GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa needs to pull an upset victory to keep their hopes of an RMAC regular season title alive but can also clinch a top-two seed in the conference with the right results.

The Mavs (7-4, 6-1 RMAC) have two of their remaining three RMAC games this weekend, hitting the road to take on UCCS on Friday at 4 p.m. and No. 7 Regis on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CMU currently trails Regis by half a game in the RMAC standings, but the Rangers can cinch the regular season title by knocking off the Mavericks.

Looking Back
The Mavericks closed out a four-game homestand with a pair of double-digit victories over Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo, improving to 6-1 in the RMAC in the process. The 17 goals against Fort Lewis added up to CMU's highest-scoring performance of the season, while the 16 against CSU Pueblo tied for second.

RECAP: Fort Lewis | CSU Pueblo

In both games, the Maverick got off to relatively slow starts before catching fire. Against Fort Lewis, the Mavs and Skyhawks were tied 3-3 after a quarter, but an 8-1 second quarter in favor of CMU got the Mavs off and running in a 17-6 win. Against CSU Pueblo, the Mavericks trailed 2-1 early, but scored 14 unanswered goals on their way to a 16-3 victory.

Double Dutch
All season long, Justine Anderson and Kelsey Viger have been the offensive and defensive leaders, respectively, for CMU women's lacrosse. Anderson and Viger received some conference-wide recognition on Monday by winning the RMAC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards.

RMAC Player of the Week Release

Anderson deservedly picked up the first weekly honor of her career after a weekend in which she scored 11 goals and 13 points in CMU's two wins. Anderson scored seven goals in the win over Fort Lewis, a single-game career high and just one off the program's single-game record of eight, by Ashley Eickoff in 2014.

Anderson's seven-goal game puts her in a six-way tie for second in CMU history for most goals in a single match and is the most goals scored in a single game by any RMAC player against a conference opponent this season.

After the 11-goal explosion over the past two games, Anderson leads the RMAC with 39 goals and ranks second with 48 points, one behind Regis's Maggie Schipfer. Anderson also ranks second behind Schipfer in total shots (78) but is ahead of Schipfer in shots and points per game.

The defensive weekly award is more of the same for Viger, who has now won it three times this season and five times in her career, but this week's honor was a shoo-in after the career milestones the redshirt senior defender achieved.

Viger became the program's all-time leader in caused turnovers with the 131^st of her career on Friday against Fort Lewis, passing alum Olivia Hayden, but Viger wasn't content to stop after getting the milestone.

She racked up 12 caused turnovers over the weekend, including seven against CSU Pueblo which set a single-game career high and tied the program single-game record. Viger also set a single-game career high with eight ground balls against Fort Lewis.

Viger leads the RMAC by a healthy margin with 37 caused turnovers, nine ahead of Regis's Terah Skillings for the conference lead. The Minnesotan also ranks fourth in the RMAC in ground balls with 40, just four behind UCCS's Madison McGriff and two behind Fort Lewis's Samantha Rogers for the lead among non-goalies.

And You Get A Milestone!
While Anderson and Viger were doing plenty of re-writing to personal and program record books, they were not alone last weekend.

Draw control specialist Emme Rezoski set the program single-game record with 17 draw controls against Fort Lewis. Like Viger, Rezoski also broke a record previously held by Olivia Hayden, who had 14 draw controls against Westminster in April 2019.

Between the game against Fort Lewis and the previous game at UCCS on April 7, Rezoski went back-to-back games outpacing the other team all by herself in the draw control category. Against the Mountain Lions, Rezoski snared 12 draw controls compared to UCCS's 11, then grabbed 17 against the Skyhawks as FLC only got five as a team.

Rezoski currently ranks third in the RMAC with 55 draw controls and ranks second with 5.0 draw controls per game. The Duvall, Washington native is already on the verge of surpassing her 2023 total of 65 draw controls across 17 games. Additionally, Rezoski added a goal against Fort Lewis, her first time finding the net since the 2022 season.

Wenner Wenner Chicken Dinner
Senior attacker Amber Wennerstrom had a breakout performance in last Sunday's win over CSU Pueblo. The Centennial native recorded her second career hat trick – and first since April 2021 against Adams State – to go along with a career-high four ground balls and a career-high-tying three caused turnovers.

Wennerstrom is quietly tied for fourth on the team with eight goals scored in 2024, way over the senior's previous season high of four goals in 2022. Wennerstrom also has already recorded season highs in points (10), shots (16), ground balls (18, tied for fourth on the team), caused turnovers (10, second on the team) and draw controls (nine, fifth on the team).

The ball found Wennerstrom plenty during the game against CSUP, as the senior took seven shots after not attempting more than two in a previous game this season.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is unranked in the IWLCA national poll. The Mavs are 0-4 against nationally ranked opponents, falling to No. 6 Maryville, No. 7 Regis (the RMAC's only ranked program), No. 8 Grand Valley State and No. 12 UIndy. They are 7-0 this season against unranked opponents.

Colorado Mesa was picked second in the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll, the fifth consecutive season that the Mavs have been picked to finish second. Regis, which has won the past four RMAC regular season titles (three outright and one shared with CMU), led the poll with five of six first-place votes and 25 total points. Colorado Mesa received the final first-place vote and finished the poll with 21 points. UCCS finished third in the poll with 17 total points, followed by Westminster in fourth with 12 points, CSU Pueblo in fifth with eight points and Fort Lewis in sixth with seven points.

About UCCS
UCCS is 4-7 overall and 2-4 in the RMAC. In the RMAC, the Mountain Lions have a pair of 10-goal losses to Regis and have lost to CMU by four goals and Westminster by one while beating Fort Lewis by four and CSU Pueblo by nine.

The Mountain Lions are led by senior attacker Julia Patrick, who has 31 goals and nine assists. Patrick ranks second in the RMAC in goals per game and fifth in total goals. Patrick recorded a hat trick or better in seven of UCCS's first eight matches but has scored exactly one goal in each of her past three games (against the RMAC's top three teams in Westminster, CMU and Regis). She did score five goals against Regis in the schools' first meeting of the year and also tallied six against CSU Pueblo.

Reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year Brielle Fannin has a team-high 10 assists to go with 15 goals to rank second on the team with 25 points. The Mountain Lions have two other double-digit scorers in freshman Sarah Urbanic (17 goals) and Emma Grace Martin (13). Sophomore Brennan Kelly only has four goals on the season, but all four came against Colorado Mesa during the first meeting. Mountain Lions goalie Madison McGriff leads the conference in saves per game (12.18) and save percentage (.502) but is sixth in goals-against average (12.76).

Colorado Mesa is 11-0 all-time against UCCS, including a 15-11 win earlier this season. Head Coach Melissa Rausch is in her third year as the head coach and fifth year with the UCCS program in 2024 having compiled a 17-18 record in her first two seasons as the head coach. Prior to UCCS, Rausch coached at Division III Nichols College (Mass.).

About Regis
The No. 7-ranked Regis Rangers are 12-1 overall and unbeaten in the RMAC at 6-0. Regis's only loss came to No. 6 Maryville back on March 16, but the Rangers have won eight in a row since and boast wins over No. 4 Florida Southern (16-14), No. 12 UIndy (19-13) and No. 20 Florida Tech (19-13). Four of Regis's six RMAC wins have been by double digits, but they play the two teams they failed to beat by more than 10 this weekend in CMU and Westminster.

While CMU's Justine Anderson leads the RMAC with 39 goals, Regis features the second, third and fourth leading goal scorers in the conference in Maggie Schipfer (36 goals), Bailey Truex (36 goals) and Shea Murphy (32 goals). Lilly Ferguson, last year's RMAC Attacker of the Year, ranks seventh in the conference with 24 goals.

Regis has been fantastic on defense this season, leading the conference with an 8.39 goals-against average. Regis has held opponents under five goals on four occasions this season, including three RMAC opponents in UCCS (13-3), CSU Pueblo (19-1) and Fort Lewis (17-0, the only shutout in the conference this year). Goalie Elizabeth Myotte has a 7.44 goals-against average and a .471 save percentage. Regis dominates in draw controls per game (17.77, over four more than second-place CMU) and caused turnovers per game (12.08, a full CT more than second-place Fort Lewis).

Colorado Mesa is 1-30 all-time against Regis. It has been nearly 365 days since CMU's only victory over the Rangers, which came on April 23, 2023. Head Coach Sarah Kellner has been at the helm of Regis for 18 seasons and has won five RMAC Coach of the Year awards. She led Regis to back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances in 2018 and 2019.

Coach's Corner
After spending four years with the Mavericks as the lead assistant coach, Ashley Delaney will be a first-year head coach in 2024.

In her four years as the assistant coach, Delaney was primarily responsible for running the midfield and defense for the Mavericks, helping develop Kelsey Viger into an IWLCA First-Team All-American as CMU allowed fewer than 10 goals per game last season. Prior to CMU, Delaney coached at NCAA Division III school Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and coached at the club level in Southern California.