DENVER— Courtney Havel scored six goals and recorded eight points while Justine Anderson scored four times as the Colorado Mesa University women's lacrosse team stunned the nation's 11^th-ranked Regis University Rangers on Friday evening, recording a 16-11 win in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
 
The win was the Mavs' first in 19 all-time away games against the perennial RMAC powers and was just CMU's second in 34 all-time meetings with the Rangers, who were in the NCAA Division II Tournament semifinals last year.
 
The historic victory was also the Mavs' first over a nationally-ranked foe since defeating the then fourth-ranked Rangers in overtime at home in Grand Junction on Apr. 23, 2023 to help claim a share of that year's RMAC Regular Season title.  CMU had lost the last ten games against nationally-ranked foes, including in each of their last three games this season, but snapped that stretch with Friday's win.
 
Friday's triumph also helped avenge four Ranger victories in the past four RMAC Tournament Championship games, all of which have been played here.
 
Both teams are now 2-4 overall as the Mavericks took a share of the early RMAC lead alongside UCCS, who they will play on Sunday at noon in Colorado Springs, and CSU Pueblo.
 
UCCS (4-1) won 16-12 over Westminster on Friday.  CSU Pueblo, 1-4 overall, won 21-8 over Fort Lewis last Sunday.
 
Havel's six goals are tied for eighth most in CMU single-game history.  Her eight points are tied for fifth most and is just one off the school-record of nine, held by four different players.
 
The junior out of Lake Oswego, Oregon, took over the game in the second quarter, scoring three of her goals in a span of just two minutes and two seconds as the Mavs went on a 5-0 run to seize a 7-2 lead and control of the game.  She also scored an earlier fourth quarter goal giving CMU a 2-1 lead after Anderson had tied the game at near the end of the first quarter.
 
The Rangers then tied the game at 2 with 9:24 to go in the second quarter.
 
Havel then triggered a 5-0 Maverick run three minutes later as CMU scored seven goals in the second quarter to open an 8-3 lead.
 
Fort Lewis transfer Mikki Brown, who had also never defeated Regis, also scored her first two goals in a Maverick uniform during the quarter before Justine Anderson tallied two goals 57 seconds apart early in the third quarter giving the Mavs a 10-4 lead.
 
Caroline Ohngemach and Havel then stretched the lead to 12-6 in the third quarter before the Mavs continued to stretch the lead to as many as seven (15-8) thanks to goals by Anderson, Havel and Ella Freemon.
 
The Rangers would score the next three to close the gap to 15-11 with 2:57 left before Carson Dickey shut the door on any heroics scoring the game's final goal on a Havel assist with 1:49 remaining.
 
The Mavericks finished the game with a 38-29 advantage in total shots as freshman net-minder Heather Hawkins made 11 saves in a complete game effort to register her first career win.
 
Ohngemach recorded seven draw controls while Ali Bryant had six.  Bryant also had four groundballs and tree caused turnovers and added a goal at the offensive end.  Draw specialist Emme Rezoski also had four draw controls.
 
Becky Goetsch had three goals and three assists to lead the Rangers.