GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's lacrosse played a solid defensive game but sputtered on offense as the nation's 18th-ranked Regis University Rangers claimed a 10-5 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win over the Mavericks on Wednesday here at the Community Hospital Unity Field.
 
The Rangers, were held below their 12.73 goal per game scoring average coming in to the game but still picked up their fifth straight win while improving to 8-4 overall and to 4-1 in the RMAC standings.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavs saw their 2-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 3-9 overall and to 2-3 in the RMAC standings, good for fourth place at the half-way point of the conference season.  The Rangers, who have won each of the last six RMAC regular season titles, two of which they shared with the Mavs, are in second place a game behind Westminster University, which will come to the CHUF on Friday at 11 a.m.
 
Maverick senior Devon Morris recorded her third straight hat trick to lead the Mavs' effort, netting four of their five goals.  Courtney Havel added another.
 
Maverick sophomore Heather Hawkins made ten saves in net, tallying seven in the first half.
 
Sophie Astone, Havel and Olivia Turk all had three ground balls for CMU while Astone scooped up four draw controls.
 
However, the Mavericks were guilty of 13 turnovers and held to 23 shots as both teams generally ran a patient attack.
 
Maggie Schipfer and Lexie Springman, the RMAC's two leading scorers, both finished with three goals to pace the Rangers while Brigit Goetsch made eight saves to earn the goalkeeping win.
 
The Mavs scored the game's opening goal just 1:18 in through Morris before a 95-minute lightning delay interrupted the game and the Mavs' early momentum.
 
After the resumption, the Rangers then came back to score three goals over a span of 4:11 in the first quarter to take a 3-1 lead and led the rest of the way.
 
Morris did answer with her and the Mavs' second goal just 1:33 into the second quarter, the only tally of that quarter.
 
Clinging to a 3-2 lead for the rest of that quarter and at halftime, the Rangers then scored the next four goals as the Mavs went scoreless through the entire third quarter.
 
Havel finally broke through at the 12:26 mark of the fourth quarter before Morris added two more goals in the game's final five minutes.
 
The two teams combined for seven of the game's 15 goals in the final quarter and ten of the 15 in the second half.
 
The game ended up as the lowest scoring game of the 37 all-time meetings in the RMAC rivalry.
 
The Rangers finished with a slight 29-23 advantage in total shots and had a 22-14 edge in ground balls.  The Mavs had a 9-8 advantage in draw controls.
 
The Rangers scored on four of their ten free position shots while the Mavs failed to beat Goetsch on their five attempts.