GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of three straight and sitting atop the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings with a 3-0 league mark, the Colorado Mesa University women's lacrosse team will look to continue their momentum in a pair of home games this weekend at Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
Now 4-4 overall, the Mavericks will take on CSU Pueblo (1-6, 1-2 RMAC) on Friday at 7 p.m. before hosting Fort Lewis, currently 1-8 overall and 0-3 in the RMAC on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks claimed their first home win of the season and extended their winning streak to three with a comprehensive 17-6 win over Westminster University last Saturday at the CHUF. Full Recap
 
The Mavericks went wire-to-wire in the win, taking a 5-0 lead before implementing the running clock for much of the second half.
 
Courtney Havel and Courteney Murray led a list of nine Maverick goal scorers.  Havel scored four times while Murray recorded her second career hat trick with three goals while adding two assists to put up a career-high five points.
 
Justine Anderson, Ali Bryant and Carson Dickey all scored twice as well.
 
Defensively, Sydney Skinner caused four turnovers while registering four groundballs to double her previous career-highs in both categories.  Freshman goalie Heather Hawkins also made seven saves and allowed just three goals before giving way to Shannon Murphy with the game well in hand early in the fourth quarter.
 
The Mavericks have won 20 straight games over the Griffins since 2015.
 
15 is the Key
 
The Mavs had their best three offensive outputs of the season since beginning conference play, averaging 17 goals in their 3-0 conference start.  They scored 16 goals in the conference-opening win over nationally-ranked Regis on Mar. 14.  The Mavs then scored a season-high 18 goals in the win over UCCS on Mar. 16 before tallying 17 last Saturday against Westminster.  Nine different Mavericks scored in that game, which was also a season-high for the most goal scorers.
 
The Mavs have scored at least 15 goals in each of their four wins this year but have been held below 15 in their four losses.
 
Anderson nears 100
 
Maverick junior Justine Anderson scored two goals in last Saturday's win over Westminster and will enter the weekend just three goals shy of the century mark for her career.
 
She has scored at least one goal in all eight games of this season and in each of her last 13 dating back to 2024, when she was named as the RMAC Attacker of the Year after pacing the conference for goals per game (3.18).

She has had at least one offensive point in 25 straight games.
 
Anderson is second on this year's Maverick squad with 16 goals and also leads the team while ranking second in the RMAC with 14 assists.  She is also tied for fifth in the conference with 30 offensive points and tied for seventh with her 14 goals.
 
If she is able to score three more goals, Anderson will become just the fifth Maverick in program history to reach the 100-goal milestone.  Now CMU assistant coach Kiley Davis was the last Maverick to reach the milestone back in 2023.  Davis ranks fourth in program history with 136 career goals.

Former Mates
 
Maverick senior midfielder Mikki Brown will re-unite with former teammates on Sunday when she faces her former Fort Lewis team for the first time in a Maverick uniform.  Brown spent the first three years of her collegiate career at Fort Lewis before transferring to CMU for her senior campaign.
 
The Newbury Park, California native was second on last year's FLC squad with 17 goals and scored 28 times as a Skyhawk.
 
Brown has two goals and two assists for the Mavericks coming off the bench to see time in six of CMU's games this year.  She has two goals and two assists in a Maverick uniform.
 
Hat-tricked Mavs
 
Five different Maverick players have recorded a combined 13 hat tricks (3 or more goals in a game) this season. 
 
Courtney Havel has five hat tricks and has scored at least two goals in all eight games this year, tallying 30 goals in total to co-lead the RMAC entering the weekend.  Caroline Ohngemach has three hat tricks this season while Justine Anderson and Courtney Murray have two.  Carson Dickey also recorded one at UCCS.

Standings Check
 
The Mavs and the other five RMAC teams will all wrap up the first half of the conference's double round robin schedule this week.
 
CMU leads the RMAC standings with a 3-0 mark, sitting just ahead of Regis and UCCS, who are 3-1.  Those two teams play each other later Thursday (4 p.m.) in what will be a key game in Denver.  The winner will put pressure on the Mavs while the loser will fall even further behind.

UCCS and Regis will both come to Grand Junction in April.
 
CSU Pueblo enters the weekend in fourth place with a 1-2 record while Fort Lewis and Westminster are tied for fifth at 0-3 heading into their Friday head-to-head encounter in Salt Lake City.
 
All teams will play ten games in conference play, facing each of their five opponents home and away.
 
The top four teams in the final standings will qualify for the RMAC Tournament, which will be hosted by the No. 1 seed on Apr. 25 and 27.
 
Defending the CHUF
 
The Mavericks have been historically good at home, posting a winning record on their home turf at Community Hospital Unity Field in each season since and including 2015.  The Mavs have gone 52-16 (.765) at home in the last ten-plus years and are 58-31 (.652) at home throughout the history of the program, which began in 2011. 
 
They were 6-15 in the first four years.
 
The Mavs went 5-2 at home last season and were 6-1 in 2023 and are 1-1 at home so far this season.
 
The Mavs have four home games remaining on their regular season schedule, including the two this weekend.  They are also in position to potentially host the RMAC Tournament for the first time should they end the regular season atop the RMAC standings, where they currently sit.
 
RMAC Records
 
With their win last week, the Mavs have an even better 68-20 (.773) record in RMAC games, including two forfeit wins over Adams State in 2021 and 2022 that are not included in the Mavs' all-time overall record, as those games were declared "no contests" by the NCAA.
 
Eighteen of the Mavs' 20 all-time RMAC losses have come to Regis, the only RMAC team to have beaten the Mavericks this decade.  CMU has not lost an RMAC game to any other current conference member.
 
The Coach
 
The 2025 season is the second with Head Coach Ashley Delaney running the Maverick program. 
 
Delaney is no stranger to the squad and will be in her sixth year overall after serving as an assistant for the previous four seasons from 2020-23.
 
The Mavs went 11-6 last season with Delaney in charge and posted a 33-19 combined record in her four years as an assistant under two previous head coaches. 
 
The Mavs also won a share of the program's only RMAC Regular Season title in 2023 and have been in the RMAC Tournament Championship game in each of the last four years.

Including this season, Delaney has a winning 15-10 record as a head coach.  The Mavericks are a combined 37-23 with her on the coaching staff.
 
She is 2-0 against both CSU Pueblo and Fort Lewis as a head coach.  The Mavs are also 8-0 against both teams in Delaney's time with the CMU program.
 
Know Your Foe
 
CSU Pueblo
 
The ThunderWolves will enter Friday's game with a 1-6 overall record, including a 1-2 conference mark.  They went 0-4 in non-conference games before opening conference play with a large 21-8 home win over Fort Lewis on Mar. 9.  They then fell 18-3 and 21-8 to Regis and UCCS at home last weekend.
 
The ThunderWolves have played their last five games at home and have not been on the road for more than a month since starting the season at Missouri Western State and William Jewell on Feb. 23 and 24.
 
Moira Turpen leads the Pac with 18 goals and 20 points while Syndey Gunnels and Emily Doane both have 16 points to their credit.  Gunnels has scored 14 times while Doane has ten goals.
 
They have been out-scored 120-66 throughout the season.
 
The Pack have thin bench with just 17 players on their roster, 16 of which have played this season.  Only 13 have appeared in more than half of their games.
 
Goalkeeper Breonna Mason has started all seven games and has recorded a .438 save percentage and 17.33 goals against average.  She has made 89 saves in nearly 400 minutes of paying time.  Mason also leads the team with 31 groundballs while Turpen has 15.
 
Reese Wasmund is also key to the Pack's possession game and leads the team with 22 draw controls, one more than Turpen, and has 11 groundballs.  She also has eight caused turnovers with Mason, Turpen and Audrey Allendorf all have seven.
 
Fort Lewis
 
The Skyhawks enter the weekend with a 1-8 overall record and are still in search of their first conference win at 0-3 in league play.  They have lost four straight and will play at Westminster on Friday before meeting the Mavs on Sunday.
 
Their lone win came on Mar. 12 by a 12-11 score at William Jewell.
 
They have been outscored 57-14 in their three conference defeats and fell 18-3 to UCCS and 17-3 to No. 17 Regis at home last week.
 
Jasmine Nguyen leads the Skyhawks with 13 goals and 14 points while Phoebe Ramirez is right behind with 12 goals and 13 points.  Piper Price has four goals and leads the team with five assists while Diamond Velasco has also chipped in with nine points (3G, 6A).
 
Samantha Rodgers leads the team with 38 draw controls, 22 groundballs and 17 caused turnovers.  She is tied for second in the RMAC for caused turnovers.
 
Three different Skyhawks have played in goal with Caley Lay serving as the starter in all nine games.  She has a .371 save percentage and 17.73 goals against average.  Abigail Leighty and Olivia Tilbury have also played in four games apiece.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks have won all 17 previous meetings with CSU Pueblo since the Pack started their program in 2015.  Eight of those wins have come at home.
 
The Mavs have won each of the last six games by at least 11 goals and swept last year's season series with a 15-4 win in Pueblo on Mar. 17 before winning 16-3 at home on Apr. 14.
 
The Mavs have also dominated the series with Fort Lewis in recent years, winning the last 13 meetings to take a 13-11 lead in the all-time series.  The Mavericks surpassed the Skyhawks for the first time in 2016 after the Skyhawks were ahead of the Mavs in the earlier years of both programs after starting their team in 2009, two years before the Mavs did in 2011.
 
CMU has won eighth straight home games over the Skyhawks since 2016 and is 8-5 against FLC all-time at home.
 
CMU will visit both opponents at the end of the regular season, playing Fort Lewis on Apr. 17 in Durango before going to CSU Pueblo two days later.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavs will be on the road for a single game next week, playing at Westminster next Saturday (Apr. 5) at 2:30 p.m. in Salt Lake City, Utah.  That game will be the start of the second half of the RMAC's double round-robin schedule.