GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will look to cap the regular season on a high note as they head to South Dakota for a pair of critical Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matches.
 
The Mavs, 14-9 overall and 8-4 in RMAC play, and ranked ninth in the South Central Region will enter the weekend in a 3-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings.  They will play at Black Hills State (6-18, 2-10 RMAC) on Friday at 6 p.m. in Spearfish before heading to Rapid City to face South Dakota Mines (10-14, 7-5 RMAC) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
 
Both matches can be streamed with a subscription to the RMAC Network (more information below). 
 
Live statistics for both matches can be found at the links above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks had a strong home weekend, claiming a 3-set Parent's Night sweep over Chadron State on Friday before winning a 4-set Senior Night match over Regis on Saturday evening.
 
Full recaps of each match can be seen by clicking on the links above.
 
The wins snapped a 4-match slide and kept the Mavericks in contention for a home playoff match while putting them on the precipice of clinching a spot in the RMAC Tournament.
 
Sadie Scoville led the Mavericks offensively in both matches and put down a combined 41 kills (5.86/set) while fellow outside hitter Karsen Breeding had 22.
 
Libero Allison Waller also tallied 38 digs (5.43/set) while freshman setter Ashlyn Tafoya registered 50 assists (7.14/set) and 22 digs (3.14/set).
 
Special Senior Night
 
Maverick outside hitter Sadie Scoville recorded a career-high smashing 29 kills in Saturday's Senior Night win over Regis.  That total was eight more than her former career-high of 21 turned in last year while at CSU Pueblo and surpassed her CMU high of 19.

Scoville's 29 kills, which helped her earn her second RMAC Offensive Player of the Week accolade this season, were the most for any CMU single player in a single match since Sept. 30, 2017 when Mackenzie Edwards put down 33 against Fort Lewis.
 
The kill total was also equal to the fourth highest in CMU lore during the rally-scoring era (2001-Present) and the highest 4-set total in the RMAC this year.
 
Quest for 1,000
 
Scoville has also crept up on the 1,000 collegiate kill milestone.  She now has 952 kills in her collegiate career and is now just 48 away from that milestone.  The Pleasant Grove, Utah native had 678 kills in three seasons at CSU Pueblo, earning All-RMAC honors in each while also claiming AVCA Honorable Mention All-America accolades in 2023, when she had 291 (2.80/set).
 
She leads the Mavs with 274 kills (3.19/set) this season to rank eighth in the RMAC for her per set average.
 
Century Block Watch

Aesha Alrashed registered eight more blocks last weekend, raising her season total to 92 and ticking up her per set average to 1.07, which puts her third in the RMAC statistics.

She is now just eighth blocks away from becoming the first Maverick in seven years to reach triple figures in a the same season.  All-American Kasie Gilfert had a rally-scoring era school-record 123 in 2018, the same season that Camille Smith recorded 111.
 
If Alrashed is able to get to the milestone, she would become just the tenth different Maverick to do so in the rally-scoring era (2001-Present).
 
Tight Tournament Status
 
As mentioned throughout the season, the RMAC standings have been incredibly competitive this season.
 
Entering the final weekend, nine teams are fighting for the eight RMAC tournament spots and only three in co-leaders UCCS and MSU Denver and third place CSU Pueblo have mathematically clinched a spot.  Those two teams are 11-1 in conference play and will both be seeded either No. 1 or 2 in next week's tournament.  They can both win a share of the RMAC title although the MSU Denver Roadrunners would win a seeding tiebreaker thanks to their head-to-head win over the Mountain Lions.
 
CMU handed the Roadrunners their lone conference loss on Sept. 26.
 
CSU Pueblo is third in the conference standings at 9-3 and has a distant shot at claiming a share of the RMAC title but can be no higher than the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament after losing to both of the co-leaders as well as CMU.
 
The Mavericks are part of a 3-way tie for fourth alongside the Colorado School of Mines and Fort Lewis but would lose any head-to-head or 3-way tiebreakers with those two teams after falling on the road to both the Orediggers and Skyhawks this season.  Larger four, five, six or even seven-way tie-breakers are more complicated and still possible scenarios.
 
Westminster, Adams State and South Dakota Mines are all currently tied for seventh at 7-5 while the other six RMAC teams have been eliminated from tournament contention.
 
The Mavericks can clinch a spot in the RMAC Tournament with a win in either match this weekend but will likely need to win both matches and get a little bit of help to move into a top four seeding position, which would allow them to host an RMAC Tournament match on Tuesday.
 
CSU Pueblo will close out the season on Saturday, hosting Fort Lewis in a match that will almost certainly prove critical to the seeding process.  South Dakota Mines will host Westminster on Friday night in an even more pivotal match-up, which could set up a massive match against the Mavs on Saturday from a lot of different perspectives.
 
Adams State is playing on the road at both of the co-leaders this weekend.
 
Regional Rankings
 
While fighting the battle for the RMAC Tournament qualification and seeding, the Mavericks are also fighting for their NCAA Tournament hopes.
 
The Mavericks were slotted ninth in Wednesday's official NCAA Division II South Central Regional rankings, currently one spot out of what it might take to get in.  The Mavs were also ranked amongst the top ten in the initial set of rankings that were released for the first time of the season last week.  The debut rankings were released in alphabetical order.
 
Another set of rankings will also be released next Wednesday leading in to the official NCAA Tournament selection show, which will air on NCAA.com on Monday, Nov. 24 at 5:30 p.m. MST.
 
Eight teams from the South Central Region, made up of both the RMAC and Lone Star Conferences will be selected.  The champions of each league's post-season tournament will earn automatic spots and can "steal" bids away from higher ranked teams.  The remaining at-large spots and the 1-8 seeding will be determined by the final rankings, done by a regional advisory committee and oversaw by the NCAA Division II Women's Volleyball committee.
 
Both conferences currently have five teams in the rankings with MSU Denver leading the way in the No. 1 spot ahead of West Texas A&M and UCCS.  The Colorado School of Mines is ranked fourth while Angelo State is fifth.  CSU Pueblo is sixth while Lubbock Christian, which currently leads the LSC standings by a half-match over West Texas A&M and Angelo State is ranked seventh.  Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Kingsville currently book-end the Mavs.
 
Following confirmation of the availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships and the application of any nullification, the following required selection criteria shall be applied in no particular order by the committees:
 
(1) Division II in-region winning percentage.
(2) Division II winning percentage.
(3) Division II strength of schedule (opponents' average winning percentage and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage).
(4) Division II head-to-head competition.
(5) Results versus Division II common opponents.
 
The Division II Championships Committee approved the following three criteria for Division II women's volleyball:
(1) In-region Rating Percentage Index (RPI).
(2) Kevin Pauga Index (KPI).
(3) Late-season performance (last 10 matches).
 
Although unofficial, Inkblot Sports (Philip Myers) tracks this data on a daily basis and does weekly predictions of what the rankings will show to subscribers and through his Twitter account.  He has proven to be quite accurate with these predictions over the years for multiple sports.
 
He accurately picked nine of the ten teams in the South Central regional rankings this week and had each of the top five teams accurately ranked.  He did have CMU in the No. 8 spot this week.
 
Overall, he had 78 of the 80 regionally ranked teams accurately predicated to be in the top 10 of each of the eight Division II regions.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena, something they did last weekend.
 
With their weekend wins over Chadron State and Regis,  the Mavs are 7-2 at home this season and have posted an impressive 72-9 home record and .889 winning percentage since the start of 2018, losing no more than one home match in each of the previous seven seasons.
 
The Mavs won their last ten home matches of 2024 and were 12-1 at home last season.
 
The Mavs were 13-1 at home in 2023 and went 8-1 in 2022. 
 
The Mavs also went 9-1 at home in the fall of 2021.  The Mavs also went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season while winning the RMAC title.  In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.

The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 2016 and 2017.  CMU was also an impressive 15-1 in 2014 en route to an RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last 14 seasons since and including 2012, going 123-26 (.826) since the start of 2012.
 
They are 108-17 (.864) in their last 125 home matches since 2014.
 
About the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets
 
The Yellow Jackets are 6-18 overall and have a 2-10 conference mark.  They have lost five straight and nine of their last ten with a Oct. 21 home win over Chadron State as the lone exception to that run.
 
Emily Freeland and Randi Wellhoefer have combined for more than half of the team's kills.  Freeland has 236 (2.74/set) and also leads the team in total points with 268 (3.12/set).  Wellhoefer has 218 kills (2.53/set).
 
Setters Elena Atkinson (4.60/set) and Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner (4.00/set) run the offensive attack.  Tuioti-Mariner also leads the team with 24 aces (0.31/set) while Zoie Husman has 23 (0.27/set).
 
Jaeda Davis-Goilliher leads the Yellow Jackets with 55 blocks (0.64/set) while Peyton McLeod has 52, but a higher per set average of 0.83.
 
Ellie Thomas has 405 digs (4.71/set) to rank third in the RMAC.
 
About the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers
 
The Hardrockers will enter a Friday night home match against Westminster with a 10-14 overall record and are currently in a 3-way tie for seventh in the RMAC standings at 7-5 and just one match behind the Mavs and two others for fourth.
 
They have been playing their best volleyball as of late, winning five of their last six matches.  Four of those five wins, including the Oct. 31 RMAC Power Pod win over the Mavs, have been in straight sets.  The only loss in that stretch was to then No. 12 ranked MSU Denver at the RMAC Power Pod.
 
Lexi Glendenning and Morgan Daugherty have combined for 501 kills this season with Glendenning putting down 268 (3.53/set) to rank fourth in the RMAC.  Daugherty has 233 (2.91/set) and ranks ninth.  They are also hitting .237 and .240, respectively.
 
Defensively, Hannah Benes is once again, one of the top liberos in the conference and has recorded 425 digs (4.94/set) to lead the conference as the only Hardrocker to play in all 86 of their sets this season.  She also leads the team with 25 service aces (0.29/set).  She was the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Year last season.
 
Kiera Walsh leads the team with 58 blocks in 69 sets, good for an average of 0.94 per.   The team is averaging 2.06 per set to sit third in the conference.
 
Setter Hannah Joseph has started 21 of the team's 24 matches and has tallied 604 assists (7.19/set).   She ranks sixth in the RMAC.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have dominated the series histories with both South Dakota opponents.
 
They Mavs are 13-1 all-time against Black Hills State and have won the last eight match-ups.  They Yellow Jackets' lone win in the rivalry was in five sets in 2016.  The Mavs have won in their five other trips to Spearfish.
 
The Mavs had also won the first 11 match-ups against South Dakota Mines although the Hardrockers have won the last two.  CMU is 6-1 against the Hardrockers in Rapid City.  South Dakota Mines capped the 2024 regular season with a 5-set win there.  The Hardrockers then won a 3-set RMAC Power Pod match on Halloween this season.
 
RMAC Network News
 
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-pre-view model for the upcoming 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
 
If the Mavericks qualify for the RMAC Tournament, they will find out their seeding and quarterfinal match-up on Saturday night.   The tournament then begins on Tuesday (Nov. 18) evening with the top four seeds hosting quarterfinal matches.
 
The highest remaining seed after the quarterfinal round will then host the semifinals and championship next Friday (Nov. 21) and Saturday (Nov. 22), respectively.