado Mesa and Dominican played a total of eight times, twice a year, from 2011-2014 with the Penguins winning five of eight matches over the Mavericks.

Dominican announced plans to both re-elevate their men's program to Division II and elevate their women's program to Division II for the first time in June 2023, and the RMAC announced plans to admit Dominican men's lacrosse for the 2025 season in November 2023.

Dominican has already played three games this season, and like the upcoming match against Colorado Mesa, they have all been nonconference games against teams that will be conference opponents starting next year. One thing is certain – the Penguins aren't intimidated about making the leap to Division II, as they are off to a 2-1 start.

The Penguins swept a season-opening trip to Adams State and CSU Pueblo, defeating the Grizzlies 19-7 and the ThunderWolves 15-11. In their home opener against likely future rivals Concordia Irvine, Dominican suffered a 24-8 loss in which they were outscored 18-2 over the first three quarters.

Per-Anders Olters, a graduate transfer from the University of Vermont, has scored 13 goals in the season's first three games, including six against Adams State. Freshman Jesse Fisher has two hat tricks already, scoring four against the Grizzlies and three against CSU Pueblo.

About Concordia University Irvine
Concordia University Irvine, located in Irvine, California, will be in its first season as an RMAC affiliate member in men's lacrosse during the 2024 season. The Golden Eagles are in their first season as a Division II varsity program, but are no stranger to playing competitive lacrosse.

The Golden Eagles are two-time club lacrosse national champions, winning the Division II Men's Club Lacrosse Association (MCLA) title in 2017 and winning the Division I national title this past summer. During their national championship season, CUI beat the club programs of the likes of BYU, USC, UCLA and South Carolina during the regular season before defeating Georgia Tech, Liberty and Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of the MCLA national championship.

Concordia University Irvine made a statement in their first Division II game, defeating a Dominican team which had previously beaten two RMAC opponents in Adams State and CSU Pueblo by a 24-8 score. Despite being a new program, the Golden Eagles were picked third in the RMAC preseason poll, ahead of the aforementioned Adams State and CSU Pueblo.

The leading scorer for CUI during the win over Dominican is a familiar face to the CMU roster – Matt Carresi, who scored a goal and two assists in four games as a true freshman for the Mavericks last year before the Seal Beach, California native transferred to Concordia Irvine. Carresi had quite the debut in the green and gold, scoring six goals on 11 shots while scooping five ground balls and causing two turnovers.

Behind Carresi, CUI got five goals and two assists from senior Chad McFadden. Last season, McFadden set an MCLA playoff record with 10 goals in the semifinal against Liberty. The Golden Eagles also got two goals apiece from senior Drew Buckley, grad student Nick Beeson and freshman Boston Rhees.

Coach's Corner
Troy Moyer is back for his second season as the head men's lacrosse coach at Colorado Mesa University. Moyer previously was as an assistant coach for CMU from 2019-2022.

In his debut season, Moyer went 16-2, including a perfect 6-0 record in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mavericks won the RMAC regular season title outright for the fifth time in the last eight seasons and also took home the RMAC Tournament title for the fifth time in program history.

Colorado Mesa won two regular season RMAC crowns and one RMAC Tournament Championship during Moyer's time as an assistant coach. After former Mavs coach Vince Smith resigned to pursue opportunities outside college lacrosse, Moyer was named interim head coach in July 2023, and was hired as the permanent head coach in September 2023. Moyer retained every player on the CMU roster through the coaching transition.

Prior to Colorado Mesa, Moyer coached at Division III Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, his home state. He played Division I Lacrosse at Sacred Heart University.