GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – As the No. 2 seed, Colorado Mesa women's lacrosse will seek to advance to the championship game for the fourth year in a row and potentially win the first tournament title in program history at the RMAC Women's Lacrosse Tournament this weekend in Denver.

The Mavericks (10-5, 8-2 RMAC) finished second in the RMAC in the regular season behind tournament hosts and heavy favorites Regis (16-1, 10-0) RMAC, the No. 6-ranked team in the nation. Colorado Mesa will open the tournament with a semifinal game against No. 3 seed UCCS (7-8, 5-5 RMAC) on Friday night at 7 p.m., hoping to advance to Sunday afternoon's title game at 2 p.m.

The game will be available to stream on a pay-per-view basis on the RMAC Network, with day passes available for $9.95. The game will also be available to follow along on live stats.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa closed out the regular season with two wins, defeating Division II independent Dominican 19-10 and RMAC rivals Westminster 11-4.

RECAPS: Dominican | Westminster

Justine Anderson scored 10 goals across the two matches, with six goals against the Penguins before a four-goal game against Westminster. Carson Dickey had a seven-point outing against Dominican (four goals and three assists) before adding her fifth hat trick of the season with three goals against the Griffins.

…Of The Year
While Justine Anderson's 10 goals won her an RMAC Offensive Player of the Week award, the biggest award of the week was yet to come for the Maverick sophomore.

Anderson was named the RMAC Attacker of the Year on Wednesday when the conference announced their all-conference teams and special award winners. Anderson is the first RMAC Attacker of the Year in program history. With 51 goals this season, Anderson leads the RMAC with 3.4 goals per game.

All-Conference Release

The sophomore wasn't the only RMAC special award winner for the Maverick program. Redshirt senior defender Kelsey Viger won her second straight RMAC Defensive Player of the Year award, becoming the first two-time special award winner in the history of CMU women's lacrosse. Viger is CMU's all-time career leader with 142 caused turnovers and leads the conference this season with 37.

Beyond the special award winners, other Mavericks to receive recognition included defender Larkin Daly as a first team selection, attacker Carson Dickey and midfielder Peyton Ivey as second team selections and Caroline Ohngemach, Elizabeth Renken, Emme Rezoski and Taylor Scott as honorable mention picks.

Murphy Magic
Goalie Shannon Murphy was on her game throughout last weekend, finishing with double digit saves in both of CMU's wins.

Murphy made a season-high 14 saves in the win over Dominican, then set a season high with a .733 save percentage by making 11 stops against only four goals conceded in the win over Westminster. The two performances were Murphy's two highest single game save totals of the season and her third and fourth games of the year with double-digit saves.

Murphy, who has played all but seven minutes of the 2024 season in the cage for the Mavericks, has maintained a 9.87 goals-against average this season, the second lowest in the RMAC behind Goalie of the Year Elizabeth Myotte of Regis. Murphy ranks fourth in the conference in both saves per game and save percentage.

RMAC Tournament History
Colorado Mesa will be making its 10^th RMAC Tournament appearance. The Mavericks have an all-time record of 6-9 in the tournament and will be looking to win the tournament for the first time in program history.

The Mavericks have won their first game and lost their second game in each of the last six RMAC Tournaments. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, that got the Mavericks to the semifinal round of the tournament when six teams qualified for the RMAC postseason. In the last three seasons (2021-23), the tournament has shifted to a four-team tournament, and the Mavs have won in the semifinals and lost in the tournament title game in each of the last three seasons.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is unranked in the IWLCA national poll. The Mavs are 0-5 against nationally ranked opponents, falling to No. 7 Grand Valley State, No. 8 Maryville and No. 11 UIndy while losing twice to No. 6 Regis (the RMAC's only ranked program). The Mavericks are 10-0 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.

The Field
Colorado Mesa will play No. 3 UCCS in the tournament semifinals. UCCS went 5-5 in RMAC conference play, losing twice to Regis and CMU, beating Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo twice each, and splitting two matchups with Westminster. UCCS won the tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed over Westminster due to beating the Griffins by four goals and losing to them by just one goal. The Mountain Lions have played CMU tough as well, taking the Mavericks to overtime in Colorado Springs on April 19.  

UCCS is led by First Team All-RMAC attacker Julia Patrick, who ranks fourth in the RMAC with 43 goals and fifth with 53 points. 2024 RMAC Freshman of the Year Sarah Urbanic has 24 goals for the Mountain Lions while last year's Freshman of the Year, Brielle Fannin, had a solid sophomore season with 22 goals and 14 assists.

No. 1 seed Regis will be heavy favorites to win their fifth consecutive RMAC Tournament, having previously won the crown in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The last three of those championship game victories came against Colorado Mesa, while the 2019 triumph came over now-Division I Lindenwood.

The Rangers feature the conference's leading scorer in Maggie Schipfer (53 goals, 68 points), the RMAC Midfielder of the Year in Bailey Truex (50 goals) and the Goalie of the Year in Elizabeth Myotte (6.46 goals-against average) among their seven first team All-RMAC selections. Shea Murphy (38 goals) and Lily Ferguson (33 goals) give Regis a multi-layered, high-powered attack, while face off specialist Megan Bunker (130 draw controls) gives the Rangers plenty of extra possessions. Terah Skillings and Madeline Schallmoser lead Regis defensively as the Rangers allow only 7.3 goals per game.

No. 4 seed Westminster will try to spring the upset against top-seeded Regis. The Griffins feature five Second Team All-RMAC players, including leading attacking options Shaina Shoughro (29 goals) and Hannah Kelleher (15 goals), defenders Marianna Dick (32 ground balls, 30 caused turnovers) and Lindsay Thielen (24 ground balls, 18 caused turnovers) and goalie Gabriella Cheminant (12.19 goals-against average).

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.