GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa women's lacrosse got itself back to a .500 record by rolling to a pair of RMAC season-opening victories. Now, the Mavericks have a final opportunity to bank some statement regional victories and pad their NCAA Tournament case.

The Mavs are in Kansas City in the early part of this week to take on Rockhurst on Wednesday at noon (MT). Then, the Mavs will host No. 12 UIndy in their 2024 home opener at Community Hospital Unity Field on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa got on the board for the 2024 season and got off to a 2-0 in RMAC play with wins over Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo last weekend.

RECAPS: Fort Lewis | CSU Pueblo

Justine Anderson scored four goals against Fort Lewis while Elizabeth Renken added a hat trick in a 16-7 victory. Six different Mavericks, including Anderson, scored twice against CSU Pueblo as the Mavericks jumped out to a 12-2 halftime lead and won 15-4.

Player of the Week
Kelsey Viger earned the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award after putting together two nearly identical stat-stuffing games.

Player of the Week Release

Viger tallied three ground balls and four caused turnovers in both of CMU's victories last weekend against Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo. Viger is on pace to lead the RMAC in caused turnovers per game for the second year in a row. She currently is averaging a conference-high 2.8 caused TOs per contest after averaging 3.2 last season.

Viger also managed to find the net late against Fort Lewis for her first goal of the season and the fourth goal of her career. So far this season, Viger has a goal on two shots to go with nine ground balls and 11 caused turnovers.

First of Many
Several Mavericks set career firsts over the course of CMU's two victories.  

For starters, the wins were the first two in coach Ashley Delaney's head coaching career. The Mavericks went 33-19 during the last four seasons, when Delaney was on staff as an assistant coach.

Three Mavericks also scored their first career goals against CSU Pueblo. Sophomore Ella Freemon, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, tallied a goal and an assist against the Pack after playing in eight games without a point as a freshman. Freemon had a career-high three shots against CSUP, with two of them on target.

Two true freshman attackers scored two goals apiece against Pueblo to get on the board for their collegiate careers. Sofia Chock, a native of Huntington Beach, California, took four shots on goal against the ThunderWolves and saw two of them find the back of the net. Chock has logged minutes in all four of CMU's games this season, causing a turnover against Maryville.

Courteney Murray, a freshman out of Littleton, Colorado, made her collegiate debut against Fort Lewis before scoring twice against Pueblo. In her first two college games, Murray has taken four shots with three landing on target, while also accumulating a ground ball, a caused turnover and two draw controls.

Better and Better
Colorado Mesa has a lot of experience on defense and a lot of youth on offense, a dynamic that was exemplified by the low-scoring 9-3 slugfest against Grand Valley State in the Mavs' season-opener. CMU's offense has made strides in every game, however, with improving statistics through the season's first two weeks.

The Mavericks have seen their single-game totals for shots, shots on goal and points go up in every game this season so far. CMU's shots started with a season-low 15 against Grand Valley before improving to 22 against Maryville, 37 against FLC and 49 against CSU Pueblo.

Grand Valley State held the Mavericks to just six points (three goals, three assists), but that number rose to 10 points (eight goals, two assists) against Maryville, 20 points (16 goals, four assists) against FLC and 23 points (15 goals, eight assists) against the ThunderWolves.

Home Opener
Colorado Mesa is set to play its first of just two nonconference home games of 2024 this Sunday against UIndy. It will be the first-ever trip to Grand Junction for the Greyhounds, who will enter the matchup ranked No. 12 in the nation.

The Mavericks lost their home opener last season, also to a highly ranked opponent in then-No. 10 Grand Valley State. Prior to last season, however, the Mavs had won six home openers in a row from 2017-2022.

The rest of CMU's home schedule features RMAC matches on April 5 against Regis, April 7 against UCCS, April 12 against Fort Lewis and April 14 against CSU Pueblo. The Mavericks close the regular season with two home games in the season's final weekend, a nonconference game against Dominican on April 26 and the RMAC finale against Westminster on April 28.

About Rockhurst
Rockhurst is 5-2 so far this season. The Hawks stormed out to a 5-0 start with wins over McKendree, Northern Michigan and Daemen before a recent three-game swing out to Colorado that saw Rockhurst defeat Dominican and UCCS before losing 17-7 to Regis. Most recently, Rockhurst was blown out by Grand Valley State 17-4 last Sunday.

Graduate midfielder Mackenzie Blair leads the Hawks with 18 goals, including four apiece against Dominican and UCCS. Catey Roux and Reagan Danner have 13 goals apiece for the Hawks. Head coach Molly McCourt is in her ninth year and has an all-time record of 66-60 entering Wednesday.

Colorado Mesa has never lost to Rockhurst, going 11-0 all-time against the Hawks. Six of the 11 wins came while Rockhurst was an affiliate member of the RMAC for women's lacrosse. The Mavericks beat Rockhurst 17-7 at home in Grand Junction last season.

About UIndy
The Greyhounds of UIndy (University of Indianapolis) are also 5-2 on the season. UIndy has played a challenging schedule, with their only losses coming to top-five opponents in Florida Southern and Tampa. All five of UIndy's wins have come by double digits, and four of the five featured the Greyhounds scoring 18 goals or more. UIndy will be in Denver to play No. 10 Regis on Friday prior to meeting the Mavs on Sunday.

UIndy features three players in the lineup who have already gone over 20 goals: sophomore Olivia Bladon (24 goals, five assists), senior and Highlands Ranch native Megan Dunn (21 goals, 19 assists) and senior Mackenzie Winn (20 goals, 19 assists). UIndy features a first-year head coach in Peyton Romig, who won a national championship as a player and team captain with UIndy in 2022. Romig is a three-time First Team All-American and is the NCAA's all-time women's lacrosse leader in career draw controls.

Colorado Mesa and UIndy have only faced off once before in program history, an 18-7 victory for UIndy in Indianapolis back in 2021.