GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After going 6-0 in a recent homestand, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will take their winning streak and momentum on the road to face the two defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Co-Champions this weekend on Colorado's Front Range.
 
The Mavericks, now 8-2 overall and tied for the RMAC lead with a 2-0 conference record, begin the weekend on Friday at 6 o'clock against the defending NCAA Division II National Champion MSU Denver Roadrunners, currently ranked 19^th nationally.
 
The Mavs will then head to Colorado Springs for a Saturday matinee (3 p.m.) at UCCS in a battle of teams who are receiving votes in the latest AVCA-Taraflex NCAA Division II poll.
 
The Mavs will then play another road match at Western Colorado University in Gunnison on Tuesday at 6 p.m.  That is the first of the Mavs' two RMAC Regional Pod week matches.
 
All three matches can be streamed via a subscription to the RMAC Network.
 
Live statistics can be accessed at the links above.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks opened up RMAC play with a pair of dominant home wins over Adams State and New Mexico Highlands last weekend.
 
In Friday's 25-21, 25-11, 25-17 win over Adams State, the Mavs hit .354 as a team while sophomore Addie Ritterbush put down 16 kills while hitting .500.  Ashlee Macias also recorded 12 kills on .381 hitting and recorded her third double-double of the season while putting up 11 digs.
 
Libero Maya Grant made 17 digs while setter Ashlyn Tafoya recorded 23 assists while registering a .548 set percentage.
 
The Mavs were even more dominant in Saturday afternoon's 25-9, 25-17, 25-21 victory over New Mexico Highlands.
 
Nineteen different Mavericks saw playing time as 11 of them started sets as head coach Austin Albers was able to effectively use his bench while giving some starters rest.
 
Freshman outside hitter Molly Whalen recorded 17 kills in her first career start and hit .538.  Macias also added nine kills on .412 hitting as the Mavs hit .351 as a team as Kaitlyn Hall (6) and Coco Barnett (5) combined for 11 additional kills.
 
Grant finished with 15 digs while Tafoya had 22 assists.
 
The Mavs also recorded ten blocks from eight different players, just one shy of their season-high.
 
Top Ten Hitters
 
The Mavericks continued to lead the RMAC statistics with their team attack percentage of .296, which now ranks the Mavs tenth in the national statistics.  The Mavs lead the RMAC statistics by 27 points over the Colorado School of Mines, which is hitting .269 as a team.
 
The Mavs also rank second in the RMAC for kills per set (13.38) and lead the conference with 12.56 assists per set.
 
Individually, the Mavericks have the top two and three of the RMAC's top eight hitters.  Junior Jaycee Windorski leads the RMAC statistics with a .390 attack percentage from her middle blocker position. while sophomore Addie Ritterbush is second at .375.  Fellow sophomore opposite hitter Henley Madsen ranks eighth at .324.
 
Strong Serving
 
The Mavericks also lead the RMAC in service aces per set, recording 2.13 per set to sit well clear of Westminster and MSU Denver's 1.89 per set marks.  The Mavs have 68 total service aces, trailing only Westminster's total of 70, which have come in 37 sets.
 
They recorded five in each of last weekend's wins.
 
Junior outside hitter Ashlee Macias and sophomore setter Ashlyn Tafoya both rank amongst the RMAC's top ten servers, sitting eighth and tenth, respectively with their 0.43 and 0.41 per set averages.
 
Top D
 
The Mavericks also top the RMAC statistics in the RMAC defensive statistics, holding their ten combined opponents to a .139 attack percentage, less than half of their .296 mark.  CMU held both Adams State (.087) and New Mexico Highlands (.094) to sub-100 marks last weekend and have held five different opponents to percentages below that mark, including two teams to negative hitting percentages.
 
Quick-working Mavs
 
Nine of the Mavs' ten matches to date have been decided in 3-set sweeps.  The Mavs have been victorious in seven of those seven and were also able to win the lone longer match they have played this year— a 5-set victory over Fort Hays State.
 
The Mavs are 8-2 in both the first and second sets of matches this year.  They have a 7-3 record in the third set of matches.
 
The Mavs' 32 total sets played are the fewest in the RMAC.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
The Mavericks have consistently taken advantage of their home and supportive crowd in Brownson Arena, something they continued with the two wins last week.
 
The Mavs are slated to play 13 home matches this year and are already off to a 6-0 start.
 
They went 7-2 at home last season and have posted an impressive 78-9 home record and .897 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 129-26 (.832) since the start of that campaign.
 
They are 114-17 (.870) in their last 129 home matches since 2014.
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks were picked second and received a first place vote in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, released on Aug. 18.  The Mavs picked up 169 points in the poll, trailing only UCCS' 187.
 
Defending RMAC and national champion MSU Denver and Mines finished in a tie for third in the poll with 165 points.
 
CSU Pueblo, which was one of the five RMAC teams in the NCAA Tournament last year, was picked fifth in the poll with 155 points.
 
Additionally, the Mavericks are continuing to be in the others receiving votes category of this week's (Week No. 3) AVCA-Taraflex Division II poll, as they have been in the three previous editions, including the preseason poll.
 
MSU Denver dropped into a tie for 19th in this week's poll as the only RMAC team in the top 25 although UCCS joins CMU in the other receiving votes.
 
The Mavericks have 16 points in this week's poll, more than double the total of seven from the previous two polls and six in the preseason poll.  UCCS has six points in this week's poll.
 
Notably, Nebraska-Kearney remains in the No. 7 spot of the poll.  The Lopers are 11-1 with their lone loss coming in the season-opener to the Mavs.
 
The two teams, CMU has lost two this season— Biola and Dallas Baptist are also receiving votes with 33 and 14 points, respectively.
 
Preseason All-RMAC
 
The Mavericks had three selections to the Preseason All-RMAC teams, which were announced in conjunction the RMAC poll.  CMU's picks were Aesha Alrashed, Henley Madesn and Ashlyn Tafoya, who all picked up all-conference honors a year ago.
 
Alrashed, a fifth-year middle blocker, was an Honorable Mention All-RMAC honoree last season and recorded 108 blocks, the most of any Maverick since 2018.  She was ranked fourth in the RMAC for total blocks and third with her 1.05 per set average.  The Greeley, Colorado native also recorded 147 kills (1.47/set) and hit .257.
 
Madsen, a sophomore opposite hitter out of Park City, Utah, earned Second Team All-RMAC honors as a freshman and finished second on the 2025 edition of the Maverick squad with 208 kills and 235 total points despite missing the end of the season, including both of the Mavs' post-season matches due to injury.
 
Tafoya also earned Second Team All-RMAC plaudits as a freshman in 2025 and recorded 719 assists in her debut season, the most of any Maverick freshman in 15 years.  She also had 240 digs (2.33/set) to rank third on the team and registered 11 double-doubles.
 
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.
 
He 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 8-2 start, Albers now has a 118-74 (.615) 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 263-131 (.668) overall collegiate coaching record.
 
His two assistants Bri Strong and AnnMarie 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.
 
Exploring the Rivalries
 
The Mavs played MSU Denver four times last season, facing them twice during the regular season before playing them in both the RMAC Tournament Semifinals and the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. 

The Mavs won the first of those four matches at home on Sept. 26, handing the Roadrunners what would be their only conference loss.
 
The Mavs are 13-41 against the Roadrunners in the NCAA Division II era (1992-Present) and are 4-25 against them in Denver.  Fourteen of those matches have come in the last five years alone with regular post-season and Power Pod meetings increasing the frequency of the rivalry.
 
CMU defeated then then top-ranked Roadrunners in one of those Power Pod matches on Nov. 2, 2024 in Denver.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavs have posted a 34-9 record against UCCS in the Division II era and have a 13-5 record against them in Colorado Springs.  They had won eight straight and 12 of the previous 13 matches before the Mountain Lions claimed a 5-set win over the Mavs on Sept. 27 of last season in Grand Junction.
 
CMU has won the last five matches in Colorado Springs dating back more than a decade to 2014.
 
The Mavs have dominated the rival with Western Colorado, winning 25 straight matches over the Mountaineers, who last won a head-to-head match in 2012.    The Mavs are 27-5 over the Mountaineers in Gunnison during the NCAA Division II era and have a 60-12 record against them overall during that time.
 
About the Opponents
 
MSU Denver (Friday – 6 p.m.)
 
The Roadrunners will enter Friday night's tilt with a 6-4 record and are one of five teams tied for the early RMAC lead at 2-0.
 
They have played one of the nation's toughest schedules, going 1-3 while co-hosting the annual Colorado Premier Challenge before starting off RMAC play with 4-set wins over both the Colorado School of Mines and UCCS in the past week.
 
Although they have a new head coach in Stacie Meisner, formerly at Alaska Anchorage, the Roadrunners do have players returning from their 2025 NCAA Division II National Championship team that went 32-3 while winning 23 straight matches at the end of the year.
 
They went 13-1 in RMAC play last year and only lost to CMU in conference action.
 
Brooke Gennerman, who was second on the Roadrunner squad with 305 kills during the national championship run, leads this year's RMAC statistics with 150 kills and ranks eighth in the national statistics with her 4.29 per set average.
 
Setter GabriElle Brewer also leads the RMAC while ranking 21^st in assist per set at 9.97.
 
Hayden Liebsack paces the Roadrunners with 16 service aces and is second on the team with 88 kills (2.59/set).
 
Trynity Martin has 31 blocks (0.89/set) to lead the net defense while Mia Azzomazzo has 123 digs (3.51/set).
 
UCCS (Saturday – 3 p.m.)
 
The Mountain Lions are now 5-5 overall and 1-1 in RMAC play after falling to MSU Denver on Tuesday night.  They won a share of the RMAC crown with a 13-1 conference record a year ago and were picked first in the 2026 RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
 
They will play Westminster on Friday evening before facing the Mavs.
 
Their five losses this year are already more than they took last year, when they went 26-4 to enjoy the program's best ever season.
 
Junior outside hitter Payton Tompkins, one of four Mountain Lions on the Preseason All-RMAC team, and a returning honorable mention all-American, leads this year's squad with 129 kills (3.31/set) to rank third in the RMAC.  Sophomore middle blocker Sydney Hyde has also put down 90 kills (2.31/set) while hitting .340, the fifth best mark in the RMAC.
 
Hyde also leads the Mountain Lions with 38 blocks (0.97/set), two more than former Maverick Nicole Himebauch, whose maiden name was Martin.   They rank seventh and eighth in the RMAC for total blocks, respectively.
 
Libero Alysse Marcoso leads the team with 152 digs (4.11/set) while Tompkins has 101 digs (2.59/set) and 18 blocks to aid the defensive cause.    Marcoso ranks eighth in the RMAC for digs per set.
 
Despite starting just one match for reigning RMAC Coach of the Year Tara Hittle, setter Aubrey Miller has 206 assists and a 5.42 per set average.
 
Tompkins and Sydni Lafasciano are tied for the team lead with 13 service aces.
 
Western Colorado (Tuesday – 6 p.m.)
 
The Mountaineers are currently 5-5 overall and have a 1-1 RMAC record heading into a 4-match homestand that begins with Friday and Saturday night matches against Regis and Chadron State, respectively.  The Mountaineers are also currently 4-0 at home after suffering through a 1-25 season a year ago in Sonia Morales-Jones' first season with the team.
 
Junior outside hitter Andrea Torres, a newcomer from Grossmont College, leads the team with 94 kills (3.24/set) and his hitting .227.  She ranks fourth in the RMAC with her per set average.
 
Sierra Long and Maggie Legg have also contributed significantly with 77 and 75 kills, respectively.  Legg also co-leads the team alongside Kyra Kidd with ten service aces.
 
Kidd also has 30 blocks (0.91/set) while Galatia Andrews has racked up 142 digs (4.58/set) to rank third in the RMAC for digs per set.
 
Setters Olivia Moore and Anuhea Ka'alele are both averaging nearly 11 assists per set combined.  Moore ranks eighth in the RMAC with her 5.65 per set average.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will begin another 3-match homestand when they continue RMAC Regional Pod play on Saturday, Sept. 26 when they host Westminster University.  First serve for that match is slated for 3 p.m.