GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of three in a row, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will look to reach and surpass the 20-win mark and a home playoff match when the Mavs close out the regular season with two weekend matches against the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's two South Dakota teams.
 
The Mavericks, 19-5 overall and 10-2 in RMAC play, will host Black Hills State (9-15, 4-8 RMAC) on Friday evening at 6 p.m. in their Parent's Night match before taking on South Dakota Mines, currently 18-6 overall and 8-4 in conference play, on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in the Mavs' Senior Day match.
 
Tickets for both matches are available through the link above.
 
Both matches will also be streamed on the RMAC Network.
 
Live statistics will also be available here.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks made their last road trip of the regular season last weekend and were able to go 2-0.
 
They came from a 2-1 deficit to survive a 5-set scare at Chadron State on Friday before posting a dominant 3-0 sweep at Regis on Saturday.
 
In Friday's win, CMU's 32^nd straight over the Eagles since 1995, junior outside hitter Ashlee Macias recorded a match-high 17 kills and added 14 digs to record her fifth double-double of the season.  She had six kills and hit .714 in the fifth set and recorded ten kills in the fourth and fifth sets combined as the Mavs were able to come back.
 
Freshman libero Maya Grant also recorded a season-high 27 digs while junior setter Hallie Hewlett doled out 31 assists, her highest total in a Maverick uniform.
 
Things were much more straight-forward on Saturday as the Mavs dominated Regis in a 25-13, 25-8, 25-17 sweep.  The Mavs hit .398 and recorded 11 service aces in the sweep.

Macias led a balanced attack with nine kills and added a season-high five service aces as five different Mavericks recorded between seven and nine kills.  
 
Defensively, freshman defensive specialist Trinity Burchett added a season-high 11 digs while Macias chipped in nine.
 
Looking to Lock it up
 
The Mavericks, currently tied for second in the RMAC standings at 10-2, clinched a RMAC Tournament spot with Friday's win over Chadron State. 
 
They will now enter this weekend needing just one win or losses from both South Dakota Mines (at Westminster on Friday) and Colorado Christian (at Fort Lewis or at Western Colorado) to lock up a No. 1-4 seed and home-court advantage in next week's RMAC Tournament.
 
Two UCCS losses and losses by both Colorado Christian and South Dakota Mines would also be enough for the Mavs to claim a top four seed.
 
The Mavs have been seeded first through fourth in five of the last six years and have played away from home in the opening round of the RMAC Tournament just twice in that time, playing at Mines in 2025 while serving as the designated "home team" for a quarterfinal match in 2022, when all eight teams went to the same site for that year's tournament that was held over three consecutive days in Denver a slightly different tournament format
 
Title Possibilities & Complicated Seeding Scenarios
 
Although there are a number of ways the Mavs can clinch the home court advantage, they are also still alive for a share of the RMAC title and possibly even the No. 1 seed for the RMAC Tournament.
 
The Mavs are just one match behind MSU Denver (11-2 RMAC) and tied with the Colorado School of Mines (10-2 RMAC) for second place in the RMAC standings.
 
If CMU is able to win both matches this weekend and get help from either Adams State or New Mexico Highlands, who host MSU Denver in weekend matches, the Mavs would finish 12-2 and share the RMAC title regardless of what Mines does in home matches against Chadron State and Regis.
 
If the Mavs split their two matches, they would need MSU Denver to lose twice and Mines to drop one as well.  UCCS could also claim a share with two wins in that final scenario.
 
The tournament seeding gets more complicated.  The Mavs would win a direct head-to-head tiebreaker against MSU Denver by virtue of their win over the Roadrunners on Sept. 18, MSU Denver's only RMAC loss.  However, the Mavs would lose any direct tie-breakers with the Mines Orediggers for the same reason after they beat the Mavs on Oct. 17.
 
If the Mavs, Roadrunners and Orediggers all end up tied, the tie would be broken by each team's set winning percentage in RMAC matches since they all went 1-1 against each other. 
 
The Mavs currently sit third in that grouping with a .711 (32-13) set winning percentage behind Mines (.795, 31-8) and MSU Denver (.778, 35-10) heading into the final weekend.
 
The Mavs last won the RMAC title in the spring of 2021 and hosted that season's RMAC Tournament, played in April.  They have won nine RMAC regular season championships in total, including co-championships in 1994 and 2014.
 
Quest for 20
 
The Mavericks will also be searching for their 20^th win of the season when they face the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets on Friday. 
 
The Mavs have recorded 20 or more wins in 14 different seasons in their NCAA Division II membership era since and including 1992 and reached that milestone in four straight seasons from 2021-24 after going 15-1 in the abbreviated 2020-21 season, played in the spring due to COVID.
 
Maverick Head Coach Austin Albers will also be looking for his second career 20-win season at the NCAA Division II level after he and his CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves went 20-9 in what was his third of six seasons in Pueblo.
 
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, released for the third straight week on Monday morning.  Those rankings, which will now be updated daily throughout the rest of the season, will eventually determine the at-large qualifications and seeding for the regional portion of the NCAA Tournament, which begins on Nov. 19.
 
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 morning, CMU has a 60.837 rating, which is the 32^nd best score nationally.
 
Angelo State continues to lead the region at 67.125 while the Colorado School of Mines remained second and now has a 63.949 rating.  Dallas Baptist is just ahead of the Mavs at 61.286.
 
MSU Denver (60.312), UT Tyler (58.879), St. Edward's (56.299) and South Dakota Mines (56.176) are ranked fifth through eighth, respectively.
 
UCCS (55.246) and Colorado Christian (54.714) round out the top ten.
 
The rankings will be released daily.
 
To learn more about the NPI rating calculations, please visit this webpage: https://www.ncaa.org/championships/general-championship-resources/ncaa-power-index/
 
Coming up Aces
 
The Mavericks matched a season-high by recording 11 service aces in Saturday's win at Regis.  The Mavs has also recorded 11 aces in both of their matches on Sept. 5 against Adams State and Fairmont State during the Volley in the Valley Tournament.
 
Ashlee Macias recorded five, the highest individual total of the Mavs' season.  Her ace total is tied for the sixth best in the program's rally-scoring history during a 3-set match.
 
The Mavs' 11 ace efforts this season are all tied for the third best during a 3-set match.
 
The Mavericks continue to lead the RMAC in service aces with 163, good for a 1.94 per set average that also leads the RMAC.
 
They also pace the league in serving defense, allowing their opponents just 81 service aces this season, an average of 1.08 per set.
 
Senior Six
 
The Mavericks will recognize six players prior to Saturday's match, their last regular season match.
 
The class includes two fifth-year players in middle blocker Aesha Alrashed, who chose to come back after also being honored in 2025, and transfer Sydney Amiatu, who played four seasons of beach volleyball at NCAA Division I Hawai'i before returning to the indoor game at CMU.
 
Alrashed has appeared in 84 matches and 258 sets in a Maverick uniform and redshirted in 2024 before earning Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors last season.
 
The Mavs other honorees including Coco Barnett, Marli Clausi, Kaitlyn Hall and Macy Wood, who could all later choose to return in 2027 under new NCAA eligibility rules.  Clausi has been with the Mavericks for four seasons and has played in 94 matches and 205 sets to date as a defensive specialist.
 
Barnett, Hall and Wood are all transfers in their second seasons at CMU.  Barnett played for two seasons at Seattle Pacific while Hall and Wood began their collegiate careers at CSU Pueblo before transferring to CMU to re-unite with Maverick head coach Austin Albers, who had guided both for the two previous seasons in Pueblo.  Hall was the RMAC Freshman of the Year and a Second Team All-RMAC pick for Albers in 2024.
 
Top Ten Hitters
 
The Mavericks hit .398 as a team in the win over Regis and have raised their season-long team hitting percentage to .284, a mark that leads the RMAC and ranks ninth in the national statistical rankings.
 
The Mavs also have three of the top ten hitters in the RMAC statistics.  Jaycee Windorski and Addie Ritterbush are both hitting .369 and are ranked second and third, respectively.  Henley Madsen is ranked ninth at .299.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
Although they saw their 11-match home-court winning streak that had dated back to 2025 snapped back on Oct. 17 in what was their last home match, the Mavs have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena.  The Mavs are now 9-1 at home this season with this weekend's two home matches remaining on the slate.
 
They went 7-2 at home last season and have posted an impressive 81-10 home record and .890 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 132-27 (.830) since the start of that campaign.
 
They are 117-18 (.867) in their last 135 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. 10) AVCA-Taraflex Division II poll, as they have been in the ten previous editions, including the preseason poll.
 
The Mavericks have 26 points in this week's poll, four 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.
 
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 16 points in this week's poll.
 
The Colorado School of Mines moved up two more spots to 20^th in this week's poll and continues to be the only RMAC team in the top 25.
 
Two other teams the Mavs have played this season are also receiving votes .  Those are Dallas Baptist (20) and Biola (16).  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 have matched that win total this year and are now 36-16 (.692) in 52 matches with Albers at the helm.
 
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 19-5 record, Albers now has a 129-77 (.626) 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 274-134 (.672) 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 Yellow Jackets
 
Black Hills State will enter Friday's match with a 9-15 overall and 4-8 RMAC record and will look to play the role of spoilers after being eliminated from RMAC Tournament contention last week after dropping home matches to South Dakota Mines and nationally-ranked Colorado School of Mines last Tuesday and Friday, respectively.
 
They had gone 1-1 in each of the three previous weeks.
 
They are also hoping to reach the 10-win mark for the first time since 2019 and could do so with an upset win over CMU on Friday or a victory in their season finale on Saturday at Westminster.
 
Carsyn Mettler, Izzy Saiki and Zoie Husman all have over 200 kills and over 700 attacks in a balanced attack.  Mettler, a 5-foot-11 senior opposite, leads the group with 277 kills (3.01/set) and his hitting .280 to lead the regulars in hitting percentage.  She ranks ninth in the RMAC for kills per set and 15^th for hitting percentage.
 
Saiki, a 5-foot-10 senior outside hitter, has 235 kills (2.90/set) and his hitting .202 while also leading co-leading the 'Jackets with 31 service aces (0.38/set) alongside setter Elena Atkinson.  Saiki is 13^th in the conference for kills per set and is fourth in the service aces.  She also ranks tenth in the conference for points per set (3.40).
 
Husman, a 5-foot-10 junior outside, has 219 kills (2.41/set) and has added 29 aces.
 
Keira Thompson (263), Husman (222) and Saiki (218) all have more than 200 digs as well.
 
Peyton McLeod leads the team with 77 blocks (0.84/set) to rank 15^th in the RMAC while Atkinson and Emma Kruger have split time at the setter spot, mostly running in a 6-2 offensive scheme.  Atkinson has 469 assists (5.10/set) and has started 16 matches while Kruger has 402 assists (4.52/set) while making eight starts.
 
About the Hardrockers
 
The Hardrockers had been one of the hottest teams in the RMAC and had won seven straight matches before giving up a 2-1 lead in a 5-set loss to the Colorado School of Mines, which has now won 14 straight matches, in their home finale on Saturday afternoon.  However, they did snap the Orediggers' program record 40-set winning streak.
 
Sitting at 18-6 overall and 8-4 in the RMAC, the Hardrockers are currently tied for fifth place in the RMAC standings but still alive to claim a top four seed and a home playoff match if they can win both of their matches on a Western road trip.
 
Playing at Westminster on Friday before coming to Grand Junction, the Hardrockers are also playing for a potential NCAA Tournament bid and sit eighth and in the last protentional qualification spot for the national tournament.
 
6-foot sophomore pin hitter Cate Warren leads the Lauren Prochazka coached Hardrockers with 305 kills and ranks fourth in the RMAC with her 3.35 per set average.  She also sits eighth in the RMAC for total points per set at 3.62 and has been in double figures for kills in six of the last eight matches.
 
Sophomore Lexi Glendinning also provides big offensive support and has 273 kills (3.00/set) to rank tenth in the conference.  She and Maria Bouman, who his hitting .360 with 194 kills, both have 301 ½ total points as Bouman has also registered 102 blocks and 47 service aces as one of the RMAC's top all-around players.  Bouman, a junior middle blocker, leads the RMAC in both total aces and aces per set (0.51) while sitting fourth for hitting, sixth for blocking and 13^th for total points per set (3.24).

Emily Henderson is Prochazka's first choice setter and has 576 assists and a 6.26 per set average that has her ranked sixth in the conference.  She also has 17 aces and is third on the team with 220 digs (2.39/set).  Hannah Joseph also regularly rotates in and has 410 assists (4.41/set) while recording 21 aces and 131 digs.
 
Campbell Sheffield has 334 digs (3.63/set) to lead the team and rank 12^th in the RMAC while senior outside hitter Ivy Vindivch has 242 digs (2.66/set) and 140 kills (1.54/set).
 
Exploring the Rivalries
 
The Mavericks have fared well against their South Dakota rivals, two of the newest RMAC members.
 
The Mavs are 14-1 all-time against Black Hills State and have won nine straight against the Yellow Jackets, seven of which have come by 3-0 margins.  The Mavs are 7-0 against the 'Jackets at home and have dropped just four total sets in those matches, the first of which was played as a non-conference match in 2011.
 
The Mavs are 12-2 all-time against South Dakota Mines although the Hardrockers have won two of the last three match-ups.  The teams split the season series in 2025 with South Dakota Mines winning a RMAC Power Pod match-up by a 3-0 margin on Halloween in Denver before the Mavs responded to sweep the Hardrockers just 15 days later (Nov. 15) in Rapid City.
 
CMU is a perfect 5-0 at home against the 'Rockers, who last visited Grand Junction in 2023.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will learn their final seeding and opponent for the opening round of the RMAC Tournament on Saturday evening.
 
The RMAC Tournament will begin on Tuesday night (Nov. 10) with the top four seeds each hosting a quarterfinal round match.  The winners of those matches will then head to the semifinals, which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed next Friday (Nov. 13).  The championship match will be played at the same site on Saturday, Nov. 14.