GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Continuing to sit atop the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings with unblemished 5-0 league record, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will look to extend their winning streak to six when they head to Salt Lake City to face Westminster University.
The Mavs are 6-4 overall while Westminster will bring in a 5-5 overall mark. The Griffins are 2-3 in RMAC play and are in fourth place of the standings.
The first draw at WU's Dumke Field is slated for 3 p.m., a new scheduled start time.
The game will be streamed on the RMAC Network although WU will not be able to provide live statistics.
Last Times Out
The Mavericks won their fourth and fifth straight games at home last weekend, claiming convincing 17-2 and 17-6 wins over CSU Pueblo and Fort Lewis on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, respectively.
The Mavs implemented the running clock after building 10-plus goal leads in the second half of both victories.
Caroline Ohngemach led the Maverick offense, scoring eight goals while assisting on five others.
Courtney Havel also added seven goals throughout the weekend while
Mikki Brown chipped in four.
Defensively, Maverick goalkeeper
Heather Hawkins made 16 saves and posted a 3.75 goals against average and a .696 save percentage as the Mavs held their opponents to just eight total goals.
The Mavs scored 15 unanswered goals in Friday's win over CSU Pueblo and scored nine straight in the win over Fort Lewis.
Full recaps of both games can be seen here
Double Player of the Week
Heather Hawkins earned a pair of player of the week honors after her strong performances in net last weekend. On Tuesday, the freshman out of Palmer Lake, Colorado, was named as the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Association's NCAA Division II Defensive Player of the Week. The national honor came just one day after she was named as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season. Hawkins had also received the conference award on Mar. 17 for her efforts against Regis and UCCS.
Courtney Havel won that week's RMAC Offensive Award and shared Co-National Offensive Player of the Week honors from the IWLCA as well that week.
To be 17 again
The Mavericks have scored exactly 17 goals in each of their last three games and have averaged that amount in their five RMAC games to date, scoring 16 in their RMAC opener at Regis and 18 two days later at UCCS on Mar. 16.
The Mavericks lead the conference in goals per game during the conference schedule, averaging one more than UCCS. The Mavs are second in the league for scoring overall, averaging 13.90 goals per game throughout the season, scoring 139 goals thus far.
UCCS has put up 140 goals in one fewer game and is averaging 15.56 per contest.
Century Woman
Maverick junior attack
Justine Anderson became just the fifth Maverick to ever record 100 career goals, snagging her milestone goal with 11:12 remaining in Sunday's win over Fort Lewis. That goal, which came off a
Caroline Ohngemach assist, was the second of the game for Anderson, who has now scored at least one goal in all ten of CMU's games this season.
Current CMU assistant coach
Kiley Davis was the previous Maverick to join the century club, doing so in 2023. Davis ranks fourth in CMU career goal scoring with 136.
Anderson, who hails from Colorado Springs, has now scored in each of her last 15 games 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).
Anderson has scored 19 goals this season to rank third on the Maverick squad and tied for ninth in the RMAC. However, she has been more of a distributor this season, pacing the RMAC and the Mavs with 18 assists this year after recording 13 all of last season.
Anderson has put up at least one offensive point in 27 consecutive games.
Sticking it to her mates
Maverick senior midfielder
Mikki Brown scored a goal against her former Fort Lewis Skyhawk teammates on Sunday after recording her first hat trick in a CMU uniform just two days earlier against CSU Pueblo. Brown spent her 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 in three years as a Skyhawk.
She now has six goals for the Mavericks this season and has come off the bench to see time in eight of CMU's ten games this year.
Sweet Caroline
The Neil Diamond hit was getting a lot of air time over the weekend at the Community Hospital Unity Field as a snippet of the legendary song would be played as
Caroline Ohngemach's goal scoring song. Ohngemach scored eight times over the weekend and matched her season and career-high by scoring five goals in Sunday's win over Fort Lewis.
She also scored three goals and matched a career-high with seven offensive points against CSU Pueblo as the Wayne, New Jersey native dished out four assists in the Mavs' 17-2 victory.
Ohngemach has scored 24 times this season to sit second on the Maverick squad and sixth in the RMAC for goals. She has already surpassed the 20-goal mark for the first time in her career after recording 14, 15 and 19 goals in her three previous collegiate seasons at CMU.
Hat Trick Streak
Courtney Havel, who leads the Mavericks and the RMAC with 37 goals this year, has recorded seven hat tricks (3 or more goals in a game) this season, doing so in each of the Mavs' five conference games.
Standings Check
With the first of two round-robins on the RMAC schedule now in the books, the
Mavericks continue to lead the conference standings with a 5-0 mark. Regis went 4-1 in the first half of the conference schedule, falling only to CMU and edging out a win over UCCS last week.
The UCCS Mountain Lions are in third place at 3-2 while Westminster is in fourth at 2-3. CSU Pueblo (1-4) and Fort Lewis (0-5) are currently outside the top four that it takes to qualify for the RMAC Tournament.
The second half of the schedule begins this week and will see all of the teams play each other once again at the opposite location of the first meeting during the final three weeks of the regular season. CMU will have two home games in that 5-game stretch, welcoming in UCCS and Regis next week.
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. With their two wins last week, the Mavs have gone 54-16 (.771) at home in the last ten-plus years and are 60-31 (.659) 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 3-1 at home so far this season.
The Mavs have two home games remaining on their regular season schedule and 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 wins last week, the Mavs have an even better 70-20 (.778) 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 17-10 record as a head coach. The Mavericks are a combined 39-23 with her on the coaching staff.
Delaney is 3-0 against Westminster and Griffin counterpart Janell Snow as a head coach. The Mavs are also 9-0 against the Griffins in Delaney's time with the CMU program.
Know Your Foe
The Griffins also hold a 5-5 overall record and are 2-3 in RMAC play claiming home wins over Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo last weekend.
They scored 20 goals in each victory holding Fort Lewis to four and CSU Pueblo to nine.
Westminster sophomore Jordan Williamson scored 15 goals over the weekend, scoring ten times in Friday's win over Fort Lewis. She was named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week.
Williamson has scored 33 goals this season and also leads the Griffins with 38 total points.
Grace Szwedko has scored 15 goals to rank second on the team while Holly Shoughro (14), Olivia Petrosky (14) and Saina Shoughro (12) are all in double figures as well.
Celia Fidanza leads the team with 16 assists to rank second in the RMAC.
Marianna Dick has been impressive on the defensive end as recorded 35 caused turnovers and 38 groundballs. Gabriella Dedes also has 31 groundballs while Riley Weldon has 22 groundballs and 25 caused turnovers.
Szwedko leads the team with 42 draw controls.
Gabriella Cheminant and Kaelyn Hart have split time in net as each has played in seven games. Cheiminant has a 9.89 goals against average and .409 save percentage while Kaelyn Hart has an 11.71 goals against average, but a superior .464 save percentage.
Series History
The Mavericks have dominated the all-time series against the Griffins, winning the last 20 and 21 of the 22 all-time games, including the 17-6 decision just two weeks ago (Mar. 22) in Grand Junction.
Westminster's lone win in the rivalry came on Apr. 6, 2012.
The Mavs are a perfect 10-0 against the Griffins on the road.
The two teams have played a home-and-home series every season since 2015, other than in 2020 when both teams' campaigns were canceled early on due to the COVID pandemic.
The Mavs will be looking to claim a tenth straight series sweep this year.
Up Next
The Mavs will be at home next weekend to play what is looking like to be their most important games of the regular season. The Mavs will take on third place UCCS next Friday (Apr. 11) at 4 p.m. before hosting nationally-ranked and second place Regis on Sunday, Apr. 13 at 1 p.m. The Mavs will honor their six seniors prior to that game.
