GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of four straight and leading the Peach Belt Conference/Rocky Mountain Division with a 5-0 divisional mark, the nation's 15
th-ranked Colorado Mesa University Maverick men's lacrosse team will look to clinch the division title this week when they play on the road on Wednesday before returning home for a Saturday afternoon tilt.
The Mavericks, 8-2 overall, will play at winless Adams State University (0-6, 0-6 RMD) in Alamosa on Wednesday at 1 p.m. before returning home to Community Hospital Unity Field to take on the Dominican University of California Penguins (2-7, 2-4 RMD) at the same time on Saturday.
Both games will be streamed by the home institutions on the RMAC Network. Live statistics for both games can also be found at the links above.
Tickets for Saturday's home game can also be found here.
Last Times Out
The Mavericks recorded a pair of wins last week, dominating Adams State, 22-5 at home last Thursday (Apr. 3) before going on the road for a 13-11 win over arch-rival Westminster in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
The Mavericks led 11-1 at the end of the first quarter of the win over Adams State and were able to let the reserves play feature for the rest of the game. The Mavs also led 16-2 at the half before the teams agreed to play the second half with a running clock.
Fifteen different Mavericks scored goals, including six that recorded the first of their seasons.
Jack Cooper came off the bench to record five goals and seven points.
Normal starting goaltended
Shaden Shields took the day off as
Luke Parrish and freshman
Grant Brooker combined for eight saves. Parrish made his first start of the year and made six saves in the first three quarters before Brooker played the final 15 minutes.
On Sunday, the Mavericks used a 3-goal run in the final seven minutes of the game to break a 10-10 tie and claim a very important win over the Griffins. Eleven different Mavericks scored as Shields made ten saves.
Cooper scored the go-ahead goal with 5:56 left while
Dillon Pless and
Ethan Points both had two goals to lead the Maverick offensive attack.
Full recap of both of the games can be seen below:
Title Scenarios & Standings
The Mavericks lead the Rocky Mountain Division standings by a 1 ½ games with their unblemished 5-0 record and can clinch at least a share of the division title with one more win out of their last three games. Two more wins would give the Mavs the outright crown and guarantee the Mavs of hosting the Apr. 24 & 26 post-season tournament, something they could also do with most tie-breaking scenarios as well.
Concordia University Irvine is currently in second place in the Rocky Mountain Division standings with a 4-2 divisional record and will pay at third place Westminster (3-2) on Saturday at 1 p.m., the same time CMU will take on fourth-place Dominican, which is 2-4.
CUI won 10-5 over the Griffins in Irvine, California last month and will close out the season by hosting Dominican on Apr. 19.
After hosting the Golden Eagles on Saturday, Westminster will play at Adams State on Apr. 17 before closing out the regular season at CMU on Apr. 19.
Adams State has been eliminated from post-season tournament contention with an 0-6 record after losing both games against Dominican earlier this season, which would result in them losing any head-to-head tiebreakers with the Penguins for the last spot in the 4-team Rocky Mountain Division Tournament even if the Grizzlies were able to win both of their last two games.
A Peach-ey route to the NCAA Tournament
The RMAC and Peach Belt Conference, which has four men's lacrosse-playing members in three southern states, formed a partnership for this 2025 season in order to take advantage of the new NCAA Division II Tournament Automatic Qualification spot policies. Because both conferences were slightly under the requirement of having six member teams to earn an AQ spot, they joined forces.
Each conference will continue to run their respective leagues in tandem and under the official auspices of the PB. The five RMAC teams will play in the Rocky Mountain Division of the Peach Belt Conference and the RMAC will still run a regular season and post-season "division" tournament. The four PBC members will do the same in the "Peach Belt Division".
The two divisional tournament winners will then then square off on Friday, May 2 at the Peach Belt Champion in the Automatic Qualification game, with the winner earning an automatic spot in the now expanded 16-team NCAA Division II Tournament, which begins just five days later. Other PBC and RMAC members are also eligible to receive at-large spots from the NCAA Division II South Region, as has been the case although it has been a tough road with the Mavs making their and the RMAC's lone appearance in 2018.
In 2025, the region will send eight teams, up from six and four teams in past years, to the NCAA Tournament, including the AQ's from five conferences. Forty-three teams are in those five leagues. The North region, which has 43 teams from four leagues and one independent will also have eight qualifiers.
Northwest Nazarene of Nampa, Idaho will also join the RMAC as an associate member in 2026 moving up from the club ranks.
CSU Pueblo dropped their varsity program after the 2024 campaign.
Home Sweet Home
The Mavericks will enter Saturday's home game, the third of four on the limited home regular season schedule, riding an 18-game home field winning streak.
They went 7-0 at home last season, winning all five of their regular season games plus winning the RMAC Tournament Championship with a 13-12 overtime win over CUI.
The Mavs also won the 2023 RMAC Tournament title at home after going 3-0 at home during the regular season. The Mavs were 5-0 at home that year and went 4-0 at home in 2022 but did not host that year's RMAC Tournament after being edged on tie-breaking procedures.
CMU's last home loss was on May 8, 2021, when Westminster won the RMAC Tournament Championship game at the CHUF.
CMU has not lost a regular season home game in more than five years, winning their last 19 such contests since falling to Rollins (Fla.) on Mar. 13, 2019.
CMU has also won 30 straight conference home games since Feb. 20, 2016, when falling to Westminster.
The Mavs have a 68-8 all-time record at home, good for a .895 winning percentage.
They are 14-0 at home with head coach
Troy Moyer at the helm of the program.
G'Day Mate
Colorado Mesa University sophomore attackman
Jack Cooper, a native of the Perth, Western Australia, had a career-day last Thursday against Adams State. He scored a career-high five goals and added two assists to finish with a career-high seven points, easily surpassing his former career-high of three, which he set against the Grizzlies in the 2024 RMAC Tournament semifinals.
Cooper earned his first career start against Westminster and provided the go-ahead goal with 6:56 left in the fourth quarter.
He now has 15 career goals in 14 games, nine of which have come in four appearances against Adams State.
Cooper is a member of the Australian U20 National Team.
First Timers
The Mavericks had six different men score their first goals of the season in last Thursday's win over Adams State as the Maverick starters and most prolific goal scorers got most of the game off.
A.J. Clark,
Stefan Dingbaum,
Merrick Banning,
Cole Skillington,
Ben Kester and
Dax Lambright all scored for the first time in 2025 against the Grizzlies. The goals were also the first of the careers for Banning, Clark and Skillington. Banning and Clark are freshman and Skillington is a junior, who has played in 19 career games over the past three seasons in the midfield.
Two other Mavs then joined the 2025 goal-scoring club in Sunday's win at Westminster as redshirt sophomores
Ryan Pless and
Reed Roughton both added goals as two of the 11 Mavericks to score in the game.
Roughton's goal was also the first of his career while it was just the second for Pless.
Both of those men hail from Highlands Ranch, Colorado but went to rival high schools.
In the Polls
The Mavericks recent' win streak has allowed the Mavs to move back up into a tie for 15
th in this week's
USILA NCAA Division II Poll (Week No. 9), which was released on Monday. They are tied for that spot alongside Saint Leo, a team the Mavs defeated last month in Florida.
CMU had slipped to 20
th in the Week No. 8 poll but has been included in all ten editions of the poll this season, including the preseason. The Mavs reached as high as No. 13 in the Week No. 4 (Mar. 3) poll and remained there in the Week No. 5 (Mar. 10) poll before starting a gradual slide down to the No. 20 spot.
CMU is the only team in the Rocky Mountain Division currently in or receiving votes in the poll.
Flagler from the Peach Belt Division, sits sixth in the poll, while Montevallo and Lander are both receiving votes.
Top O and Top D
As one would somewhat expect considering their record, the Mavs lead the Rocky Mountain Division in both team offense and defense.
The Mavs have put up 140 goals in their ten games, and pace the division with a 14.00 goal per game average, one more than Westminster's 13.00 per game average.
CMU has conceded just 86 goals, an average of 8.60 per game. CUI ranks second in the division with a 9.29 per game mark.
On a national scale, the Mavs rank 13
th in both scoring defense and scoring margin (+5.4) and are 16
th in scoring offense.
The Bench Boss
Troy Moyer is in his third season in charge of the Maverick program, promoted to the head coach role in the fall of 2022 after a brief stint as the interim head coach. Moyer took over for former CMU Head Coach Vince Smith, who left the position for other opportunities outside of coaching.
Moyer had originally been hired as an assistant on Smith's staff for the 2018-19 season.
In his two-plus seasons as a head coach, Moyer has guided the Mavericks to a combined 37-8 (.822) record, including a 18-1 mark in RMAC games and a perfect 14-0 record at home. The Mavs have won both the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament titles in both seasons with Moyer in charge.
In his overall time with the Mavericks, Moyer has helped the program win four RMAC regular season titles and three tournament crowns. The Mavs have gone a combined 75-22 (.773) in his now seven seasons with Moyer on the sidelines.
Know Your Foes
Adams State
The Grizzlies will enter Wednesday's game with an 0-6 record after falling 22-5 to CMU and 18-3 to Westminster on the road last weekend.
They have also supplemented their schedule with exhibition games against club level teams.
They have scored 32 goals in their four Rocky Mountain Division games and have conceded 118.
Malik Maxwell leads the Grizzlies with seven goals and ten points while Jacob Parsons, Alex Wilderboer and Danny Joy all have five goals. Wilderboer has missed three of ASU's six games and did not play against the Mavs last week.
Hunter Bennett leads the team defensively with 17 groundballs and 11 caused turnovers while Ryan Berger has started all six games in net, posting a 21.20 goals against average and .326 save percentage.
Anthony Fillerup and Matthew Knight have taken a lion's share of the Grizzlies' faceoffs, which has been an area of trouble for the team. The Grizzlies had won just 25.0 percent (43-172) of their total faceoffs.
Dominican
The Penguins will enter Saturday's game with a 2-7 record, including a 2-4 Rocky Mountain Division mark. Both wins have come over Adams State by 23-13 (Mar. 13) and 13-8 (Mar. 28) margins.
They are in their first year as associate members of the RMAC for men's lacrosse and their second year off a new varsity level stint after playing at the MCLA club level ranks from 2015-2023.
Before that the Penguins were part of the Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association alongside the Mavs and had a quite intense rivalry.
Head Coach Bobby Grove's squad is led by Chase Pacenta., who has 22 goals, nine assists and 31 points to his credit, marks that lead or co-lead the team. Tanner Ennis and Jason Eide both have 14 goals while Will Elfline is tied with Pacenta with nine assists.
Wyatt Anderson has 10 caused turnovers to lead the team and also chipped in 14 ground balls.
Nicholas Woodard is also a solid defensive presence and has 24 groundballs and seven caused turnovers.
Joshua Peavey and Ethan May are the Penguins' two primary face-off specialists. Peavey has won 74 or 142 (.521) and leads the team with 38 groundballs. May has a .490 success rate (51-104) and has scooped up 21 groundballs.
Tristan Hunter is their primary net-minder and has played in all nine games, logging 463 minutes. He has a 16.43 goals against average and .401 save percentage, having made 85 stops. Cole Rutz has also played in five games and has recorded 14 saves, a .538 save percentage and 13.36 goals against average in nearly 54 minutes of net time.
Series Histories
The Mavs are a perfect 33-0 all-time against Adams State and have faced the Grizzlies every year since 2011, when both teams started their programs.
CMU is 12-0 against the Grizzlies in Alamosa.
The Mavs have defeated the Dominican Penguins early in both of the last two seasons in California, winning 27-5 on Feb. 23, 2024 in what was CMU's season-opener played on a neutral field in Irvine.
The Mavs then won 16-5 on Feb. 17 of this year in the Bay area community of San Rafael, where the Penguins hail from.
Saturday's game will mark the first time since 2014 that the Penguins have played in Grand Junction. A Maverick win would help ensure the Penguins will come back just two weeks later for the Rocky Mountain Division tournament and are a likely semifinal round opponent for the Mavs.
CMU is 3-1 all-time at home against the Penguins, dropping only a Apr. 7, 2013 double overtime decision.
In the WILA era, the teams split eight match-ups 4-4 and four of the eight were decided by a single goal. Many of those games decided the WILA titles, which CMU won in 2012 and 2015. Dominican won the WILA crowns in 2013 and 2014 before dropping out of the league and NCAA Division II lacrosse prior to the 2015 campaign.
Related Item: WILA Wikipedia Page
Up Next
After this week's games, the Mavericks will close out the regular season next Saturday (Apr. 19), hosting Westminster in their Senior Day game at 1 p.m. at Community Hospital Unity Field.
