GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The nation's tenth-ranked Colorado Mesa University volleyball team will square off with 11^th-ranked Regis University for the third time this season and for the second straight year in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals on Friday night.
 
The match between the tournament's second-seeded Mavericks (24-3) and third-seeded Rangers (21-6) in MSU Denver's Auraria Events Center is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. following the first semifinal at 5 p.m. between the top-seeded and host Roadrunners against No. 4 seed South Dakota Mines, appearing in the semifinals for the first time in their history.
 
The winners will advance to Saturday afternoon's (4 p.m.) RMAC tournament title match.
 
Both the Mavericks and Rangers went 12-2 in RMAC play during the regular season.
 
A live pay per view stream of both semifinals can be seen on the RMAC Network and tickets are available for purchase through the RMAC Tournament webpage.
 
Live statistics can also be accessed at the link above.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks advanced to the RMAC Tournament semifinals for the fourth consecutive season and the fifth time in the last six years as they dispatched visiting and seventh-seeded Colorado Christian University in straight, but tight sets, in Tuesday's quarterfinal round.  The Mavericks hosted that match and won 25-19, 25-21, 25-23, to avenge a 5-set Oct. 21 setback to the Cougars and in the process, ended the Cougars' season in the quarterfinal round for the third straight year.
 
Maverick outside hitter Sydney Leffler recorded a match-high 15 kills while setter Sabrina VanDeList tallied 30 assists and ten digs.  Libero Allison Waller also finished with a match-high 17 digs.
 
For a complete match recap, please click here.
 
A Streaming Note From the RMAC

The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has announced the addition of a subscription model to all 2023-24 RMAC championship broadcasts on the RMAC Network.  The announcement comes after support from league leadership in the summer to implement the pay-per-view concept as a manner to offset the league's broadcasting initiatives and operations associated with championship events.
 
Among the RMAC fall championship sports within the subscription model are all three rounds of tournament play for men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball. Winter sports with championship events within the league's subscription model are men's basketball, women's basketball, women's wrestling, indoor track and field and swimming and diving. Men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, baseball, softball and outdoor track and field round out the subscription events for the 2023-24 academic year.
 
Fans will be able to purchase day passes for each day of tournament play, priced at $9.95 per day. To purchase the day pass, fans will navigate to www.rmacnetwork.com and will be directed to select the institution that they are supporting through their viewership. Once the payment submission is complete, fans will have access to any RMAC championship contest available for that specific sport. Day passes will expire within 24 hours of the purchase.
 
For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.
 
On a Rescue Mission
 
As a community engagement activity, the RMAC is partnering with the Denver Rescue Mission to hold a winter clothing and toy drive ahead of the holiday season in conjunction with the RMAC Tournament.
 
Fans are encouraged to donate coats, in both adult and kid sizes, winter hats, gloves or mittens, large blankets and toys and board games for all ages.  Collection bins will be on site throughout the tournament.
 
Tourney Time
 
The Mavericks are playing in their 12^th consecutive RMAC Tournament, having qualified in all but one (2011) of the 19 seasons with Head Coach Dave Fleming running the program.  The Mavericks have won the RMAC Tournament twice under Fleming (2014, 2018) and are now 18-15 in it under Fleming, who began his tenure at CMU in 2005, after Tuesday's win.
 
The Mavs will be making their 12^th semifinal appearance under Fleming, who now sports an 11-7 record in the quarterfinal round.  The Mavs are 5-6 in the semifinal round under Fleming, last reaching the final in 2018 after bowing out in the semifinal round in each of the last three seasons, including a 2022 semifinal defeat at the hands of Regis.
 
The Mavs have won their quarterfinal match in each of the last four RMAC Tournaments, defeating UCCS in the spring of 2021 before taking out Colorado Christian in the last three years.
 
The Mavs are 8-3 against the rest of the tournament field this season and hold a 3-2 record against the other remaining teams have beaten Regis twice as well South Dakota Mines in last Saturday's regular season finale.  Two of the Mavs' three total losses have come at the hands of MSU Denver this season.
 
The Mavs are 1-3 against Regis in RMAC Tournament matches under Fleming, winning the 2014 semifinal match en-route to the Mavs' first tournament title in the Fleming era.
 
History-Making team
 
Already having claimed 24 wins, the Mavericks have now won 20 or more matches in three consecutive seasons after going 15-1 during the COVID delayed and abbreviated 2021 spring campaign.
 
The Mavs have now reached 20 wins for the eighth time in 19 total seasons under Head Coach Dave Fleming and have now recorded three consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time under his direction.
 
The last time that CMU had such a streak was way back in 1994-96, when the then Mesa State College Mavericks went 31-14 in 1994, 25-11 in 1995 and 26-9 in 1996.
 
The Mavs' other 20-win seasons under Fleming  were 2005 (23-7), 2010 (20-9), 2013 (21-8), 2014 (29-4), 2018 (24-7), 2021 (21-7) and 2022 (22-7).
 
The Mavs' current 24-3 record is equal to the best 27-match start in program history, joining the 2014 team that had a 20-match winning streak that took the Mavs into the final of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.  That team finished 29-4.
 
This year's squad is now equal to the 2018 squad for the second most wins in Fleming's long tenure.
 
The 2021 spring season squad went 15-1 to lead the program's history in terms of winning percentage at .938.  The overall CMU record for wins in a season is 42, set by the 1986 squad that went 42-9 as members of the NAIA.  Teams regularly played substantially more matches in that era.
 
Last year's team was 21-6 through 27 matches after dispatching of Colorado Christian in the RMAC Tournament quarterfinals.  The 2021 team was also 21-6 after doing the same.
 
A chance at revenge and a sweep
 
After avenging one of just three losses this season on Tuesday against Colorado Christian, the Mavs have a chance at exacting some more revenge on Friday when they play Regis, the team that knocked them out of last year's RMAC Tournament in the semifinal round.
 
The Rangers won that match, played on Nov. 11, 2022, in four sets, although CMU has won both of this year's regular season meetings.  The Mavs claimed a 4-set conference win at home on Oct. 14 and then swept the Rangers in an RMAC Power Pod match in Denver on Oct. 27.  Like this Friday's, that match was played at MSU Denver.
 
In both of the earlier meetings, the Mavericks were ranked just above the Rangers in the AVCA poll.  On Oct. 17, the Mavs were ranked tenth while Regis was 11^th, the same spots the teams currently hold.  On Oct. 27, the Mavs were ranked 11^th while the Rangers were 12^th although the Rangers had knocked off then No. 7 MSU Denver the night earlier.
 
The neutral-court win over Regis was CMU's 20^th of the season and marked the first time that they had defeated Regis in the state's capital city since 2009.
 
To view the last three match recaps, please click on the links below.
 
2022 RMAC Tournament Semifinal; Regis 3, CMU 1
Oct. 14, 2023; CMU 3, Regis 1
Oct. 27, 2023; CMU 3, Regis 0
 
25 Straight in the Top 25
 
The Mavericks have now been included in each of the last 25 American Volleyball Coaches Association/TARAFLEX NCAA Division II polls, re-entering the top 10 this week (Week No. 11).
 
The Mavs had been ranked 11^th for the past three and five total weeks this season, holding down that spot on Week No. 3 and 4 before their recent run in weeks 8, 9 and 10.
 
The Mavs were ranked a season-best ninth in the week No. 7 poll on Oct. 16 and were tenth in the preceding two polls (Weeks 5 & 6).  The Mavs had been ranked 21^st in the preseason poll, 14^th in the Week No. 1 poll and 12^th in the Week No. 2 poll.  They were also ranked in each of the last 12 of the regular season's weekly polls in 2022 before finishing 21^st in the final post-season poll.  CMU was not ranked in the 2022 preseason poll but did reach as high as No. 15 in the Week #10 poll on Oct. 31 of last year.
 
Regional Ranking
 
Although the national ranking is nice in the grander scheme of NCAA Tournament selection and seeding, it is meaningless as those things are decided by the NCAA Division II Regional Rankings, which were released for the second time in ranked order on Wednesday after ten teams from the region were listed to be "under consideration" in alphabetical order the previous week (Nov. 1).
 
The Mavs were once again slotted third in the South Central Regional rankings as the second of three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams.  MSU Denver was ranked second while Regis was  fourth.  West Texas A&M leads the regional rankings as the first of seven Lone Star Conference teams in the top ten.
 
Although the top four remained steady, the bottom half of the regional rankings saw quite a bit of movement with Dallas Baptist moving up a spot to fifth after defeating now seventh-ranked Angelo State in LSC Regular Season play last week.
 
UT Tyler also moved up three spots to sixth while Angelo State fell two spots to seventh.  Arkansas-Fort Smith also moved up to eighth while Texas A&M-Kingsville dropped a spot to ninth.  Texas Woman's also tumbled three spots to tenth.
 
All seven of the LSC's ranked teams are in action on Thursday during the LSC Tournament with UT Tyler and Angelo State playing each other in the first match.  West Texas A&M and Texas Woman's were also due to play each other in the second quarterfinal while Arkansas-Fort Smith and Texas A&M-Kingsville playing other in the other half of the bracket and the fourth quarterfinal.  DBU and Texas A&M-International, which beat West Texas A&M to end the regular season, are also matching up in the third quarterfinal match.
 
DBU is hosting the tournament that runs through Saturday after sharing the conference's regular season title with West Texas A&M.
 
Eight total teams will be selected and seeded based on those updated rankings with the winners of the LSC and RMAC Tournaments earning automatic bids even if they were not amongst the top eight rankings, thus making it possibly important to be in the top six of the final regional rankings to ensure qualification.
 
Major Sweep
 
The Mavericks swept the RMAC's top three individual student-athlete post-season honors, which were released on Wednesday.  The Mavs also had four first team and six total All-RMAC selections.
 
CMU junior outside hitter Sydney Leffler led the way and was named as the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Year, becoming just the fourth Maverick to win the prestigious accolade.  Two-time pick Amy Miler (1993, 1994), Kasie Gilfert (2018) and Maddi Foutz (2021 Spring) are the Mavs' previous RMAC Players of the Year.

Meanwhile, redshirt junior Sabrina VanDeList was named as the RMAC Setter of the Year as the first Maverick to win that honor since 2009 (Tara King) while becoming just the second overall.
 
Sophomore libero Allison Waller was named as the RMAC's Defensive Player of the Year, an award that her former teammate Kerstin Layman had won in each of the past two years.
 
All three will receive their awards prior to Friday's match.
 
Redshirt senior middle hitter Savannah Spitzer also joined the three aforementioned Mavericks on the 14-player First Team All-RMAC squad.  She is now a 4-time overall and 2-time first team honoree.  Leffler has also earned two first team honors and three overall while Waller was honored for the first time after playing behind Layman last year.
 
CMU graduate student right side Emma Shaddix was named to the Second Team All-RMAC squad while junior outside hitter Riley Daugherty was as honorable mention selection after picking up a pair of Second Team All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors at Newman University.
 
Making History
 
Sabrina VanDeList's First Team All-RMAC selection was the fourth in as many seasons and made her the Mavs' first ever 4-time first team all-conference selection, quite a statement considering the long-time success of the program.
 
CMU's previous 3-time First Team All-RMAC selections include Amy Miller (1992-94), Stacey Vogel (2004-06), Drew Choules (2005-07).
 
Thanks to the NCAA's blanket COVID eligibility waiver that delayed and abbreviated VanDeList's 2020-21 freshman season, a waiver that VanDeList plans to take advantage of, she will have a chance to make even more history in 2024 as potential 5-time First Team All-RMAC pick.
 
She would also likely be able to become CMU's all-time record holder for both assists and service aces, categories she already ranks third and fourth in.
 
At the Summit… Again
 
Already reaching the summit of the Mavericks' all-conference selection list, VanDeList has also been named as the repeat winner of the RMAC Volleyball Summit Award.  She will formally receive that award prior to Friday's match, an honor that goes to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the RMAC Championship site.
 
VanDeList, an elementary education major, holds a perfect 4.00 GPA, and also received the same honor in 2022.
 
This latest plaudit is just one of many for VanDeList, who was also named as the RMAC's Academic Player of the Year in 2022.  She is also a 3-time CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-American for the Mavericks' indoor and beach volleyball programs and is a leading candidate to earn another RMAC Academic Player of the Year and Academic All-America honor this season, considering both her on-court and classroom successes.
 
Double-double streak
 
Sabrina VanDeList recorded her seventh consecutive double-double in Tuesday's RMAC Tournament win, recording 30 assists and 10 digs against the Cougars.
 
VanDeList has now had double-doubles in nine of the last ten and 11 of the Mavs' last 13 matches.  She now has 15 double-doubles this season, her highest total in four seasons with the Mavs.  VanDeList now has 39 career double-doubles, ten of which were in the fall of 2021.  She had eight last year and six in the spring of 2021.
 
Her 15 double-doubles this season are the most of any Maverick since 2016 when outside hitter MacKenzie Edwards had the same number.
 
is the first Maverick since Stacy Vogel in 2005 to have recorded seven consecutive double-doubles.  Vogel had eight straight in an early-season run from Sept. 2-17.
 
Her total of 15 is also the most since Vogel had 19 in 2006.  Drew Choules also had 18 double-doubles in that season.
 
RMAC leaders and National Rankings
 
The Mavs continues to have three individuals leading the RMAC in four combined statistical categories.
 
Setter Sabrina VanDeList continues to leads the RMAC by comfortable margins in both total sets and assists per set.  She has 1,123 assists, 67 more than Mines freshman Presley Powell, who has 1,056 in one more sets than VanDeList (96).  VanDeList is averaging 11.82 assists in her 95 sets, which ranks her third nationally and well ahead of Powell, who averaged 11.00 per set.  Powell's season is done.
 
VanDeList also ranks 16th nationally in total assists.
 
Meanwhile, Sydney Leffler paces the RMAC by a wide margin with 420 kills and 450 total points.  MSU Denver's Riley Anderson is second with 348 kills and 397 ½ total points.  Leffler also leads the conference with her 4.42 kill and 4.74 point per set averages.  She ranks 12th nationally in kills per set and 15^th in points per set.  She is 20^th in total kills.  The NCAA does not do official statistical rankings for total points.
 
The Mavs' other RMAC statistical leader is Savannah Spitzer, who leads the league by a wide margin with her .395 attack percentage, the 14^th best mark nationally.  Westminster's Mailei Myers is second in the RMAC for attack percentage at .361.
 
Team rankings
 
The Mavs' offensive attack is also ranked highly as a team in the national statistics.  They are ranked second nationally in assists per set (14.00).  They also rank third nationally in kills per set (14.83) and are just outside the nation's top ten for hitting percentage, standing 12^th at .265. 
 
The Mavs lead the RMAC in both assists and kills per set and trail only Regis, which is hitting .266 in the attack percentage category.
 
The RMAC's top boss
 
Now in his 19^th season as the Mavs' head Coach, Dave Fleming leads all active RMAC coaches with 367 career victories.  Fleming is 367-176 in his time at CMU, good for a .676 winning percentage and reached the 350-career win milestone on Sept. 8 after the Mavs win over Sioux Falls.
 
The Mavs have now recorded 20 or more wins eight times under Fleming, who guided the Mavs to a 22-7 record while qualifying for their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance last year.  They had gone 21-7 in the fall of 2021 after the Mavs won the 2021 spring season RMAC title while going 15-1 overall during the COVID related delayed and abbreviated schedule.
 
The success is nothing new for Fleming, who has now led the Mavericks to nine NCAA Division II National Tournament berths, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season titles (2014, 2021-Spring), two RMAC Tournament crowns (2014, 2018) and three RMAC West Division crowns (2005, 2009, 2010).

The Mavericks have had winning campaigns in all but one of his seasons and are a combined 246-92 (.728) in conference play under Fleming.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
With Tuesday's win, the Mavericks likely finished the home portion of their schedule with an impressive 13-1 mark.
 
The only way that would change if the Mavericks are selected to host the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.
 
The Brownson Arena success is nothing new for the Mavs, who have not lost more than a single home match in each of the last six seasons, going 8-1 last year and 53-6 (.899) since the start of 2018.  The Mavs are also 89-14 (.864) in their last 103 home matches since the start of 2014.
 
CMU's last three home losses have all come against MSU Denver, who defeated the Mavs on Sept. 23 of last season in a tight match that saw all three sets decided by the minimum 2-point margin and again on Sept 22 of this season.  The Mavs also went 9-1 at home in 2021, with their only loss coming to MSU Denver.
 
The Mavs also went 6-1 at home during the 2021 spring season.  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 a RMAC Tournament Championship and NCAA South Central Regional final appearance and have had winning records at home in each of the last 11 completed seasons since and including 2012, going 104-23 (.819) since the start of 2012.
 
About Regis
 
The nation's 11th-ranked Rangers sport a 21-6 overall record and like the Mavs went 12-2 in RMAC play.  However, CMU earned the tournament seeding tie-breaker thanks to the head-to-head conference victory in Grand Junction.
 
Regis was able to sweep sixth-seeded Chadron State in Tuesday's RMAC Tournament quarterfinals and will enter Friday's semifinal on a 3-match winning streak and having five wins in their last six since falling to CMU for the second time on Oct. 27.
 
The Rangers had a league-high five First Team All-RMAC selections in setter Mara LeGrand, right side hitter Klaudia Sowizral, libero Haley Kennedy, middle blockers Nadine Burbrink and Amelia Davis.  Davis is a junior while the other four are all graduate students.
 
Senior outside hitter Halle Theis was the sixth overall all-conference selection as an honorable mention pick.
 
LeGrand has earned four consecutive First Team All-RMAC honors and ranks third in the RMAC for assists (951), while averaging 10.34 per set.
 
Davis and Burbrink are the RMAC's top two blockers, having combined for 2.62 per set.  Davis has 122 (1.33/set) while Burbrink is right behind with 119 (1.29/set) as they have led the Rangers to the RMAC's top spot in the team blocking statistics at 2.83 per set.
 
The Rangers also lead the conference with their .266 team attack percentage as Sowizral is fourth at .349 while Burbrink ranks sixth at .335.
 
Kennedy is seventh in the RMAC for digging, averaging 3.90 per set while helping the Rangers lead the RMAC in hitting percentage defense at .135.
 
Offensively, five different Rangers are averaging more than two kills per set in a balanced attack with Sowizral leading the group at 2.87.  She has 264 kills to her credit while Burbrink (237) and Theis (221) are both well over 200 while Davis could join that group on Friday.  She has 194 thus far.
 
Series History
 
Although the Mavericks have won both of this season's regular season meetings, Regis has a 25-19 lead in the Division II series with the Mavs.  CMU's win over the Rangers on Oct. 27 in Denver snapped a run of ten straight Ranger wins in Denver.
 
The Rangers have been nationally-ranked when playing the Mavericks ten straight times since 2017.
 
Fleming is 14-16 all-time against Regis and is 5-5 against Regis' Joel List since List took over the helm of the Ranger program in 2017 after an 11-year stint as the Rangers' assistant coach under coaching legend Frank Lavrisha.  However, Fleming is just 1-4 against him in Denver.
 
Up Next
 
If the Mavs win on Friday, they would advance to the RMAC Tournament title match for the first time since 2018.  That match is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
 
If the Mavericks were to fall, they would await next Monday's (Nov. 20), NCAA Division II Tournament selection show to see if they would earn one of the six available at-large berths from the South Central Region, still a highly likely scenario considering the Mavericks are ranked third in the latest regional rankings.  They also have the region's second best overall record, behind only West Texas A&M, which is currently 25-3 entering the Lone Star Conference tournament, which began Thursday.
 
The RMAC and Lone Star Conference Tournament winning teams will earn automatic berths into the NCAA Tournament.