TO START THINGS OFF
For the third time in four years, Colorado Mesa will begin the season in a sanctioned tip-off tournament. They are competing in the Hoops in Hawaii Tip-off Classic presented by Outrigger Resorts and Hotels while the previous two times have been in the D2CCA Tip-off Classic hosted by Simon Fraser in Langley, British Columbia.

The D2CCA awarded Hoops in Hawaii one of their dual gender Tip-off tournaments this year which means a men's tournament will be taking place at the same time with a seperate set of schools competing. This tournament is a three-game guarantee, bracket style tournament so think Maui Invitational style tournament. 

The women's side will feature Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific, both of whom are from Hawaii, along with Winona State, Alaska Anchorage, Lubbock Christian and St. Mary's from the Lone Star Conference and fellow South Central Region foes. The final team is Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival and Western Slope neighbor Western Colorado. 

The Mavericks are 6-0 in their Tip-off Classic games in the last two trips. 

TIME TO MOVE FORWARD
Last winter was the best season in Colorado Mesa history. The Mavericks finished 37-2, went 20-0 in RMAC play, won the South Central Region and reached the program's first NCAA Division II Final Four before falling to Indiana (Pa.) by five points in Pittsburgh.

Now comes the hard part. Olivia Reed Thyne, who led Division II in both scoring and rebounding at 22.9 points and 11.7 boards per game, has moved on, as has Mykaela Moore, who started all 39 games and led the team in minutes.

Mason Rowland will be looked upon to lead the team. The senior from Durango averaged 18.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists, buried 83 threes and shot nearly 86 percent at the line. With Reed Thyne gone, defenses will key on her, and how she handles that attention will shape the season.

She won't be alone. Sophomore Hallie Clark started every game as a freshman and gives the Mavs another perimeter shooter. Fifth year forward Tamryn Blom, senior Brooke Eyre and senior Cayden King bring experience and toughness, while junior Jenna Krise made 8-of-17 from deep in limited action and could push for a bigger role.

The real question is in the paint. No returning forward averaged more than 4.4 rebounds, so the front court is wide open. Newcomers will get every chance: 6'1" Madison Smith from Mid Michigan College, Division I transfer Abby Leahy from Louisiana Monroe, and junior college additions Marlee Pieper and Ava Cuff. Freshman guard Sophie Nielsen rounds out the class.

Expect some early growing pains as roles sort themselves out. But Taylor Wagner, now the winningest coach in program history, has a proven star guard, a deep veteran rotation and plenty of length to work with. The Mavericks should once again be the team to beat in the RMAC and a strong bet to return to the NCAA Tournament.

KNOW YOUR FOE
Alaska Anchorage is coming off a season where they went 16-11 and finished 8-10 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference but failed to qualify for the GNAC Tournament. They are two years removed from a GNAC Tournament Championship win over Saint Martin's. They advanced to the NCAA West Region Championships before falling in the semis to Cal State Dominguez Hills. 

UAA was picked to finish sixth in the GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll and received one first-place vote. Western Washington and Central Washington each had four first-place votes with Western Washington earning 93 points to Central Washington's 88.

The Seawolves will be led by sophomore guard Mylee Anderson and fifth-year guard Kyla Momberg. Anderson averaged 10.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game as she turned in one of the more impressive freshman seasons in program history. She played in and started all 26 games during the season.

Momberg transferred in from Montana State Billings where she averaged 9.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals during her junior season. She starred at Montana Western for three years before transferring. 

A pair of former Mavericks are also on the roster at UAA in Sheridan Liggett and Anchorage native Evan Hamey. 

The Seawolves will make a second trip to the islands on Nov. 13 and 14 to play Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific. They will have their home opener on November 21 against Louisville as a part of the ASRC/ConocoPhillips Great Alaska Shootout. 

ROWLAND RETURNS
Mason Rowland is back for Colorado Mesa's 2026-27 season, and this time she's the leading scorer. The Durango native, now listed as a senior, started all 39 games last season and averaged 18.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists, scoring in double figures in 38 of them. 

The comeback followed a lost year. She was injured in the third game of 2024-25 while averaging 15.7 points and received a medical redshirt. Before that injury, she had been RMAC Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-RMAC. 

The RMAC noticed her return quickly. In a December road sweep of UCCS and Colorado Christian, she averaged 25 points while shooting 51% from the field and 55% from three, and made every free throw she attempted. That week earned her conference Offensive Player of the Week. In March, she made the RMAC All-Tournament Team as the Mavericks beat UCCS 92-67 for the title. She scored a career-high 35 points in that game, including 19 straight free throws. 

On the national stage, Colorado Mesa edged top-seeded Texas Woman's 65-64 and reached its first Final Four. Rowland scored 27 points against Indiana (Pa.) there, and no other Maverick besides Reed Thyne reached double figures. Olivia Reed Thyne has since graduated, so more of the scoring will fall to Rowland. 

CLARK'S COME UP
Hallie Clark arrived at Colorado Mesa as Alaska's Gatorade Player of the Year and the state's fifth all-time leading girls scorer. She finished her freshman season as the starting point guard on a Final Four team.

The Wasilla, Alaska native started all 39 games and averaged 7.9 points, 2.3 assists and 2.0 rebounds. Her season high was 18 points against Alaska Fairbanks in November. 

Her best basketball came in March. Clark averaged double figures in the RMAC Tournament and made the all-tournament team after the Mavericks' 92-67 title win over UCCS, joining Mason Rowland, Mykaela Moore and MVP Olivia Reed Thyne. In the NCAA South Central Regional, she played all 40 minutes of a 65-64 win over top-seeded Texas Woman's, scoring eight points, and made the regional all-tournament team. In the program's first Elite Eight win, 81-59 over Minnesota Duluth, she added five points, five rebounds and four assists.

Now a sophomore, Clark will be asked to do more. Reed Thyne and Moore have graduated, so a larger share of a 37-2 team's production falls to her.

EMERGENCE OF EYRE
Brooke Eyre has waited for this season. The 6-foot forward from Provo, Utah, played only 24 games across her first two years at Colorado Mesa, totaling 13 points. As a junior last season, she became a regular, appearing in all 39 games and averaging 2.4 points and 4.4 rebounds. She also shot 44.4 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three.

Her best regular-season game came on Jan. 31 against UCCS. With Olivia Reed Thyne and Mason Rowland in early foul trouble, Eyre came off the bench and scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting, including 3-of-3 from three. Her previous career high had been six.

She played her best in March. In the NCAA South Central Regional opener, an 80-45 win over Lubbock Christian, she grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds. She followed that with 10 rebounds in the win over UT Tyler.

THE NEWBIES
With Olivia Reed Thyne gone, Colorado Mesa brought in three tall transfers to help replace her inside.

Marlee Pieper arrives from Utah State Eastern. The 6-foot forward from Blackfoot, Idaho, started all 31 games last season and averaged 12.0 points and 8.6 rebounds, leading the team with 268 rebounds. In Scenic West Athletic Conference play, she raised that to 10.3 rebounds per game. She was a first-team all-region pick, won three conference Player of the Week awards, and is a two-time Academic All-American.

Madison Smith brings shot-blocking. The 6-2 forward from Mackinaw City, Michigan, was the MCCAA North Defensive Player of the Year at Mid Michigan College. She set the school's single-season record with 109 blocks and its single-game record with eight. Her teams won two Region 12 titles and finished seventh at the 2025 NJCAA Division II national tournament. Taylor Wagner said her length should make her a defensive factor right away.

Abby Leahy is a homecoming story. The 6-1 Colorado Springs native set Sand Creek High School records for steals and rebounds. At Northeastern Junior College, she started all 29 games she played and posted nine double-doubles, including an 18-point, 18-rebound game. She then spent last season at Division I UL Monroe, where she appeared in 11 games.

Along with Brooke Eyre, who becomes a starter this year, these three give Wagner his options to replace Reed Thyne's production in the post.

DEFENDING THE STANDARD
Every Colorado Mesa game this season will be measured against last season, the best in program history. The Mavericks went 37-2 overall and 20-0 in the RMAC. They were the first RMAC women's team since Nebraska Kearney in 1995-96 to go unbeaten in league play and also win the conference tournament.

The streak is a big part of that standard. After losing to West Texas A&M on Nov. 14, Colorado Mesa won 34 straight games before the national semifinals. The 26th straight win, in February, had already set a program record.

The March run went further than any before it. Before last season, CMU hadn't reached the Elite Eight since 2013 and hadn't gotten past the second round in Rowland's time there. The Mavericks beat top-seeded Texas Woman's 65-64 in the regional final, won the program's first Elite Eight game, and reached the first Final Four in school history, where they lost 75-70 to Indiana (Pa.). Taylor Wagner was named RMAC Coach of the Year.

Colorado Mesa enters 2026-27 with two streaks to protect. The first is its NCAA Tournament run. Last March was the program's 10th NCAA appearance, nine of them under Taylor Wagner, and its third in a row. Wagner's teams also made three straight from 2013 to 2015, and the program had only one appearance before he arrived. A fourth straight bid would therefore be the longest streak in program history.

The second is the 20-win season. CMU's year-by-year records show 10 of Wagner's 14 teams reaching 20 wins, including the last three: 25-7, 25-6 and 37-2. Before he took over in 2012-13, the program had five 20-win seasons and none since 2002-03. Last season was also the third time a Wagner team reached 30 wins.

RMAC PRESEASON POLL
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) released their Preseason Women's Basketball Coaches' Poll and Preseason All-RMAC Team on Thursday (Oct. 22) afternoon.

Head coaches of the schools in the conference had to rank teams from 1-to-14 and they could not vote for their own teams with 196 being the maximum points any team could receive.

Colorado Mesa was picked to win the conference for the fourth straight season as they received 192 points and 11 of the 14 possible first-place votes. The Mavericks went 20-0 and won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title for the first time since 2020. They later won the NCAA South Central Region title and advanced to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in program history.

MSU Denver was picked second with 166 points and a first-place vote followed by UCCS who netted 157 points and two first-place votes. Black Hills State was fourth with 155 points and the final first-place vote available.

Senior Mason Rowland was named to the Preseason All-RMAC team after receiving All-RMAC First Team honors a season ago. Rowland averaged 18.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in her junior season and scored a combined 52 points in her two NCAA Elite Eight games. The Durango, Colo. native was named to the RMAC All-Tournament Team and to the NCAA South Central Region All-Tournament Team for her performance in those two tournaments.

Colorado Mesa will open the season on Friday October 30 at the Hoops in Hawaii Tip-off Classic against Alaska Anchorage. The Mavericks will host Texas Permian Basin on Friday November 13 for their home opener. 

FIVE-FOR-5
On August 5, the NCAA approved a new age-based or clock eligibility model that allows student-athletes a streamlined five-year period to compete, starting upon full-time enrollment or after turning 19. 

This new rule replaces complex redshirt tracking and waivers and takes full effect for incoming cohorts starting in the fall of 2027. This rule also eliminates most traditional extension waivers outside of the major exceptions of military service, religious missions or pregnancy.

WHAT'S NEXT
The Mavericks will face either Chaminade or St. Mary's as a part of the Hoops in Hawaii Classic with winners playing winners and losers playing losers in the second round of the tournament.

Following the trip to the Hawaiian Islands, Colorado Mesa will return home and have two weeks to prep for a pair of important early season games. They will take on Texas Permian Basin in their home opener on Friday November 13 before a Sunday November 15 afternoon showdown with West Texas A&M in Brownson Arena.