The Mavericks ran away with a 20-1 victory over the Griffins and three different players scored five or more points in the victory.
Redshirt sophomore attacker Melanie Evans scored seven points in the game and facilitated the Maverick’s offense. She scored one goal and recorded a career-high six assists in the game. Evans also moved into seventh for the most assists in a single season in Colorado Mesa University (CMU) history with 21 assists this season.
“I think just looking for cutters and keeping our heads up was a big thing. I know that looking for my teammates is a big thing for me, I’m more of an assister rather than a goal to cage and go to goal. I think just working together, reading each other and knowing our players helped today,” Evans said.
CMU won the ground ball battle 27 to 16 over the Griffins as they were able to win the hustle plays. The Mavericks also controlled the draw control circle as they won 19 of 25 draws in the game.
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Taylor Jakeman got the Mavericks on the board just 54 seconds into the game off an assist from Evans. Redshirt sophomore midfielder Kiley Davis put the Mavericks up 2-0 with 13:52 left in the first quarter with a bounce shot on a free-position shot.
WC’s lone goal of the game came with 12:02 left in the first quarter as Eden Freiberg used a split dodge to get her stick into her left hand and fired a shot bar down into the net.
The Mavericks added two more goals in the first quarter to take a 4-1 lead behind goals from redshirt sophomore attacker Brianna Anderson and Davis.
Jakeman scored her second goal of the game with 12:57 left in the second quarter to put CMU up by four goals off an assist from Evans. Davis continued the Maverick’s run with two consecutive goals to put CMU up 7-1. Freshman midfielder Payton Walker put CMU up by seven with a free position shot to take a seven-goal lead into the halftime break.
“Yeah, we had some really specific goals for today which we weren’t meeting at halftime, so we reminded them of our goal, and they decided what they needed to do better and got that done,” Head Coach Shannon McHale said.
Jakeman got the Mavericks on the scoreboard first in the second half as she used a face dodge to get under her defender, faked a shot and buried the shot. CMU’s offense continued to execute at a high level as they added four goals in four minutes to go up 13-1 over the Griffins.
Redshirt sophomore midfielder Ashton Whittle put the Mavericks up by 13 goals as Davis found her wide open in front of the net for a goal on the doorstep.
Sophomore attackers Elizabeth Renken and Amber Wennerstrom opened the fourth quarter with a goal each in the opening two minutes of the quarter. CMU scored four more goals in the quarter to go up by 19 goals to win the game.
CMU limited the Griffins to just six shots in the game and took 52 shots of their own. The Mavericks caused 18 of Westminster College’s (WC) 24 turnovers in the game.
“I thought [the defense] did great. We talked about taking some opportunities to double-team and do some traps. They definitely were aware of that and trying to work on that piece, so I thought they came together well on that,” McHale said.
Jakeman scored four goals and recorded two assists in the game as she was the second-leading scorer for the Mavericks. Davis was the other Maverick to record five points as she scored four goals and dished out one assist in the game.
The Maverick’s next game is Sunday, April 24 at 2:00 p.m. against Colorado State University-Pueblo in Pueblo, Colo.
