PUEBLO, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's lacrosse team is coming home with a share of their second Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title and with the No. 1 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament, which the Mavs will host for the first time in program history, starting next Friday (Apr. 25) at Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
The Mavericks earned that right with a 20-5 road win over CSU Pueblo on Saturday ending the regular season with a 10-5 overall record and a 9-1 record to share the top position in the conference standings with national poll No. 15 Regis.  The Mavericks won the seeding tie-breaker by scoring two more goals than the Rangers in the two head-to-head meetings, which the teams split.
 
CMU also shared the 2023 RMAC Regular season title with the Rangers but took hosting rights away from the Rangers, who have had the No. 1 seed in the previous four seasons.
 
The two teams have met in the tournament final in each of those years as well.
 
To set up a potential fifth straight tournament final match-up, the Mavs will need to get by fourth-seed Westminster in the first semifinal at 4 p.m. on Friday.  Regis will be the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 seed UCCS in the second semifinal at 7 p.m. that night.
 
Next Sunday's (Apr. 27) RMAC Tournament Championship game will be held at 2 p.m. and will determine the conference's automatic qualification spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament, a new feature of an expanded national tournament this year.

The Mavericks dominated Saturday's game against the ThunderWolves, who finished fifth in the RMAC standings and their season with a 2-12 overall record, including a 2-8 mark in conference affairs.
 
The Mavs have now won all 19 all-time meetings with the ThunderWolves after scoring 15 unanswered goals in their 17-2 home win over the Pack on Mar. 28.
 
In Saturday's win, CMU out-shot the ThunderWolves, 44-16 on Saturday and won 16 of the game's 25 draw controls as they took a 6-0 lead before extending it to 12-1 by half as the last 32 minutes of the game was played with a running clock.
 
The Mavs then led 17-2 after three quarters and reached the 20-goal mark for the third time this season as Aubrey Olson scored her first two goals of her career in the final minutes to cap the victory.  Her second goal came with just five seconds left as time expired.
 
The Mavs had 13 different goal scorers throughout the afternoon as Cassidy Keykal tallied her second hat trick of the week to lead the way.  Keykal also added an assist and finished with four points.
 
Olson, Kenzie Streby, Ella Freemon, Maeve Miller and Cameron Flynn all scored two goals off the bench as the Mavs were able to rest their starters for a large chunk of the game.
 
Justine Anderson and Ali Bryant joined Keykal as the only other starters to score as reserves Mikki Brown, Courtney Havel, Devon Morris, Sidney Edmonds and Kaylee Kittle all scored as well.  Kittle's goal was the first of her career.
 
Senior Caroline Ohngemach did not score but did record two assists and a game-high four draw controls.
 
Freshman goalkeeper Heather Hawkins made three saves and allowed just two goals in 45 minutes before fellow freshman Susan Kirchhoff wrapped up the win in net.  Hawkins also had three groundballs to lead the Mavs in that category and improved her personal record to 9-3 while lowering he goals against average to 9.01.
 
Community Hospital Unity Field will be the home of RMAC Lacrosse next week as the Maverick men also won an outright Rocky Mountain Division title to earn hosting rights for the Apr. 24 & 26 tournament.
 
This will mark the first time in conference history that the same school has hosted both post-season tournaments.