GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding their second seven match winning streak of the season and winners of 14 of their last 15, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will take on another hot team when the Mavs host the Colorado School of Mines in a key Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match on Saturday evening in Brownson Arena.
 
First serve for the Alumni Weekend match is slated for 5 p.m.
 
The Mavericks, who are 16-3 overall, currently lead the RMAC by a half-match with an 8-1 conference record.  Mines has won eight straight matches and is 15-3 overall and stands in fourth place in the RMAC standings with a 6-2 record entering a Friday night encounter at struggling Westminster in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 
Both the Mavs and Orediggers are receiving votes in the latest AVCA-Taraflex NCAA Division II poll and the winner will have quite a claim to join the official top 25.
 
Tickets for Saturday's match are still available here and the match can also be seen with a subscription to the RMAC Network.
 
Live statistics can also be seen at the link above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks recorded three road wins in a span of five days, taking down Colorado Christian in four sets on Friday before doing the same at CSU Pueblo on Saturday.  The Mavs then completed the stretch with a dominant sweep over Westminster on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
 
Pin hitters Molly Whalen and Henley Madsen led the Maverick offensive attack, which averaged 14.27 kills per set on .305 hitting.  Whalen combined for 38 kills (3.45/set) while hitting .377 throughout the trip while Madsen recorded 31 kills (2.82/set) on .390 hitting while adding eighth blocks (0.73/set).
 
In Friday's balanced win at CCU, Whalen recorded 13 kills while Addie Ritterbush and Ashlee Macias recorded 12 each.  Henley Madsen also chipped in ten kills and four blocks.
 
Whalen then tallied 15 kills while Madsen chipped in 12 during Saturday's win at CSU Pueblo.  Setter Hallie Hewlett, a former CSU Pueblo player, also had 23 assists and five digs while helping CMU Head Coach Austin Albers claim win in his first return to Massari Arena since coaching the ThunderWolves for six seasons from 2019-24.
 
The Mavericks then hit .383 as a team in Tuesday's sweep of the Griffins.  Whalen recorded ten kills and hit .533 while Madsen went a perfect 9-for-9 as one of three Mavericks to hit 1.000.
 
Two in a Row
 
Maverick freshman Molly Whalen was named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after recording 28 kills and a hitting a combined .339 in the Mavs' weekend road wins at Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo.
 
Whalen is the second Maverick outside hitter in as many weeks to win the award after junior Ashlee Macias had claimed the honor in the previous week on Oct. 5.
 
Whalen, who has 134 kills this season, has raised her season-long hitting percentage to. 324 and now ranks seventh in that category.
 
Heavyweight Bout
 
Saturday's match-up will be a match-up of the RMAC's top two teams in the terms of both overall record and many of the statistical categories.
 
The Mavericks, who have the RMAC's top overall record at 16-3, lead the RMAC in attack percentage with a .293 mark while Mines, which could also be 16-3 with a Friday night win at Westminster, is second at .279.
 
Meanwhile, Mines has the RMAC's top opponent hitting percentage at .155 while CMU is just behind at .162.
 
Blocking could also prove pivotal as Mines leads the RMAC with 2.67 blocks per set while the Mavericks have conceded just 1.59 blocks per set to top the RMAC statistics.
 
RMAC Standings Check-In
 
Thanks to Tuesday's win over Westminster, the Mavs lead the RMAC standings with an 8-1 conference record and now sit a half-match ahead of both MSU Denver and UCCS, who are 7-1 entering with a chance to again forge a tie with road wins on Friday night.
 
Mines is fourth in the standings at 6-2 after having lost to both UCCS and MSU Denver on the opening weekend of conference play and will need a win on Saturday to keep realistic hopes of a RMAC title alive.
 
After going 1-1 against MSU Denver and UCCS, the Mavericks would also love a win on Saturday and could take a large step to a potential outright or shared RMAC regular season title with a victory over the Orediggers.
 
Meanwhile, South Dakota Mines, Adams State and Colorado Christian are all 5-3 in conference play and are in a 3-way tie for fifth in the RMAC standings.  Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo are currently tied for the eighth and final RMAC Tournament qualification spot at 4-4 with six conference matches remaining.
 
Both MSU Denver and UCCS are on the road this weekend and will play at Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo this weekend
 
Top 10 Hitters
 
The Mavericks continue to lead the RMAC in hitting percentage and raised their season-long mark to .293 and have hit above .300 in six of their last seven matches to gradually climb in the national statistics.  CMU now ranks seventh in the conference, five spots ahead of Mines.
 
The Mavs and Orediggers also have a combined seven of the RMAC's top ten efficiency hitters.
 
The Mavericks have four of those players.  CMU's Jaycee Windorski ranks third at .365 while Addie Ritterbush is right behind in fourth at .361.  Molly Whalen ranks seventh at .324 while Henley Madsen is eighth at .323.
 
The Orediggers have the second, ninth and tenth ranked hitters in Jenna McLaughlin (.377), Abbie O'Shay (.318) and Cadence McDonald (3.04).
 
Ace-ing their way to victory
 
The Mavericks recorded 16 service aces in their last three matches, including eight in Friday's win at Colorado Christian and six in Tuesday's win over Westminster.
 
The Mavericks lead the RMAC with 129 service aces and a 1.95 per set average.
 
The Mavs' total is nearly double the number of aces they have conceded (69) to their opponents.  They also lead the RMAC in that category, giving up just 1.03 aces per set.
 
The Mavs have recorded more aces than their opponents in 13 of their 19 matches, going a perfect 13-0 in those matches.  They are 3-2 when their opponents have had more aces and are 0-1 when both teams have had the same numbers of aces.

The Mavs also have two of the RMAC's top ten servers in the conference.  Ashlee Macias ranks fourth with her 0.39 per set average while Ashlyn Tafoya is seventh with her 0.38 per set average.  Both Mavericks have 25 aces this season.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena, something they will hope to do again on Saturday.  The Mavs are now 9-0 at home this season and have now won 11 straight at home overall.
 
They went 7-2 at home last season and have posted an impressive 81-9 home record and .900 winning percentage since the start of 2018, losing no more than one home match in each of the previous seven seasons between 2018-24.
 
The Mavs won their last ten home matches of 2024 and were 12-1 at home that season.
 
The Mavs were 13-1 at home in 2023 and went 8-1 in 2022. 
 
The Mavs also went 9-1 at home in the fall of 2021.  The Mavs also went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season while winning the RMAC title.  In the fall of 2019, the Mavs went 8-1 after going 9-1 in Brownson Arena during the 2018 campaign.

The Mavs were also 9-1 at home in 2015 before posting 6-3 home-court records in both 2016 and 2017.  CMU was also an impressive 15-1 in 2014 en route to an RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last 14 seasons since and including 2012, going 132-26 (.835) since the start of that campaign.
 
They are 117-17 (.873) in their last 134 home matches since 2014.
 
Home-and-Home
 
Saturday's match will be the first of a home-and-home series between the Mavericks and Orediggers thanks to a unique scheduling quirk.
 
Saturday's match will count in the RMAC standings, which are based on a single round-robin which sees the 15 RMAC teams play each opponent once with seven home and seven away matches.
 
The two teams will then play again on Thursday (Oct. 22) in Golden as part of the RMAC's Power Pod Weekend.  Because they finished in a tie for fourth place in last year's conference standings, the Mavs and Orediggers have been placed in the same pod along with Westminster, which finished sixth in last year's conference standings.  Those three teams will play their 3-team round-robin over three days.  Those matches will not count towards the conference standings but will be counted on the team's overall record and are in essence non-conference yet NCAA Division II South Central Regional match-ups between conference foes.
 
CMU will play Westminster for the third time next Friday (Oct. 23) in Mines' Lockridge Arena before Mines will wrap up the pod with a Saturday (Oct. 24) home match against the Griffins.
 
In the Poll
 
The Mavericks are continuing to be in the others receiving votes category of this week's (Week No. 7) AVCA-Taraflex Division II poll, as they have been in the seven previous editions, including the preseason poll.
 
They lead that category this week and are still knocking on the door of the top 25 for the first time this season.
 
The Mavericks have a season-high 46 points in this week's poll, 12 more than a week ago.
 
The Mavs are 2-0 against other nationally-ranked teams at the time of the match, defeating then seventh-ranked Nebraska-Kearney in the season-opener.  The Lopers have since won 19 straight matches and are still ranked fifth in the latest poll.
 
MSU Denver, who the Mavs beat on Sept. 18, when the Roadrunners were ranked 19^th, has fallen out of the top 25, but still has seven points in the polling. 
 
The Colorado School of Mines and UCCS are also representing the RMAC in the others receiving votes category.  Mines has 25 points and is 29^th in total points.  UCCS has nine points.
 
Two other teams the Mavs have played this season are also receiving votes and both have 17 points.  Those are Biola (17) and Dallas Baptist (17).  Both of those teams defeated the Mavs on the opening weekend of the season.
 
About the Coaching staff
 
Austin Albers is in his second season in charge of the Mavericks.  He is just the fifth coach in program history and the third in the last 42 years. 
 
In his first season with CMU (2025), Albers led the Mavericks to a 17-11 campaign and a fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
He is no stranger to the RMAC after having spent the six previous seasons (2019-24) at CSU Pueblo, where he led the ThunderWolves to a 93-61 (.604) record and RMAC Tournament appearances in all six campaigns.  The Pack also went to the NCAA Tournament in both 2021 and 2022.
 
Prior to that, he was the head coach at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he went 145-57 while leaving as the program's all-time win percentage leader (.718).  He was inducted into the LCCC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2025 and received the AVCA 30 under 30 award along with NJCAA Region IX and NJCAA District C Coach of the year honors.
 
Including this year's 16-3 start, Albers now has a 126-75 (.627) record at the 4-year level and surpassed the 100-win milestone in 2025.  He also eclipsed the 250 overall collegiate win milestone last year and now has a 271-132 (.672) overall collegiate coaching record.
 
Last Saturday's match at CSU Pueblo, his former team, was the  200^th at the 4-year and NCAA Division II level and was his 125^th career win.
 
His two assistants Bri Strong and Annemarie Chin also return in 2026.  Strong is entering her seventh season with the Mavs and her fourth as the program's top assistant.
 
Chin is in her second season with the Mavs and third with Albers after assisting him at CSU Pueblo.  She was then named as the Pack's interim head coach after CMU hired Albers in February, 2025, before re-uniting with Albers for last fall's campaign.
 
About the Orediggers
 
The Orediggers, who will play at Westminster on Friday night, have won eight straight matches without dropping a set and are currently 15-3 overall.  Their eight consecutive sweeps are a program-record.
 
They stand in fourth place in the RMAC standings with a 6-2 record but have won their last six conference matches after dropping matches to UCCS and MSU Denver on the opening weekend of the conference slate on Sept. 11-12, their last two losses.
 
Junior middle blocker Jenna McLaughlin paces the Orediggers with 185 kills and sits tenth in the RMAC statistics for kills per set.  She also sits second in the conference statistics with her .377 attack percentage.  Abbie O'Shaw, who is hitting .318 with 126 kills (2.07/set) and Cadence McDonald, who has 153 kills (2.64/set) on .304 hitting, also rank inside the conference' top ten for attack percentage in the No. 9 and 10 spots, respectively.
 
Setter Kaiya Gilbert leads the RMAC with 635 assists (10.08/set) and has bee named as the RMAC Setter of the Week for four straight weeks and has won that award five times this season. 
 
McLaughlin, who also paces the RMAC in blocks per set, has been named as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week in consecutive weeks and three times this season.  She had 12 blocks (2.00/set) last week and is averaging 1.41 per set to lead the RMAC and rank fourth nationally.
 
Francesca Nuzzo leads the Orediggers with 259 digs and is ninth in the conference with her 4.11 per set average.
 
Gilbert also leads the team with 23 service aces (0.37/set) and is second behind Nuzzo in digs with 169 (2.68/set).
 
Exploring the Rivalry
 
The rivalry between the Mavs and Orediggers was no more intense than it was in 2025, when the teams split a pair of 5-set matches in Golden.  Additionally, both of the decisive fifth sets were decided in extra points.

Mines won the regular season meeting on Oct. 24 with a reverse sweep and took the fifth set, 16-14.  That victory allowed the Orediggers the right to host the RMAC Tournament Quarterfinal in the 4-5 seeding match-up.
 
The Mavs pulled out that post-season win, taking the fifth set by a 16-14 margin as all five sets were decided by just two points, including the first and third which were decided by 27-25 and 29-27 scorelines.
 
The Mavericks lead the overall series 26-20 during the NCAA Division II era and have won four of the last five matches after the Orediggers had won five of the previous six between 2019-24.
 
CMU is 12-7 against the Orediggers at home during that stretch, but have not played against them inside Brownson Arena since 2023.  The Mavs won at home in both 2022 and 2023 after the Orediggers won a RMAC Tournament semifinal over CMU during the 2021 spring season to record their last win in Grand Junction.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks and Orediggers will match-up again next Thursday (Oct. 22) as the Mavs begin the RMAC Power Pod week in Golden. That match will be the first of four straight the Mavs will play away from home before closing out the regular season with Nov. 6 and 7 home matches against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines, respectively.