In the third tournament of the spring season, the ladies headed to CSU Ft. Collins for the Horsetooth Rock 7s tournament. The early morning match would put CMU against an AFA team that has not played yet this spring. The Mavs came out a bit slow and the fresh AFA team were able to score one early, giving their team a 5-0 lead. CMU quickly bounced back with a solid run on the outside by Carly Scheck and a conversion by Ellen Rickerd to give the Mavs the lead for the remainder of the match. AFA was tough, and continued to fight back, but another try by Scheck, Liz Thoma, and Sydney Hews, plus some great conversions was enough to give the Mavs the victory 26-22.
 
Less than an hour later, the Mavs were in their second match of the morning, against the formidable foe and host team CSU. Start to finish CMU led this one. Scoring three trys in the first half to give the Mavs the lead they needed, going up 15-0 by halftime with Rickerd, Scheck, and Ashley Bollinger touching down. Out of the second half, CSU bounced back and score 2 minutes in making it 15-5. Despite a CMU Yellow card, finishing the match man down, the Mavs stepped up their defensive skill and were able to walk away from this one victorious.
 
In the final match of pool play, CMU began to fire on all cylinders. Offloads were solid, hands were great, defense and poaching were on point. In a match that had all things going CMUs way, all members of the team were able to contribute solid minutes to the match. Bollinger was the first to break away with a long run giving the Mavs the lead. DU bounced back making it 5-5, three minutes into the match, then it was all CMU. Bollinger touched down again, the Scheck joined in for two of her own trys. Tanner Carrol got a nice run up the middle. Then Sydney Hews, and Thoma rounded out the scoring frenzy. Mavs score seven trys in 14 minutes with 3 conversions to win the final match of pool play.
 
The first crossover match had the Mavs facing a different Air Force Academy team. The Mavs came out slow, everything that had gone their way against DU, did not against Air Force. Minor mistakes, dropped balls, and turning our back to the play cost the Mavs early as Air Force scored three in the first half. Mavs were done 15 points at half time. CMU was ready to rally though. Coming out of half, Thoma had a solid break and began the comeback. Closing the gap to 7-15 with a Rickerd conversion. Then it was some solid ball movement and offloads to get Scheck in for a try with short time. Knowing even with a conversion the team would still be down by a point - Scheck skipped the points after in the attempt to win the ball back in regulation time. Unfortunately a nice stiff arm by AFA ended the rally and ended the match with another AFA try on the outside.
 
Ladies walk away with things to tweak and adjust, definitely was within grasp, the team just ran out of steam in a long 3 weekend tournament stint. CMU walked away a match short with a loss in the semifinals going 3-1 on the day with some room for growth and improvement as they head into the National Qualifier weekend at the Air Force Academy this Sun. April 21st.

Trys:
Ashley Bollinger (3)
Tanner Carrol (1)
Sydney Hews (2)
Liz Thoma  (3)
Ellen Rickerd (1)
Carly Scheck  (6)
 
Conversions:
Ellen Rickerd (3)
Carly Scheck (5)