GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – At 3-1, Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse is at a critical point in its chase for the NCAA Tournament ahead of its annual trip to Florida.

The No. 16 Mavericks will be tested, facing No. 4 Tampa, No. 17 Florida Southern and Flagler, who is the top team receiving votes in the USILA Poll, next Thursday.

First face-off against Tampa will take place at 5:30 p.m. (MT) on Saturday night. The Mavs will stick around Florida into next week, facing Florida Southern on Tuesday, March 19 and Flagler on Thursday, March 21, both at 5 p.m (MT).

Looking Back
The Mavericks suffered their first setback of 2024, losing 12-8 to No. 14 Maryville, before rebounding for a 13-6 win over a Lewis team that was receiving votes in the USILA Poll.

RECAPS: Maryville | Lewis

Colorado Mesa had one player score a hat trick in each game. Against Maryville, it was senior Micah Payton who scored a career-high three goals on eight shots. In the win over Lewis, senior James Steinke tallied four goals and three assists to match a career-high with seven points.

Player of the Week
Colorado Mesa goalie Mac Bayless won the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award after coming off the bench in one game and earning his first start of the season in the win over Lewis.

Bayless came on at halftime of the loss to Maryville with the Mavericks trailing 7-3 and made seven second-half saves to keep the Mavs in the game. Bayless played all 60 minutes against Lewis and tied a career-high with 14 saves. In three games this season, Bayless has made 23 saves against 13 goals allowed, good for a 7.43 goals-against average and .639 save percentage.

The Mavericks have won both RMAC Defensive Player of the Week awards handed out in 2024, with Trey Corkin III winning the honor last week.

Four Horsemen
The Mavericks have four players within two points of being the team's leading scorer.

JJ Brummett leads the way with 16 points (15 goals and one assist). The bulk of Brummett's production came during CMU's trip to California, as Brummett opened the year with eight goals against Dominican and five goals against Concordia-Irvine.

Three different Mavericks are sitting on 14 points entering the weekend. Senior Hunter Holcomb has seven goals and seven assists highlighted by a three-goal, four-assist performance against Dominican and two goals last Sunday in the win over Lewis. Seniors Micah Payton and James Steinke both have accumulated six goals and eight assists through four games this season.

By the Numbers
Colorado Mesa is outscoring opponents 67-32 so far in 2024. The Mavericks have 44 assists on their 67 goals. Nine of CMU's goals have come in man-up situations, while the Mavs have scored four times while playing a man down.

The Mavericks are outshooting opponents 204-111 and have a 130-71 edge over the competition in shots on goal. Colorado Mesa is scoring on 32.8 percent of its shot attempts and only allowing goals on 28.8 percent of opponents' shot attempts.

Colorado Mesa has won 64 percent of faceoffs this season, winning 72 out of 112 draws. The Mavs lost the faceoff battle against Lewis, 13-9, marking the first time this year that CMU didn't win more faceoffs than its opponent after doing so just twice in 18 matches last year.

The Mavs are 75-for-82 on clears this season, a .915 percentage, while holding their opponents to 68-for-91 (.747) on clears. CMU also holds the edge on ground balls (151-80) and caused turnovers (44-30).

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa fell one spot to No. 16 in the latest edition of the USILA Poll. Maryville, the only team to beat CMU this season, rose to No. 14 in the poll. No other RMAC teams are ranked, but Westminster received the second-highest amount of votes among teams outside the top 20.   

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.

About Tampa
The Tampa Spartans were the 2022 national champions before losing to eventual 2023 champions Lenoir-Rhyne in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament.

The Spartans, ranked No. 4 in the country, are 6-1 so far this season, with the only loss coming to Lenoir-Rhyne once again. Tampa has beaten Flagler, Rockhurst, Florida Tech, Belmont Abbey, No. 6 Wingate and most recently Westminster by a 17-10 score on Monday.

Senior attacker Canyon Birch leads Tampa with 25 goals and two assists through seven games. Graduate attacker Andrew Milani has 15 goals and nine assists while senior mid Nick Papa has 11 goals and five assists. Head coach J.B. Clarke and assistant coach Ryan Sullivan were named the national staff of the year by USILA in 2022.

The Mavericks have a 4-6 all-time record against Tampa. This will mark the third straight year that the two schools have played one another – then-No. 2 Tampa beat then-No. 20 CMU 15-12 during Tampa's national championship season in 2022 and then-No. 5 Tampa beat then-No. 15 CMU 19-11 in 2023.

About Florida Southern
No. 17 Florida Southern is 5-2 in 2024. Last season, the Mocs advanced to the finals of the Sunshine State Conference tournament, upsetting Tampa in the semis before losing the title game to then-No. 3 Rollins. Florida Southern was not selected for the NCAA Tournament.

The Mocs have played several close games so far this season. Florida Southern begun its year with an 8-7 win over then-No. 3 Wingate, but suffered a 19-18 overtime loss to unranked Montevallo the following weekend. After a loss to Limestone, currently the No. 1 team in the country, the Mocs pulled out a 14-13 overtime win over Flagler. That win kicked off the Mocs' current four-game winning streak with subsequent wins over Belmont Abbey, Anderson and Lander.

Florida Southern has four double-digit goal scorers. Junior Brydon Robichaud is the team's points leader with 11 goals and 10 assists. Freshman Maddux Walton is the team's leading goal scorer with 17 tallies while junior Matt Flammenspeck has 15 and senior Brendan Glasser has 13.

Head coach Marty Ward has been in charge of the Mocs since 2011 with an all-time record of 105-85. He is currently the only Native American head coach in NCAA men's lacrosse.

The Mavericks are 2-3 all-time against Florida Southern. The last time the two schools played was in 2019, when Florida Southern won 18-6. All five matches, along with this upcoming one, have taken place in Lakeland, Florida at Florida Southern's campus.

About Flagler
Flagler is 4-4 while playing a challenging schedule thus far in 2024. Last season, the Saints went 7-10 and advanced to the finals of the Peach Belt Conference tournament.

All four of Flagler's losses have come to nationally-ranked opponents in Tampa, Florida Southern, No. 2 Rollins and No. 19 Saint Leo. The Saints have defeated Lynn, Embry-Riddle, Florida Tech and Barton.

Sophomore Trace McDonald has been the star for Flagler with 16 goals and 19 assists. Highlights for McDonald include a two-goal, five-assist game against Embry-Riddle, a five-goal game against Florida Tech and three goals and three assists against Florida Southern. Flagler has four other players with double-digit goals – Tyler Douglass (14), Luke Burton (12), Logan Tobias (12) and Griffin Moore (11).

Head Coach Brian Duncan is the first men's lacrosse coach in Flagler history, beginning as the school's club coach in 2016 and guiding the program's transition to NCAA Division II varsity competition beginning in 2022. The Saints went 3-14 in 2022 prior to their 7-10 mark in 2023.

This will be the second-ever meeting between Colorado Mesa and Flagler. The Mavericks defeated the Saints 25-9 in 2022, which was Flagler's first year as a varsity program.

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.