GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Once again, the RMAC men's lacrosse tournament will take place in Grand Junction.

The conference's top four teams will descend on Community Hospital Unity Field on Friday and Saturday of this week as the conference will contest two semifinals on Friday afternoon and evening before crowning a champion on Saturday night. Co-regular season champions Colorado Mesa and Westminster will be the favorites to meet in what would be the eighth consecutive title game matchup between the two provided each wins their semifinal.

The Mavericks will face No. 4 seed Adams State at 7 p.m. on Friday and with a win, will face the winner of Westminster and No. 3 seed Concordia University Irvine in the RMAC title game at 5 p.m. Saturday.

A Note From The RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced the addition of a subscription model to all 2023-24 RMAC championship broadcasts on the RMAC Network. Fans can watch games on a pay-per-view basis for $9.95.

For technical support questions, fans can email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org).

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa secured an RMAC co-regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the RMAC Tournament with two decisive wins over Adams State, 17-8, and CSU Pueblo, 24-7.

RECAPS: Adams State | CSU Pueblo

JJ Brummett scored five goals in each game, adding a total of three assists across the two contests as the CMU defense held RMAC opponents to single digit scoring for the fifth and sixth time in eight conference games. The Mavericks set a season high with 21 caused turnovers as a team in the win over CSU Pueblo.

Awards Szn
Colorado Mesa was well represented as the RMAC announced its All-Conference teams on Wednesday, with the Mavericks placing six players on the first team and five on the second team. The six first team selections and 11 total all-conference selections both led the RMAC.

All-Conference Release

Highlighting the first team selections were RMAC assist leader Hunter Holcomb, team leading goal scorer JJ Brummett and Westminster overtime hero Dillon Pless. Three defensive standouts also earned first team selections, including long stick midfielder Trey Corkin III, short stick defensive mid Deuce Kirschke and defender Riley Fisher.

The second team selections included breakout senior Micah Payton, former All-Americans James Steinke and Dylan Checketts, midfielder Levi McCoy and defender Caden Hathaway.

Player of the Week
The second team all-conference selection wasn't the only honor received by Dylan Checketts this week, as the Mavs' longtime faceoff ace nabbed the final RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award of the 2024 season.

Player of the Week Release

Checketts racked up 17 faceoff wins and 11 ground balls across Colorado Mesa's two victories to close out the regular season. The senior from Herriman, Utah had six ground balls while going 8-for-10 from the circle against Adams State and added five ground balls and nine faceoff wins against CSU Pueblo.

Checketts ranks third in the RMAC this season among qualifying faceoff men with a .581 winning percentage and also ranks third with 63 ground balls.

By the Numbers
Colorado Mesa has scored 226 goals and allowed 124 goals this season. The Mavericks have the second-highest scoring offense in the RMAC, 10 goals behind Westminster, while they have allowed the fewest goals in the conference. As a team, Colorado Mesa ranks second in the RMAC in assists per game (9.93), shots per game (47.57), shots on goal per game (28.79) and shot conversion percentage (.339), trailing Westminster.

Colorado Mesa also boasts the RMAC's second and third-leading points scorers in JJ Brummett (48 goals and six assists for 54 points) and Hunter Holcomb (24 goals and 29 assists for 53 points). Brummett ranks second in the RMAC in goals, just one behind Westminster's Merritt McMahon, and leads the conference by taking 144 shots, 10.29 per game. Holcomb leads the conference in assists while teammate Micah Payton is second in the RMAC with 22.

Trey Corkin III is currently in a three-way tie for the RMAC lead in caused turnovers as Corkin III, CSU Pueblo's Logan Place and Westminster's Timothy McGuire all have 26. Corkin III also has the second most ground balls in the RMAC with 71, just ahead of teammate Dylan Checketts, who is in third place with 63.

Colorado Mesa has split time in goal this season between sophomore Luke Parrish and redshirt junior Mac Bayless. Parrish ranks second in the RMAC with an 8.55 goals-against average and ranks third with a .500 save percentage (67 saves, 67 goals allowed) while Bayless is the inverse of his teammate on the leaderboards, ranking third with a 10.00 goals-against average and second with a .505 save percentage (54 saves, 53 goals allowed).

After Brummett and Holcomb, Micah Payton (15 goals, 22 assists for 37 points), Philip Petersen (13 goals, 15 assists for 28 points) and James Steinke (13 goals, 12 assists with 25 points) are CMU's next-highest points scorers, with Steinke putting up those numbers despite missing five games. Dillon Pless (15 goals), Levi McCoy (14) and Logan Smith (10) have also scored in double digits for the Mavs.

Defensively, Corkin III leads with 26 caused turnovers, followed by Caden Hathaway with 12, Marcus Trujillo with nine and Payton with eight. In the faceoff circle, Dylan Checketts handles the majority of the faceoffs, sporting a .583 winning percentage on 192 draws. The Mavs can go multiple directions in the circle, with Mike Edwards (47-78, .603), Kanyan Rhodes (41-73, .562) and freshman Cam Casados (31-41, .756) as options.

RMAC Tournament History
Colorado Mesa has an all-time RMAC Tournament record of 12-2. The Mavericks went 2-0 on their way to tournament titles in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023. The Mavs went 1-1 in both 2019 and 2021, losing in the title game. There was no RMAC Tournament in 2020.

Westminster and Colorado Mesa have met in the title game of every RMAC Tournament in the history of the conference, with the Mavericks winning five titles and Westminster winning the other two.

CUI will be making its first RMAC Tournament appearance in its first year joining the conference as an affiliate member for men's lacrosse. Adams State has clinched its seventh overall appearance, only missing the tournament in 2018. However, the Grizzlies are still searching for their first RMAC Tournament win.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa dropped one spot in the national polls this week, as the Mavericks are now ranked No. 18 in the USILA national poll. Westminster, the RMAC's other ranked program, rose to No. 15, swapping spots with the Mavericks. The Mavericks are 1-4 against nationally ranked teams, with a win and a loss to Westminster and losses to No. 3 Tampa, No. 16 Maryville and No. 19 Florida Southern.

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.

Regional Rankings
The Mavericks are not listed in the NCAA's latest regional rankings, an ordering of eight teams currently jockeying for the six available selection spots in the South region for the NCAA Tournament.

The rankings, in order from No. 1 through No. 8, are as follows – Tampa, Limestone, Lenoir-Rhyne, UIndy, Wingate, Maryville, Rollins and Newberry. The Mavs are 0-2 this season against that group of eight.

The Field
Westminster
Westminster, ranked No. 15 in the country with an 11-2 record, will enter the RMAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed after winning a co-regular season championship with Colorado Mesa. The Griffins and Mavericks split the regular season series, with both teams winning 13-12 at home, but the Mavericks earned the No. 1 seed based on a conference goal differential tiebreaker.

The Griffins feature the conference's leading scorer in Merritt McMahon, who has an RMAC-high 49 goals and 68 points while ranking seventh in Division II in goals per game. McMahon has scored in every game this season except for the regular season game at Community Hospital Unity Field against CMU, but McMahon did score six against the Mavs in Salt Lake City.

Joseph Celentano is one of two RMAC players (CMU's Hunter Holcomb being the other) with over 20 goals and over 20 assists this season. Celentano is tied for sixth in the RMAC with 26 goals and third in the league with 20 assists. Sean Gragnola and Luke Sillstrop have 21 goals apiece for the Griffins.

Westminster goalie Christian Jones leads the RMAC and ranks sixth in Division II with a .581 save percentage, ranks second in the RMAC with 11.42 saves per game and ranks fourth with a 10.55 goals-against average. Timothy McGuire leads the Westminster defense with 26 caused turnovers.

CUI
Concordia University Irvine will enter the RMAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed, with a 6-7 overall record and a 4-4 mark in RMAC play. The Golden Eagles swept both Adams State and CSU Pueblo during the regular season while losing twice each to Colorado Mesa and Westminster. CUI has kept it tight with the Griffins, however, as Westminster's 20-15 margin of victory over CUI back on February 23 is the reason that the Mavericks are hosting the RMAC Tournament.

Faceoff specialist Cade Poe has been a revelation for the Golden Eagles in their first season as a varsity Division II program. Poe ranks fourth in all of Division II with a .690 faceoff win percentage (185-268) and leads the RMAC with 130 ground balls, 59 more than second-place Trey Corkin III. CMU alum Michael Marino, the Maverick program's all-time leader in faceoff percentage, is an assistant coach on CUI's staff.

CUI boasts three of the conference's top five goal scorers, with the trio of Chad McFadden (35 goals), Nick Beeson (33) and Drew Buckley (27) trailing only McMahon and JJ Brummett among RMAC players. McFadden also has a team-high 16 assists and ranks fourth in the RMAC in points. CMU transfer Matt Carresi is fourth on the Golden Eagles with 21 goals and 32 points.

The Golden Eagles defense gives up 11.0 goals per game, led by First Team All-RMAC performer Braden Schneider. Goalie Daniel Yang ranks third in the RMAC with 9.25 saves per game and is fourth with a .468 save percentage.

Adams State
Adams State nabbed the final RMAC Tournament qualifying position after finishing 1-12 overall and 1-7 in RMAC play. The Grizzlies defeated CSU Pueblo 15-11 back on March 6 for their second RMAC win since the 2017 season and won a head-to-head goal differential tiebreaker over the ThunderWolves to finish fourth thanks to CSU Pueblo only beating Adams by two goals in Pueblo.

Goalie Ryan Berger has performed well despite being under siege at times this season. Berger leads Adams State with 40 ground balls and leads the conference in saves, making 157 stops across 13 contests to tally 12.08 per game. However, Berger's save percentage of .435 ranks sixth in the RMAC.

Matthew Lash is ASU's leading scorer with 31 points (17 goals and 14 assists) and has scored in seven straight games. Dawson Balabanoff has 18 goals to lead the Grizzlies, led by five goals apiece against CSU Pueblo and Tusculum. Junior Kris Owens also has 17 goals.

Defender Logan Brewer leads the team and ranks fourth in the RMAC with 24 caused turnovers and ranks second on the team with 35 ground balls. Sophomore long stick Hunter Bennett has 16 caused turnovers.