GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse got its first overall win and first RMAC win of 2024 under its belt during a trip to California in the last weekend of February. Now, the Mavericks head to the Midwest in search of more signature wins against nationally-ranked competition.

The No. 15 Mavericks will battle No. 16 Maryville in a neutral site clash this Friday at 2 p.m. (MT) from the campus of Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. CMU will then stick around to face Lewis, who is receiving votes in the USILA Poll, in a Sunday matinee showdown at 11 a.m. (MT).

Looking Back
The Mavericks got off to a strong start in the 2024 season during their season-opening road trip to California, defeating future RMAC member Dominican by a score of 27-5 and first-year RMAC member Concordia University Irvine by a score of 19-9.

RECAPS: Dominican | Concordia University Irvine

The Mavericks jumped out to a 20-3 halftime lead against Dominican and coasted the rest of the way. Goals were a little harder to come by at first against CUI, as the Mavs led 3-1 at the end of the first quarter, but CMU scored four quick goals at the start of the second quarter and seven unanswered between the middle of the third quarter and middle of the fourth quarter to eventually pull away from the Golden Eagles.

Players of the Week
Colorado Mesa swept the season's first edition of the RMAC Player of the Week awards, with JJ Brummett earning the offensive honor and Trey Corkin III grabbing the defensive award.

Brummett got off to a scorching hot start in 2024, scoring eight goals against Dominican, including six in the first quarter. Brummett then added five goals against CUI to give him 13 for the season through two games. The junior midfielder took 31 shots, with 22 of them on target, and also contributed two ground balls and two caused turnovers over the course of the weekend.

Corkin III was a terror at both ends of the field, racking up 16 ground balls, four caused turnovers and three goals during CMU's two wins. The senior defenseman scored once with nine ground balls and two caused turnovers in the win over Dominican before finishing the CUI game with seven ground balls, two caused turnovers and two goals. Corkin III is already just one goal away from tying his single-season career-high.

Stat Standouts
JJ Brummett wasn't the only CMU player to put up huge numbers over the Mavs' first two contests.
Midfielder Micah Payton has taking advantage of a larger role in the offense this season and functioned as CMU's primary distributor in California. Payton has two goals and a team-high eight assists this season, and the eight assists have already surpassed the senior's single-season career high.

Junior Logan Smith is also having a career year already. Smith scored four goals in each of his first two collegiate seasons, but already has five goals in 2024 after scoring twice against Dominican and three times against CUI.

Senior attacker Hunter Holcomb, a First Team All-RMAC selection in each of the last three seasons, has picked up where he left off with five goals and five assists over the first two contests. Holcomb recorded his first hat trick of the season with a trio of goals against Dominican, and also had four assists against the Penguins.

Assist Records
With two goals and five assists last weekend, James Steinke reclaimed possession of the Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse career assist record.

Steinke had the career record already at the beginning of last season, but eventually got surpassed by his own teammate in AJ Switzer. When the dust settled on 2023, Switzer's 71 career assists were three more than Steinke's total of 68. With Switzer not back in 2024, however, Steinke was primed to have the last word. He tied the record with a trio of assists against Dominican and took sole possession of the record with two assists against Concordia Irvine.

Senior Hunter Holcomb is now in third place on the all-time list. Holcomb entered the season in fourth, one behind 2016-18 alum Reece Callies, who currently plays with the Calgary Roughnecks of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). After tallying four assists against Dominican and one more against CUI, Holcomb's 60 career assists are third-most all-time in CMU history, 11 back of Switzer for second.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa moved up one spot to No. 15 in the USILA National Poll after their two season-opening wins, and remained there in the Week 5 poll despite not playing a game. Three of CMU's scheduled opponents in 2023 are currently nationally ranked, starting with Friday's matchup against No. 16 Maryville. No other RMAC teams are ranked in the poll's top 20, although Westminster is receiving votes.  

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 Maryville
The Saints of Maryville University, located in St. Louis, Missouri, are 4-1 on the season and ranked No. 16 in the USILA poll. Maryville opened the year with a 13-5 win over then-No. 18 Lewis and have also beat Quincy, Alabama Huntsville and Lynn. Maryville's only loss is by a one-goal margin to No. 7 Wingate on the road.

Senior attacker Zach Baker has 15 goals in Maryville's first five matches, despite being shut out in Maryville's most recent game against Lynn. Baker scored five against Lewis in the season opener. Junior Clayton Cerett, a former GLVC Freshman of the Year, gives Maryville a second double-digit scorer with 10 goals and three assists.

Maryville head coach Scott Stark has been in charge at Maryville since the 2021 season and has made an immediate impact. Stark was named Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Coach of the Year in 2021 and Co-Coach of the Year in 2023 and guided Maryville to its highest finish ever in the GLVC standings in third place. Prior to Maryville, Stark was an assistant coach at Lindenwood for six seasons.

Colorado Mesa and Maryville have played four times previously, all between 2017 and 2019. The Mavericks have won all four meetings, both in blowout fashion (23-2 and 26-4 in 2017) and in nail biting fashion (8-7 in the most recent meeting in 2019).

About Lewis
Lewis University will host both of CMU's games this weekend in Romeoville, Illinois, which is about an hour outside of Chicago. The Flyers were ranked No. 18 to open the season, but suffered a season-opening loss to Maryville that dropped them out of the rankings. Since then, however, Lewis has won five straight games, including a 23-5 win over Dominican.

Evan Clement, the reigning GLVC Player of the Week, has been a force with 17 goals and 13 assists in Lewis's six games. Clement, a San Diego native, dominated against a team from his home state, scoring five goals and three assists against Dominican and adding four goals and an assist against Walsh to take home the honor. Lewis has three players with over 10 goals and over 10 assists – Clement, grad student Baden Boyenko (14 goals, 10 assists) and freshman Malikye Good (11 goals, 12 assists).

Head Coach Joe Perruzzi is in his fifth season at Lewis. He is the only coach in the history of the program, which began in 2020. Under Perruzzi, Lewis became a ranked team and earned a postseason berth into the GLVC Tournament in the program's third season in 2022. Prior to Lewis, Perruzzi spent three years as the defensive coordinator at Belmont Abbey and was an assistant coach at Division III schools Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon College.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the Colorado Mesa and Lewis men's lacrosse programs.

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.