The No. 21 Colorado Mesa women's basketball team is set to open the season this weekend at the CCA Canadian Tip-off Classic in Langley, B.C. They are scheduled to take on three opponents from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) in three consecutive days.
 
THE NEWBIES
Freshman guard Hallie Clark and redshirt junior Sheridan Liggett figure to play a lot in the backcourt. Clark will likely start game one for the Mavericks at the point after a storied high school career in Alaska. The Wasilla native was the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state after averaging 25.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 2.8 rebounds per game as a senior.
 
Liggett comes to the Mavericks after spending three seasons at Division I Seattle University. The Mapleton, Utah native played in every game her freshman and redshirt sophomore seasons, averaging 19 minutes and 4.1 points per game a season ago.
 
WELCOME BACK
The Mavericks will get a pair of players back from injury for the start of this season. Redshirt sophomore guard Mason Rowland will be back in the starting lineup after a season ending injury in the third game last season. Rowland, the RMAC Freshman of the Year during the 2023-24 season, was averaging 15.7 points per game before her injury.
 
Redshirt junior Tamryn Blom figures to add size and rebounding ability to the lineup this season after she suffered a season ending injury early in training camp last season. Blom finished top-15 in the country in rebounding in her final season at Western Wyoming CC.
 
Graduate student Tia Slade will also make her return to the floor after missing the past two seasons with the same injury. Slade started all 29 games for the Mavericks in the 2022-23 season and averaged 7.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists that season.
 
RECORD WATCHING
Olivia Reed Thyne has nearly re-written the record books already but several more should fall at some point during the season. Reed Thyne has already ascended to No.2 in career points with 1,596 and is 334 points from tying Tonya Stites for the top spot. She is also just 404 points away from becoming the Mavericks first-ever 2,000-point scorer.
 
The senior from Windsor, Colo. is 40 made field goals away from tying Stites for career field goals made and will likely set that record in fewer total games than Stites (110 games) did, Reed Thyne is at 92 total games.
 
The final record that will fall this season is career rebounding. She is currently third on the all-time chart and trails No. 2 Pam DeCosta by 38 rebounds and No. 1 Tonya Stites by 58 rebounds. If she records 26 rebounds this weekend, she would become just the third player in Maverick history to pull down 1,000 rebounds.

CAREER SCORING

1. Tonya Stites, 1,920
2. Olivia Reed Thyne, 1,596

CAREER FIELD GOALS

1. Tonya Stites, 699
2. Olivia Reed Thyne, 659 

CAREER REBOUNDS

1. Tonya Stites, 1,032
2. Pam DeCosta, 1,012
3. Olivia Reed Thyne, 974

 
SCOUTING WESTERN WASHINGTON
Western Washington begins the season receiving votes in the Preseason WBCA Coaches' Poll after being projected as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion in the preseason poll. The Vikings edged out rival Central Washington for the top spot in the poll with Saint Martin's checking in at No. 3.
 
The Vikings are coached by the legendary Carmen Dolfo who has accumulated 709 wins in her career at Western Washington. Dolfo and the Vikings are coming off a season where they went 18-11 and narrowly missed out on the NCAA West Region Tournament.
 
Western Washington is led by the tandem of Demi Dykstra and Aspen Garrison. Dykstra, a 5-9 junior, averaged 11.6 points per game and reached double figures in 15 of 26 contests and went over 20 points on three occasions. Garrison, a 6-3 forward, started all 31 games and averaged 9.9 points and shot 49.6 percent from the floor.
 
Libby Stump returns to the lineup as well after missing portions of the season with injuries. The University of Montana transfer averaged 8.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists prior to the injuries.
 
Colorado Mesa owns the only previous meeting between the two teams with a 77-62 win on November 17, 2006, in Gunnison, Colo.
 
SCOUTING SIMON FRASER
Simon Fraser, the only NCAA School in Canada, was picked to finish in seventh place in the GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after going 14-13 last season and missing the GNAC Tournament.
 
The Red Leafs are spearheaded by longtime head coach Bruce Langford who is entering his 23^rd season. Langford is 514-205 all-time and has led Simon Fraser to the NCAA Tournament three times including runs to the Sweet 16 in 2013 and 2017.
 
Rachel Loukes will be asked to join the starting lineup this season after coming off the bench in 27 games last season for the Red Leafs. Loukes averaged 8.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and had a 15-point, 13-rebound performance against Western Oregon last season.
 
The Mavericks own a 3-1 record against our neighbors to the North. They defeated the Red Leafs 77-60 on November 4, 2023 in British Columbia as a part of CCA Canadian Tip-off Classic.
 
SCOUTING SAINT MARTIN'S
Saint Martin's was picked to finish third in the loaded GNAC this year after coming off an 18-1 record last season, 9-9 in the conference. The Saints made a run late last season during the GNAC Championships upsetting third-seeded Central Washington in the opening round 60-52 then toppled second-seeded Montana State Billings 50-48 in the semifinals before falling to Alaska Anchorage in the final 75-59.
 
The Saints are led by Natalie Marlowe in her third season with the program. She inherited a sub-.500 team and has turned them into one of the contenders for the GNAC Title.
 
The tandem of Jada Travis and Kiana Rios will keep the Saints in every matchup they contest as both were selected to the GNAC Preseason Team. Travis was the GNAC Freshman of the Year after averaging 14 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists in her first collegiate season.
 
Rios added 13.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game during her junior season. The Warden, Wash. native had four double-doubles and had a 14-point, nine-rebound, four-assist in the aforementioned upset of Montana State Billings in the GNAC Tournament.
 
Colorado Mesa is 2-0 against Saint Martin's with both matchups coming in Saint George. The most recent win came on November 22, 2019, a 56-31 win in Burns Arena.
 
THE STAFF
Taylor Wagner enters his 14th season at Colorado Mesa in 2024-25, the second-longest tenure in program history. His 294 career wins are also second-most in the program. Wagner made the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three years as coach, including runs to the Elite Eight in 2013 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2014. He has led his team to eight total NCAA Tournament appearances ('13, '14, '15, '19, '20, '22, '24, '25).
 
During his first season, Wagner took a team that finished the previous season 13-14 and turned it into a 31-2 team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight, defeating Midwestern State 69-65 in front of 1,975 fans in Brownson Arena to secure the South Central Region title.
 
That Mavericks team set an RMAC record for the most consecutive regular-season victories at 25, spanning from Nov. 8, 2013 to Feb. 28, 2014. Wagner won his 100th game at the helm of the Mavericks on Feb. 19, 2016 against Chadron State. It took him just 118 games to reach the mark.
 
Wagner is on the precipice of becoming the Mavericks all-time wins leader this season as he needs five wins to tie Steve Kirkham and six wins would give him 300 in his time at Colorado Mesa along with the top spot on the coaching table.
 
ALL-TIME COACHING WINS

1. Steve Kirkham, 299-157
2. Taylor Wagner, 294-90
3. Timi Brown, 58-79
4. Jack Scott, 49-59
5. Roger Walters, 38-42

 
Assistant coach Hannah Pollart is starting her 10th season as the Mavs' top assistant coach, working primarily with the post players. Pollart played one season for the Mavericks, helping CMU reach the South Central Regional championship game in 2013-14. She averaged 7.2 points and 6.1 rebounds.
 
Before transferring to CMU, Pollart played two seasons at Northeastern Junior College, where she was an All-Region IX player and an NJCAA Academic All-American. She played her junior season at Cameron University.
 
Jaylyn Duran is entering her second season on the coaching staff. Duran played at CMU from 2015-2019, averaging 12.6 points for her career, including 18.6 points as a senior, when she was the RMAC Player of the Year and a WBCA honorable mention All-America selection.
A CMU graduate with a degree in Kinesiology/ Fitness & Health Promotion, Duran scored 1,352 points, eighth in program history, and is first all-time in 3-point field goals made (265).
 
UP NEXT
After taking a week off, Colorado Mesa will be on the road for the D2 Conference Challenge event in Texas. They will take on West Texas A&M on Friday November 14 at 1pm before a matchup with Texas Permian Basin on Sunday November 16 at 11am.