GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of six straight matches, including Tuesday night's quarterfinal round match-up, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball team will take on nationally-ranked Colorado School of Mines in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal showdown on Friday night in Denver.
The Mavericks, 22-5, are the tournament's third seed, while the Orediggers (24-3) are the No. 2 seed and sit 19
th in the latest AVCA-Taraflex NCAA Division II Poll. They have won 17 straight matches, including two regular season victories over the Mavs.
Friday's match-up is slated for 7:30 p.m. at MSU Denver's Auraria Event Center following the first semifinal between the top-seeded Roadrunners and No. 5 seed South Dakota Mines at 5 p.m.
Tickets for that match as well as Saturday's 5 p.m. championship match which will pit Friday's two winners against each other can be purchased through the RMAC's platform at the link above.
The matches will be also be streamed
on the RMAC Network.
Live statistics will also be available at the link above.
More information about the tournament and the tournament fan guide
can be found on the RMAC Championship webpage.
Last Time Out
Freshman outside hitter
Molly Whalen recorded a season-high 22 kills on .529 hitting while
Ashlee Macias (14 kills, 13 digs) and
Ashlyn Tafoya (19 assists, 11 digs) both recorded double-doubles to lead the Mavericks to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-19) win over No. 6 seed Fort Lewis College in Tuesday night's RMAC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Mavs hit .336 as a team and finished with 52-33 and 56-44 advantages in total kills and digs.
Matching her number
Freshman
Molly Whalen matched her uniform number by recording a season-high 22 kills in Tuesday's RMAC Tournament quarterfinal win over Fort Lewis. The kill total is the highest for any Maverick in a 3-set match since Sydney Leffler registered the same number in a win over South Dakota Mines on Oct 16, 2021. Whalen's total was also the highest for any Maverick in any length match this season.
Molly's Good Week
Before starring on Tuesday,
Molly Whalen had been named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. She earned her second such honor of the season after recording 27 combined kills, an average of 4.50 per set, while hitting .345 in the Mavs' final regular season wins over Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines last week.
Double Double-Double
The Mavericks had two players record double-doubles in Tuesday's RMAC Tournament win over Fort Lewis.
Ashlee Macias had 14 kills and 13 digs while
Ashlyn Tafoya recorded 19 assists and 11 digs.
The same duo had also recorded a double-double in CMU's 5-set win over Fort Hays State on Sept. 4 and are the only two Mavs to have double-doubles this year. Macias has seven to pace the team while Tafoya has recorded two.
They are also the CMU's first duo to record double-doubles in the same RMAC Tournament match since 2018 when setters Ara Norwood and Samantha Ritter but had them in the semifinal round win over Dixie State (now Utah Tech).
Tafoya and
Sadie Scoville both had double-doubles in the Mavs' Dec. 4 NCAA Tournament match against MSU Denver last season.
Streaky Mavs
The Mavericks have won now won six straight matches after recording a pair of 7-match winning streaks earlier this season. They are the only team in the RMAC with three or more winning streaks of five or more matches this season.
Semifinal Streak
The Mavericks have now advanced to the semifinal round of the RMAC Tournament in seven straight seasons. That streak is the second longest current streak in the RMAC behind only MSU Denver, which has reached the tournament semifinals every year since 2013, reaching the finals in every year since 2016.
Semifinal Struggles
Although the Mavericks have reached the semifinals, they have struggled in that round as of late losing every RMAC Tournament semifinal in the previous six seasons. Their last RMAC Tournament semifinal win was in 2018 when they went on to win the tournament.
Third Time is a charm?
Friday's RMAC Tournament semifinal will mark the third time this season that the Mavs will face the Colorado School of Mines. The Orediggers won both previous matches by 3-0 margins in a pair of matches played just six days apart.
Mines won in Grand Junction on Oct. 17 in the official RMAC match before winning on Oct. 22 in Golden during the first day of a RMAC Power Pod match-up.
Closing in on sixth straight
The Mavericks are closing in on what would be a sixth straight NCAA Tournament berth and continue to sit fourth in
the latest NPI (National Power Index) Rankings, which have been released daily since Nov. 1.
Those rankings will eventually determine the at-large qualifications and seeding for the regional portion of the NCAA Tournament, which begins on Nov. 19.
The selection show will air on
NCAA.com on Sunday at 8 p.m. MST.
The NPI rankings, which are entirely mathematical, replace the former regional rankings that were compiled on a somewhat subjective basis by a regional advisory committee under the oversight and criteria, established by the national committee.
Eight teams, including the champions of the Lone Star Conference and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournaments, who both earn automatic qualification spots, will be selected for the regional tournament.
The NPI rankings will also determine the No. 1 through 8 seeding.
As of Wednesday's rankings, CMU has a 61.357 rating, which is the 25
th best score nationally.
Angelo State continues to lead the region at 67.205 while the Colorado School of Mines remained second and now has a 64.052 rating. Dallas Baptist is just ahead of the Mavs at 61.908 as the gap has tightened following the Mavs' Tuesday night win.
MSU Denver (60.400), UT Tyler (58.421), South Dakota Mines (56.245) and St. Edward's (55.600) and ranked fifth through eighth, respectively.
UCCS (54.953), would currently be the first time out and has been bounced out of the RMAC Tournament by South Dakota Mines. Texas A&M-Kingsville (53.861) round out to top ten.
The 9-team Lone Star Conference Tournament begins with a single match on Wednesday night and will continue in earnest with four quarterfinal matches on Thursday. Angelo State is hosting that tournament and also has the inside track to hosting next week's regional tournament.
To learn more about the NPI rating calculations, please visit this webpage:
https://www.ncaa.org/championships/general-championship-resources/ncaa-power-index/
300 equals win
The Mavericks hit .336 as a team in Tuesday's win over Fort Lewis and have now hit above .300 in four straight matches to raise their season-long team percentage to .289, which leads the RMAC by 12 points while putting them seventh in the national statistics.
The Mavs have hit .300 or above 16 times this season and are a perfect 16-0 in those matches.
Mines has the second best team attack percentage in the RMAC at .277 and ranks 15
th in the country as of Wednesday morning
.
Top Ten Hitters
The Mavericks also have four different players in the RMAC's individual hitting percentage stats. They are the only team in the RMAC with more than two players in the top 15 and one of just two (Mines) that has more than a single player in the rankings.
CMU's
Jaycee Windorski (.366) and
Addie Ritterbush (.361) now sit third and fourth heading into the RMAC Tournament semifinals while
Molly Whalen surged into the No. 7 spot at .304 following her 22-kill, .529-hitting effort on Tuesday.
Maverick sophomore
Henley Madsen now ranks 11
th at .289.
Mines' Jenna McLaughlin leads the conference at .392 while her teammate Abbie O'Shay is tenth at .293.
Home Sweet Home
The Mavs consistently took advantage of their home court and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena this season, finishing 12-1 at home.
The strong home campaign is nothing new for the Mavericks, who went 7-2 at home last season and have posted an impressive 84-10 home record and .894 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 15 seasons since and including 2012, going 135-27 (.833) since the start of that campaign.
They are 120-18 (.870) in their last 138 home matches since 2014.
In the Polls
The Mavericks are continuing to be in the others receiving votes categor
of this week's (Week No. 11) AVCA-Taraflex Division II poll, as they have been in the 11 previous editions, including the preseason poll.
The Mavericks have 19 points in the most recent poll.
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.
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 20 points in the most recent poll.
The Colorado School of Mines, who the Mavs play on Friday, moved up one more spot to 19
th in the latest poll and continues to be the only RMAC team in the current top 25. They were receiving votes at the time of the two other match-ups with the Mavs on Oct. 17 and Oct. 22.
Two other teams the Mavs have played this season are also receiving votes . Those are Dallas Baptist (31) and Biola (7). 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.
The Mavs are now 39-16 (.709) in 55 matches with Albers at the helm and have a 2-1 record in the RMAC Tournament under his guidance.
Albers 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 22-5 record, Albers now has a 132-77 (.632) 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 277-134 (.674) overall collegiate coaching record.
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 hold the RMAC's best overall record at 24-3 and like the Mavs finished with a 12-2 mark. They earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament, edging the Mavs in a seeding tie-breaker thanks to their head-to-head win.
The Orediggers have won 17 straight matches and have moved to 19
th in this week's AVCA-Taraflex Division II Poll.
They were drubbed 25-11 in the first set of their 3-1 quarterfinal win against No. 7 seed Colorado Christian but won the remaining three sets by 25-21 margins.
Caroline Walden led all players with 17 kills while Jenna McLaughlin continued to shine, recording 15 kills on .412 hitting while adding eight total blocks.
McLaughlin leads the RMAC in both hitting and blocking, recording a .392 attack percentage and 140 blocks, good for a 1.51 per set average that puts her second nationally. The 6-foot-2 junior middle blocker has been named as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week a league-high four times this season and also added an offensive award on Oct. 19.
She also leads the Orediggers in kills (284) and total points (385.5) and ranks tenth and third in the conference with her 3.05 kill and 4.15 total points per set averages.
Naomi Romslo, who has 223 kills (2.42/set) and Cadence McDonald, who has 214 kills (2.80/set), have also been significant offensive contributors.
6-foot freshman setter Kaiya Gilbert leads the RMAC with 938 assists (10.09/set) and is tied with Romslo for second on the team with 29 aces.
Libero Francesca Nuzzo leads the team with 34 aces (0.37/set) and ranks sixth in the RMAC. She also has 400 digs to rank ninth in the conference with her 4.30 per set average. Gilbert also has 247 digs (2.66/set) and is third on the team with 70 blocks (0.75/set).
Abbie O'Shay has 73 blocks (0.81/set) and has 184 kills (2.04/set) and a .293 attack percentage.
The Orediggers are the best defensive team in the RMAC and lead the league while ranking third nationally in blocking (2.71/set). They also top the RMAC in opponent hitting percentage (.153) and are tied with the Mavs for the fewest service aces allowed (103, 1.11/set).
They also rank second in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .277 and are first in the conference for points per set (18.17) and second behind MSU Denver for kills per set (13.69), just one more than the Mavs.
Exploring the Rivalry
The rivalry between the Mavs and Colorado School of Mines 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.
Although they are 0-2 against the Orediggers this season, the Mavericks still lead the overall series 26-22 during the NCAA Division II era and have won four of the last seven matches after the Orediggers had won five of the previous six between 2019-24.
The Mavs are 1-2 against the Orediggers in neutral-site matches during the NCAA Division II era, last playing in 2021 in the semifinal round of that year's RMAC Tournament, which was hosted at MSU Denver. The Mavs have also split 5-set matches with the Orediggers in the 2005 and 2008 RMAC Tournaments at Nebraska-Kearney.
In RMAC Tournament play, the Mavs are 3-7 against the Orediggers, claiming last year's quarterfinal to snap a run of five straight Oredigger playoff wins between 2012 and the spring of 2021.
Up Next
Should the Mavericks win on Friday, they would advance to the RMAC Tournament Championship match for the first time since 2018 and would play either MSU Denver or South Dakota Mines in Saturday's Championship match at 5 p.m.
The Mavericks beat both of those opponents during the regular season. They won in five sets at MSU Denver on Sept. 18 to hand the Roadrunners their only RMAC loss of the season and beat South Dakota Mines in a 3-set home sweep last Saturday afternoon.
If the Mavericks were to fall on Friday, they would await the NCAA Tournament selection show, which will air on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. MST on Sunday, to determine where and who they will play in the South Central Regional next week.
