GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding their longest winning streak of the season, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will begin the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday night, traveling to Golden for a 7 p.m. quarterfinal round match-up with the Colorado School of Mines in the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena.
 
Both teams finished with 10-4 records in RMAC play although Mines earned the No. 4 seed and the home-court advantage for Tuesday's match thanks to their head-to-head 5-set win over the Mavs back on Oct. 24.
 
The Mavericks, who are the tournament's fifth seed, are 16-9 overall while Mines is 20-6 overall.
 
The match can be seen with a subscription to the RMAC Network (more information below).

Live statistics can be found at the link above.
 
Tickets can be purchased through the RMAC ticketing portal at the link above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks capped the regular season with a pair of 3-set road sweeps over Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines in the state of South Dakota.
 
In Friday's 25-10, 25-10, 25-12 win over Black Hills State in Spearfish, Emma Luce made the start on the right side, finishing with 12 kills on .500 hitting.  Meanwhile, Sadie Scoville registered 11 kills and 10 digs while hitting .550.  Libero Allison Waller recorded 19 digs.
 
The Mavs then went on to claim a 25-23, 25-19, 25-19 Saturday win at South Dakota Mines in Rapid City, knocking the Hardrockers out of the RMAC Tournament while also avenging a Halloween RMAC Power Pod loss in Denver.  Scoville hit .500 and put down 17 kills while recording 12 digs and three service aces while Waller finished with 21 digs.
 
Bracketology
 
The Mavs will be on the top half of the RMAC Tournament bracket.  With a win over Mines, the Mavs would advance to Friday's semifinal round, which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed following the quarterfinals, which is likely to be MSU Denver.
 
The Roadrunners won a share of the RMAC title with a 13-1 conference record and claimed the top seed thanks to a head-to-head win over UCCS, which also won a share of the title while earning the No. 2 seed for this week's tournament.
 
MSU Denver will host eighth-seeded Adams State, which won a 3-way tiebreaker for the last spot with a 7-7 record, in the other top half quarterfinal.
 
On the bottom of the bracket, UCCS will host No. 7 seed Fort Lewis (8-6 RMAC) in the quarterfinals while CSU Pueblo will host a quarterfinal for the first time in program history as the No. 3 seed.  The ThunderWolves defeated Fort Lewis on Saturday to finish with an 11-3 RMAC record.  They will play No. 6 seed Westminster, which went 9-5 in conference play
 
All four RMAC Tournament quarterfinals will be played on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the campuses of the higher seeds.
 
The semifinals will be played on Friday while the championship match will be played on Saturday at the same location.
 
Stay tuned to the RMAC Tournament Central and the Mavs' schedule page for all up to date information including match times and locations, ticket purchasing options, live stat links and information about live streaming coverage on the RMAC Network.
 
Tournament Streaks
 
The Mavericks' win over Black Hills State clinched a spot in this week's RMAC Tournament.  The Mavs have now qualified in 14 straight seasons, dating back to 2011, which is the second longest active streak in the conference (MSU Denver; 26, 2000-25)
 
Additionally, Austin Albers has now qualified as an RMAC Head Coach in all seven years of his tenure.  He led CSU Pueblo to the RMAC Tournament in all six of his seasons at CSU Pueblo from 2019-24 before taking over the Maverick program this season.
 
Semifinal Streak
 
The Mavericks will also be looking to extend their streak of RMAC Tournament quarterfinal wins and semifinal qualification streak to six.  They have won their quarterfinal match-up in each of the past five seasons, defeating Colorado Christian three straight times from 2021-23 and Westminster last year after defeating UCCS in the 2020-21 tournament, played in the spring of 2021.
 
This year's trip to Golden will mark CMU's first RMAC Tournament quarterfinal as the true away team since 2019.  The Mavs have been a top four seed in each of the past five seasons and hosted quarterfinal round match-ups in all but 2022, when all eight teams went to one location for the quarterfinal round.
 
Double Honors
 
The Mavericks doubled up on RMAC Player of the Week honors that were announced by the conference on Monday afternoon.  Sadie Scoville was named as the offensive player of the week for the second straight week and the third time this season while Allison Waller received the defensive honor.
 
Both Mavericks are seniors who played in their final regular season matches of their careers.
 
Scoville averaged 4.67 kills, 0.83 aces and 5.67 points per set while hitting .520 and registering double-doubles in both weekend matches.  Waller averaged 6.67 digs set, nearly three more than her season-long average of 4.04 and helped the Mavericks hold Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines to a combined .126 team attack percentage.
 
Efficiency pays
 
The Mavericks committed just two hitting errors and hit .460 in Friday's win over Black Hills State.  The season-best mark is the Mavs' fourth best single-match attack percentage in the rally-scoring era (2001-Present).
 
The Mavs also hit a strong .339 in Saturday's win at South Dakota Mines and end the regular season with a .253 mark, the second best mark in the RMAC.
 
Century Block Watch

Aesha Alrashed registered six more blocks in the South Dakota trip, raising her season total to 98 and moving her season average to 1.07 per set.  She now ranks third in the RMAC for total blocks and fourth for average.
 
Alrashed is now just two 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).
 
Moving up a spot
 
Allison Waller's 40 digs over the weekend raised her career total to 1,241 and moved her past former teammate Sabrina VanDeList for the No. 7 spot in program history during the rally scoring era.  With 40 more digs in the post season, Waller would match Stacy Vogel's No.6 ranking total of 1,281.
 
Regional Rankings
 
Tuesday's match-up with Mines will also be big from an NCAA Tournament qualification standpoint.   The Mavericks were ranked ninth in last week's official NCAA Division II South Central Regional rankings, currently one spot out of what it might take to get in.
 
Mines was ranked fourth.
 
Another set of rankings will also be released this 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.
 
It is worth nothing, that the results of Tuesday's quarterfinals will not be considered in this week's rankings but will in the final selection process.
 
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 shared the RMAC regular season title with Angelo State, was ranked seventh.  Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Kingsville currently book-end the Mavs.
 
Both Texas Woman's and Texas A&M-Kingsville went 0-2 last week while the other eight teams in the top ten went a combined 13-1 last week.
 
About the Orediggers
 
The Orediggers capped the regular season with weekend wins over Chadron State and Regis and have won four of their last five to reach the 20-win mark. 
 
They went 11-2 at home during the regular season.
 
They rank fifth in the RMAC with a .215 team attack percentage and have one of the RMAC's top defenses, leading the league in opponent hitting percentage (.149) while ranking second in blocking at 2.24 per set.
 
Sophomore middle blocker Jenna McLaughlin leads the team with 286 total kills (2.92/set) and is hitting .331 to rank eighth in the conference.  Right side Amanda Donais Dudley has recorded 236 kills (2.74/set) after returning to collegiate volleyball as a graduate student following a 3-year hiatus.  She was a AVCA Third Team All-American in the fall of 2021 and has 1,132 career kills in five seasons, including the COVID shortened season, played in the spring of 2021.  Dudley had 16 kills and seven blocks in the earlier match against the Mavs this season.
 
Redshirt senior setter Hailee Martinez has 968 assists and leads the conference with her 9.78 per set average.  She also leads the Oredigger squad with 27 service aces (0.23/set).
 
McLaughlin leads the team with 94 blocks (0.96/set) while freshman middle Abbie O'Shay has 86 and an even higher per set average of 1.08, the third best average in the RMAC.
 
McLaughlin ranks ninth the RMAC for kills per set and sits eighth for total points per set (3.54).

Senior Jada Price and junior Francesca Nuzzo lead the team in digging.  Price has 394 and a 3.98 per set average, eighth best in the league.  Nuzzo has 327 (3.30/set).
 
Series & Postseason History
 
The Mavericks hold a 25-20 lead over Mines in the rivalry during the NCAA Division II era (1992-Present).  The Mavs had won the last three matches in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before Mines came from two sets down to win 16-14 in the decisive fifth of this year's regular season meeting on Oct. 24 in Golden.
 
The Mavs are now 12-11 against the Orediggers in Golden during that time.
 
However, the Orediggers hold a 5-2 series lead in the RMAC Tournament.  The last four post-season matches with the Orediggers have all gone Mines' way, with the last three all coming in 5-set decisions.
 
The last post-season match-up between the teams was in the semifinals of the 2021 RMAC Tournament, a match Mines won in five sets as MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center.
 
Their last RMAC Tournament quarterfinal match-up with the Orediggers came in 2019, when then the fifth-seeded Mavs lost in five sets and 15-13 in the fifth to the fourth-seeded Orediggers in Golden.  That was the last time that the Mavs opened the RMAC Tournament with a true road match.
 
The Orediggers also won the 2015 RMAC Tournament title match in Golden and knocked the Mavs out of the 2012 tournament in a 3-set sweep in Golden.
 
CMU's last post-season win over the Orediggers came in the semifinals of the 2008 tournament in Kearney, Nebraska.  Mines had won a 2005 tournament quarterfinal match there.
 
The only previous RMAC Tournament match-up in the Division II era was back in 1993, when CMU won in Golden in three sets.  The tournament was conducted in a very different format at that time.
 
RMAC Network News
 
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-per-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.
 
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 win on Tuesday night, they will improve to 17-9 and advance to the RMAC Tournament semifinals for the sixth straight season on Friday.
 
If the Mavericks lose, they will fall to 16-10 and await next Monday's (Nov. 24) NCAA Division II Tournament selection show to see if they will qualify for the tournament for the fifth straight year.
 
The All-RMAC teams are also slated to be released on Thursday.