GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team saw a set of winning streaks come to an end as they dropped their regular season finale by a 10-9 margin in overtime to visiting Westminster University on Saturday afternoon here at Community Hospital Field.
The Mavericks trailed 8-6 in the third quarter and 9-8 late in the fourth before
Erich Petersen scored the game tying goal with 1:22 left in regulation off an assist from his brother Julius.
The Mavs then withstood one final Griffin possession in regulation and won the opening faceoff of overtime before the Griffins came up with a stop. Duke DeVault then scored the Griffins' game-winner in transition to lift the visitors to the stunner.
CMU fell to 10-3 overall and to 7-1 in the Peach Belt Conference Rocky Mountain Division as their 6-game overall and 7-game division winning streaks came to an end. The Mavs also saw a 19-game home field winning streak come to an end. That streak had lasted nearly four years as the Griffins were the last team to beat the Mavs at the CHUF on May 8, 2021 in the RMAC Tournament Championship game.
The Mavs had also won 31 straight conference home games since Feb. 20, 2016 and had not lost a regular season home game in more than five years winning 20 in a row since 2019 prior to Saturday.
The Mavs used a 3-goal run in the second quarter to build a 6-3 lead before the Griffins scored five straight goals, including the first four of the third quarter to take a 8-6 lead with 5:23 left.
The Mavs then closed the gap to 8-7 on
Connor Jensen's third goal of the game with 4:08 remaining in the third quarter before Logan Smit tallied his second of the game with 11:03 to tie the game at eight.
The Griffins then went up 9-8 nearly three minutes later through Sean Gragnola before the Petersen brothers connected on a nice feed in the middle to level the game and eventually send the Mavs to overtime for the first time this season.
CMU finished with a 60-43 advantage in total shots throughout the afternoon but ran into a hot goaltender as Griffin netminder Christain Jones made 17 saves.
Maverick counterpart
Shaden Shields was nearly as good, finishing with 13 saves.
The Mavs also finished with 36-28 advantage in groundballs as Sheilds and
Caden Hathaway both finished with five.
Hathaway was one of six Maverick seniors recognized before the game alongside
JJ Brummett,
Mike Edwards,
Ethan Points, Smith and
Beau Kirschke, who as a redshirt junior is eligible to return in 2026. Brummett and Edwards joined Smith in the scorebook with first half goals.
Gragnola matched Jensen with a hat trick to lead the Griffins while Luke Sillstrop added two goals and the assist on DeVault's game-winner.
Despite the loss, the Mavs won the Rocky Mountain Division title outright and will host next week's divisional tournament, where they will look to resume their overall and home field winning streaks. The Mavs will take on No. 4 seed Dominican on Thursday evening at 7 p.m.
The Penguins (2-9, 2-6 PBC/RMD) fell 17-8 in their regular season finale against Concordia University Irvine on Saturday.
The Griffins improved to 7-6 overall and to 5-3 in the division with Saturday's win. They will be the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will face second-seeded CUI in the first semifinal on Thursday at 4 p.m.
The two semifinal winners will meet in next Saturday evening's title game (Apr. 26), slated for 5 p.m. The winner will then head to the Southeastern United States to face the Peach Belt Division tournament winner in a May 2 game that will determine an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Tournament.
