GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will play in its first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Championship match since 2018 when the No. 3 seeded Mavericks take on top-seeded MSU Denver on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. in the Roadrunners' Auraria Event Center.
 
The Mavericks, 23-5 overall, reached the final after taking down No. 6 seed Fort Lewis at home on Tuesday night in Tuesday's quarterfinal round before beating nationally-ranked and No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines in a 5-set thriller on Friday in Denver.
 
The Roadrunners, 22-6 overall, have won 14 straight matches and similarly survived in a 5-setter over No. 5 South Dakota Mines on Friday after dispatching of No. 8 seed Adams State in three sets on Tuesday.
 
Tickets for Saturday's match can be purchased through the RMAC's platform at the link above.
 
The match 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
 
The Mavericks jumped out to a 2-0 lead and then controlled the decisive fifth set in a 25-16, 25-18, 20-25, 24-26, 15-10 victory over 19^th-ranked Colorado School of Mines in Friday's semifinal round victory.
 
Four different Maverick hitters finished in double-figures for kills as Ashlee Macias led the Mavs with 18 kills while adding 13 digs to record her eighth double-double of the season.  Henley Madsen and Molly Whalen also recorded 17-kill efforts while Kaitlyn Hall recorded ten.
 
Defensively, libero Maya Grant tallied 26 digs while defensive specialist Addison Wright had a season-high 17 digs.
 
Setter Hallie Hewlett also recorded a season-high 38 assists as the Mavericks hit .312 as a team.
 
The victory avenged a pair of regular season losses to the Orediggers, who had won 17 straight matches.
 
Full Recap:  https://cmumavericks.com/news/2026/11/13/womens-volleyball-mavs-take-down-nationally-ranked-orediggers-in-rmac-semis.aspx
 
Title History
 
The Mavericks will be looking for their third RMAC Tournament title in program history, having previously won the crowns in 2014 and 2018.  They beat the Roadrunners in the championship match of both of those tournaments and have not been in the final since 2018.
 
The Roadrunners have won a league-high nine RMAC Tournament titles and have played in the final every year since and including 2016.
 
Tournament Double-Double
 
Ashlee Macias' 18-kill, 13-dig double-double in Friday's semifinal win was her second double-double of this week's RMAC Tournament.  She had 14 kills and 13 digs in Tuesday's quarterfinal sweep of Fort Lewis College.
 
Macias now has a team-high eight double-doubles this season and continues to pace the Mavericks in kills (300), service aces (40), total points (353 ½) and ranks second in digs (254).
 
Knocking out the Orediggers
 
Friday's RMAC Tournament semifinal win over the Colorado School of Mines knocked the Orediggers out of the conference tournament.  CMU also knocked out Mines out of the 2025 RMAC Tournament, winning a quarterfinal round match-up in the Orediggers' Lockridge Arena.  That match also went five sets.
 
7-7-7
 
The Mavericks have won seven straight matches entering Saturday's RMAC Championship.  They now have three separate 7-match winning streaks this season.  They are the only team in the RMAC with three or more winning streaks of five or more matches this season.
 
Semifinal Snafus Snapped
 
As one of the elite programs in the RMAC, the Mavericks played in the RMAC Tournament semifinals for the seventh straight season on Friday and managed to snap a run of losses in that round.  The Mavericks had dropped their RMAC Tournament semifinal match in the six previous seasons from the spring of 2021 through last fall.
 
Up a spot
  
The Mavericks have all but officially secured a sixth straight NCAA Tournament berth and moved up a spot to third in Saturday's morning release of the NPI (National Power Index) Rankings, which have been released daily since Nov. 1.
 
Those rankings, which will be updated one more time after Saturday's matches from around the region and country, will determine the at-large qualifications and seeding for the regional portion of the NCAA Tournament, which begins on Thursday (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 Saturday's rankings, CMU has a 62.018 rating, which is the 21^st best score nationally.  Thanks to the win over Mines, the Mavs moved past Dallas Baptist, which now sits fourth at 61.944.
 
The Patriots will play St. Edward's in Saturday's Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship match.
 
Angelo State continues to lead the region at 65.135 despite falling to St. Edward's in the LSC semifinals.
 
Mines is still second at 63.032 while MSU Denver is fifth at 60.370.
 
UT Tyler is sixth at 57.564 while St. Edward's (56.748) and South Dakota Mines (55.830) round out what will be the apparent field for next week's South Central Regional tournament although the results of Saturday's RMAC and LSC Tournament matches will certainly have an impact on the final seeding.
 
To learn more about the NPI rating calculations, please visit this webpage- https://www.ncaa.org/championships/general-championship-resources/ncaa-power-index/
 
All-Conference Six Pack
 
A league-leading six Mavericks were named to the First and Second Team All-RMAC units that were announced on Thursday.  Ashlee Macias, Henley Madsen and Molly Whalen were all first team picks while Addie Ritterbush, Ashlyn Tafoya and Jaycee Windorski were all second team picks.
 
Notably, Madsen and Tafoya were also second team picks as freshman in 2025 while Macias was a Second Team All-Lone Star Conference honoree while playing for UT Permian Basin last season.
 
Whalen was one of just three freshman on this year's first team unit, made up of 14 players.
 
MSU Denver also had three first team picks in GabriElle Brewer, Brooke Gennerman and Hayden Liebsack.  Trynity Martin earned secondo team honors while three other Roadrunners in Mia Accomazzo, Kami Scott and Mayah Pridgett picked up honorable mention honors.
 
MSU Denver was the only RMAC school with seven total honorees.
 
300 equals win
 
The Mavericks hit .336 as a team in Tuesday's quarterfinal win over Fort Lewis and recorded a .312 team attack percentage in Friday's win.  They have now hit above .300 in five straight matches to raise their season-long team percentage to .291, which leads the RMAC by 16 points while putting them sixth in the national statistics.
 
The Mavs have hit .300 or above 17 times this season and are a perfect 17-0 in those matches.
 
Top Ten Hitters
 
The Mavericks also have four different players in the top ten of the RMAC's individual hitting percentage stats. No other RMAC team has more than one inside the top ten.
 
CMU's Jaycee Windorski is now hitting .377 after putting down nine kills without an error in Friday's semifinal win to rank second in the RMAC.  Addie Ritterbush is fourth at .359 while Molly Whalen is in the No. 7 spot at .304.  Henley Madsen now ranks tenth at .294 after moving up a spot following her 17-kill and .371 hitting effort on Friday.
 
Mines' Jenna McLaughlin leads the conference at .393 while MSU Denver's Mayah Pridgett is sixth at .313 as the Roadrunners lone representative in the top ten.
 
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 category 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 now 3-0 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 Mavs then dispatched of No. 19 Mines in Friday's semifinal win.
 
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 40-16 (.714) in 56 matches with Albers at the helm and have a 3-1 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 23-5 record, Albers now has a 133-77 (.633) 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 278-134 (.675) 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 Roadrunners
 
MSU Denver has won 14 straight matches and is 22-6 this season.  They won the RMAC's regular season title with a 13-1 conference record although their lone conference loss came at the hands of the Mavs back on Sept. 18 in Denver.
 
As the defending national champions, they have now won eight straight post-season matches since last year and will be making their 11^th straight RMAC Tournament Championship appearance since starting that run in 2016.  They have won three of the last four RMAC Tournament titles in 2022, 2024 and 2025 and have won eight straight RMAC Tournament matches since falling in the 2023 finals to Regis.
 
Sophomore outside hitter Brooke Genenrman leads the Roadrunners and the RMAC as a whole with 394 kills, good for a 4.06 per set average that puts her 17th in the national statistics.
 
Freshman Hayden Liebsack also ranks eighth in the RMAC with her 3.10 per set average and had put down at least ten kills in 12 straight matches before finishing with nine in Friday's 5-set win over South Dakota Mines.  However, she also added a season-high 22 digs in that victory.
 
Fellow freshman Kami Scott finished Friday's win with a season-best 19 kills and is third on the team with 232 kills (2.37/set).
 
Setter GabriElle Brewer has dished out 846 assists and ranks second in the RMAC with that total and her 8.55 per set average.  She is also second in the RMAC with 43 service aces.
 
Mia Accomazzo leads the Roadrunners with 354 digs (3.93/set) but has missed both of the Roadrunners' RMAC Tournament matches due to injury.  Gennerman is second with 241 (2.48/set) while Liebasck is third with 208 (2.24/set).
 
Middle blocker Mayah Pridgett leads the team with 88 blocks (0.89/set) while Trynity Martin has put down 82 (0.83/set).
 
The Roadrunners head coach is Stacie Meisner, in her first season at MSU Denver after three strong seasons at Alaska-Anchorage.
 
Former coach Jenny Glenn, the architect of the Roadrunners' 2025 national title run, is now at NCAA Division I American University and has led the Eagles to a 20-5 record and a Patriot League regular season title in her first season in the nation's capital.
 
Exploring the Rivalry
 
The Roadrunners have controlled the rivalry with the Mavs, winning 41 of the 55 matches the teams have played against each other during the NCAA Division II era- since 1992.  However, the Mavs have some notable wins over the Roadrunners in recent times, winning earlier this season on Sept. 18 when MSU Denver was ranked 19^th in the country.
 
The Mavs have beat the Roadrunners in each of the last three seasons as the Mavs also took down the then top-ranked Roadrunners on Nov. 2, 2024 before winning the first of what was four matches between the teams last season at home in Grand Junction on Sept. 26, 2025 when the Roadrunners were ranked fifth nationally.
 
The Roadrunners then avenged that loss to win a  later RMAC Power Pod Match and was able to get past the Mavs in both the RMAC Tournament Semifinals and NCAA Regional Quarterfinal last season.
 
MSU Denver is 25-5 against the Mavs in the Auraria Event Center during the Division II era.
 
The teams have played 15 times in the last five years alone with regular post-season and RMAC Power Pod match-ups increasing the frequency of the rivalry.
 
The teams have split the last six matches, 3-3.
 
Up Next
 
If the Mavericks win Saturday's championship match, they would claim the RMAC's automatic qualification spot in next week's NCAA Tournament and would likely be the No. 3 seed.  However, the Mavs are also set to earn an at-large spot even if they were to lose.
 
The Mavericks will learn their final seeding, first round opponent and the location of the regional during the NCAA Tournament selection show that will air on  NCAA.com at 8 p.m. MST on Sunday.
 
The Roadrunners are also going to be selected and have qualified for every NCAA Tournament this century since 2000.