GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Senior Courtney Havel scored four goals, including three in the first 22 minutes as the Colorado Mesa University women's lacrosse team built 4-0 and 5-2 leads before the UCCS Mountain Lions roared back to claim an 8-7 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win on Sunday here at the Mavs' Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
The Mountain Lions snapped a 3-game slide and improved to 2-4 overall and to 1-1 in the RMAC as they beat the Mavs for the first time in 16 all-time tries.
 
The Mavericks dropped their straight decision and fell to 1-7 overall and to 0-1 in the RMAC.
 
The three recent losses have come by a combined four goals.  Each of their last five games have been decided by two goals or less.
 
Havel, who now has back-to-back 4-goal games put the Mavs up 3-0 with her first two goals while Cassidy Keykal added another with 1:43 left in the opening quarter.
 
Playing exquisite defense, the Mavs gave up just one goal in the entire first half but went without a goal of their own throughout the second quarter and for the first seven minutes of the third before Havel scored her third of the contest on a woman-up situation with eight minutes left in the third.
 
The Mavs led 5-2 at that point but surrendered a woman-up goal as the Mountain Lions went on a 4-0 run over a spurt of just under three minutes to take a 6-5 lead.
 
Kaylee Kittle, who had scored a woman-up goal early, then tied the game at six near the end of the third quarter.
 
However, the Mountain Lions continued to stall the Maverick offense as Ella Mills gave the Mountain Lions a 7-6 lead with 9:02 left.
 
The visitors then won the ensuing draw control and scored another goal deep into the possession to go up 8-6.
 
Havel would respond with 2:29 left to complete the scoring as the Mountain Lions won the game's final draw control before drawing a free position shot with just over a minute remaining.  That shot hit the post, but UCCS was able to scoop up the rebound before running the clock out.
 
The Mavericks won all six of the first quarter draw controls but won just two of the 11 in the second half as UCCS finished with a 9-8 edge in that statistical category.
 
The Mavs also finished with a 26-20 advantage in shots, although UCCS Delaney Gross made nine saves to mitigate that factor.
 
Rylie Maready and Sofia Watts both had two goals form the Mountain Lions while Allison Hoffman scored the clinching goal while recording two assists.
 
Carson Dickey had two assists for the Mavs.
 
Sophie Astone had five ground balls and three draw controls to lead the Maverick possession game while Heather Hawkins made six saves while claiming four ground balls.
 
The Mavericks will play their next three RMAC games on the road, starting Saturday (Mar. 21) at Westminster in Salt Lake City.  The Griffins have been the surprise of the RMAC thus far in 2026 and claimed a 12-11 win over UCCS on Friday afternoon before stunning nationally-ranked Regis by the same margin on Sunday.
 
The Griffins, now 3-2 overall and atop the RMAC with a 2-0 conference record, were picked fourth in the conference's preseason coaches' poll behind co-favorites CMU and Regis and No. 3 pick UCCS.  They will host William Jewell in a non-conference game on Wednesday before hosting the Mavs at Dumke Field.