GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After going 2-1 in their 5-day homestand that wrapped up Tuesday, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will return to the road and will play at rival Colorado School of Mines in yet another key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena in Golden.
The Mavericks will come into the match with a 12-6 overall and 6-3 RMAC record while the Orediggers are 14-4 overall and just behind the Mavs in
the RMAC standings at 5-3.
Tickets can be purchased through Mines' website.
The match can be seen with a subscription to the
RMAC Network (more information below).
Live statistics for the match can also be found here.
Last Times Out
The Mavericks enjoyed a fine weekend, claiming wins over both Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo on Friday and Saturday, both of which came in four sets. However, the Mavericks could not keep the momentum going on Tuesday night as the Mavs dropped a 4-setter to Westminster in the final match of the 5-day home-stand.
Recaps of all three matches can be found below.
Double Double-Double Weekend
The Mavericks had two players record double-doubles in both of the weekend wins. Against Colorado Christian, both freshmen
Henley Madsen (17 kills, 15 digs) and
Ashlyn Tafoya (47 assists, 10 digs) had double-doubles. Both of Madsen's figures were also season highs as was Tafoya's assist total. Madsen's double-double was the first of her Maverick career.
Tafoya and
Sadie Scoville then both had double-doubles in Saturday's win over CSU Pueblo. Tafoya, who recorded her seventh of the season and third consecutive, had 36 assists and 13 digs in that win. Scoville had 18 kills and 15 digs in the win over her former ThunderWolf teammates.
Scoville then added her team-leading eighth double-double of the campaign with 11 kills and 14 digs against Westminster on Tuesday.
Double Honors
A pair of Maverick freshman
earned RMAC Player of the Week awards, which were announced on Monday after CMU's weekend sweep. Opposite hitter
Henley Madsen claimed the offensive award while
Ashlyn Tafoya claimed the Setter of the Week honor.
Extra special milestone win
CMU Head Coach
Austin Albers picked up a milestone 250
th overall collegiate win on Saturday night as the Mavericks defeated his former CSU Pueblo team. Albers, had been the Pack's head coach for the previous six season, where he won 93 times between 2019-2024. He had also won 145 matches in the five previous seasons from 2014-18 as the head coach at Laramie County (Wyo.) Community College, which inducted Albers, two of his teams and two of his players in the Golden Eagles' Hall of Fame back in August.
Saturday's win also ended the ThunderWolves' 9-match winning streak handed them their first conference loss.
Including his 12-6 mark so far at CMU, Albers now has an overall collegiate record of 250-124, good for a .668 winning percentage..
His official NCAA 4-year coaching record is 105-67, good for a .590 winning percentage.
Albers is just the third CMU Head Volleyball Coach in the last 43 years and replaces Dave Fleming, who departed for the same role at Division I North Texas in December, 2024 after 20 years in charge of the Maverick program. Rusty Crick had served as the Mavs' coach for the previous 23 seasons from 1982-2004.
"Server-o"
Maverick freshman
Sienna Thatcher has found and is shining a new role, suiting up as the Mavs' second libero in each of the last three matches. Taking advantage of a relatively new rule, first allowable in 2024,
Austin Albers has designated Thatcher as a libero, a role traditionally reserved for defensive specialists, who play in the back row in place of another player, typically a middle blocker.
However, that designation allows Thatcher to also serve every six rotations as one of the two liberos is also allowed to serve.
The strategy has certainly paid off as Thatcher had a season-high four service aces in the win over CSU Pueblo, taking 19 total serves. Thatcher, who had regularly been coming off the bench as a full substitute in late-set serving specialist situations, also had an ace on 13 serves against Colorado Christian. She also had an ace while taking a season-high 20 total serves against Westminster.
Listed as an outside hitter on the roster, Thatcher now has 16 aces this season, just one shy of the team-lead, co-held by setter
Ashlyn Tafoya and six-rotation outside hitter
Sadie Scoville. She is also averaging 0.41 per set to rank fifth in the RMAC.
Thatcher has taken 54 of her 113 total serves this season in the last three matches alone and has committed just six service errors.
Hall of Honor
While the current Maverick team will be in Golden on Friday, one of the program's all-time greats Melissa Joseph (Hess)
will be enshrined in the CMU Hall of Honor as part of the Victory Celebration on Friday evening in the Asteria Theatre.
Hess, was a 4-year starter for the Maverick volleyball team from 2011-2014. She earned AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) and D2CCA (Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association) All-America honors along with several All-Region and All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference honors in her career as a Maverick. As a senior in 2014, Hess helped lead the team to a 20-match winning streak that included an RMAC Tournament championship run, which also propelled the Mavericks to earn the No. 1 seed and hosting rights for the NCAA South Central Region Tournament for the first and only time in program history. The Mavericks then advanced to the regional championship match as Hess was named to the All-Tournament Team.
She finished her career with 1,022 kills, 264 total blocks, and 1,191 total points all of which still rank in the top-10 all time in Colorado Mesa history.
About the Orediggers
The Orediggers will enter the weekend— which for them, also includes a Saturday matinee against Westminster— having won three straight and seven of their last eight matches. Their only loss in that stretch was to RMAC co-leading CSU Pueblo by a 3-0 count on Oct. 10, just two days after Mines won an RMAC Regional Pod match-up over MSU Denver, by a 3-0 scoreline in what was their last home match.
Mines started the RMAC slate with a 0-2 record, suffering losses to the other two RMAC tri-leaders MSU Denver and UCCS.
They are 8-1 at home this season.
Five different Orediggers have recorded more than 100 kills this season, a group led by redshirt senior Amanda Donais Dudley, who returned to collegiate volleyball this season after last playing in 2021, when she earned Third Team AVCA All-America honors amongst a host of plaudits before graduating in the spring of 2022.
The 6-foot-2 right side leads the Orediggers with 193 kills (2.84/set) while 6-foot-2 sophomore middle blocker Jenna McLaughlin is right behind with 187 (2.79/set) and is hitting .322 to rank eighth in the RMAC for attack percentage.
Redshirt senior setter Hailee Martinez, who has earned three RMAC Setter of the Week honors in her first year at Mines after previously playing at NAIA Midland (Neb.) and in the RMAC at Western Colorado, leads the RMAC in assists with 661 (9.72/set). She also paces the Orediggers with 23 service aces (0.34/set).
Freshman middle Abbie O'Shay leads the squad with 72 blocks (1.06/set) to rank second in the RMAC while McLaughlin is sixth in the league at 1.01/set (68).
Senior defensive specialist Jada Price leads the team with 244 digs (3.59/set) while junior outside hitter Francesca Nuzzo is right behind with 216 (3.18/set). Donais Dudley also has just over 200 and is averaging 2.96/set.
Series History
The Mavericks hold a 25-19 lead in the series against Mines since both programs made the move to the NCAA Division II ranks in 1992. The Mavs have won the last three matches over the last three years after Mines had won the previous three in 2020 and 2021 as well as in five of the previous six.
The Mavericks are 12-10 against the Orediggers in Golden and have won two of the last three, including last year's 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-23) win.
RMAC Network News
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-pre-view model for the 2025-26 season. This season, all RMAC athletic events broadcast by its 15 full-member institutions and associate members will only be available for purchase via a single-game pass or a monthly or annual subscription. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their programs.
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them with access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants access to a single game for 24 hours.
Additionally, a discounted annual subscription price will be available to students, faculty, and staff of each member institution throughout the year. Purchasing options and pricing for individual RMAC Championships will be announced closer to each event.
Colorado Mesa turns 100
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.
Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit
cmucentury.com
Up Next
The Mavericks will be back in Denver next week, playing in an RMAC Power Pod at MSU Denver and the Auraria Events Center. The Mavs will play at national poll No. 12 MSU Denver on Thursday (Oct. 30) at 6 p.m. before taking on South Dakota Mines on Halloween (Friday), also at a 6 p.m.
Neither will count in the conference standings.
The Mavs won a 4-set home match over MSU Denver, which did count in the conference standings, when the Roadrunners were ranked fifth in the country back on Sept. 26. CMU will meet South Dakota Mines for the first of two times this season before taking on the Hardrockers again in their regular season finale on Nov. 15 in Rapid City, South Dakota.
