Colorado Mesa University’s volleyball team returns for the 2018 season with some familiar faces and a bevy of new additions.
The Mavericks are coming off a 17-10 season where last year’s group finished sixth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). As the sixth seed at the end of season RMAC tournament, the Mavericks lost to third seed MSU Denver in the first round, swept in three sets (3-0).
CMU had strong conference play, securing victories in 11 of 18 RMAC contests, and will look to carry over that success to potentially topple defending RMAC Champion Regis University.
The Mavericks were picked to finish fifth in the RMAC this season through a preseason poll.
Mesa’s Mackenzie Edwards and Taylor Woods were selected to the Preseason All-RMAC team.
Edwards returns for her senior season and hopes to repeat her success over the past two years, where she secured 398 kills in each year and secured two straight spots on First Team All-RMAC. She led the RMAC in kills per set last year (4.10) and is excited to get her senior year started.
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“It’s really weird being the oldest on the team, but I like it,” Edwards said. “I’m excited. I think this year will be really good.”
Head coach Dave Fleming returns for his 14th season at the helm of CMU volleyball. Fleming is joined by Assistant coach David Skaff and Volunteer assistant coach Katy Clark. Just like the players, coaches are anxious to get the season started.
“I am anxious and excited to start the year,” Fleming said. “[I’m] anxious as you never know how good you are until you start competing for real, and excited because if this team is healthy, knock on wood, I feel we can compete with anyone in the region.”
The Mavericks welcomed six new additions over the summer: five freshmen and a transfer from Northern Arizona. Hannah Bokal, Kerstin Layman, Jade Pascale, Emily Tucker and Holly Schmidt round out the freshman, while Kasie Gilfert is the lone transfer.
Even with the new team members, team chemistry has been strong and an early season Rappaport has developed with the group.
“Everyone is really contributing,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be an interesting year. We have a lot of competitiveness within each position, so I think we’ll be really strong this year.”
“The freshman and Kasie are fitting in great,” Fleming said.”All are athletic and they seemed to buy into our culture. I like our team defensively.”
Other returning players include junior Samantha Ritter, a standout sophomore who earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC honors in her first year as a starter and finished sixth in the RMAC in assists (1,008) and assists per set (10.39). Woods will look to add to her 1,523 dig total, which ranks fourth in CMU history, in her senior season. Woods was named to Second Team All-RMAC last season.
Alyssa Chutka (senior), Katie Scherr (junior) and Camille Smith (junior) round out the rest of the upperclassmen.
Consistency is key for the Mavericks, as a strong push to the top of the RMAC will require efficient play in every set.
“We have to remain consistent in the areas we excel,” Fleming said. “Everyone on this team has a skill set that can help us win the RMAC.”
The Mavericks placed in the top six in multiple statistical categories (kills, assists, hitting percentage) in the RMAC last season. An area CMU could improve on is blocking, where the team was 13th out of 15 teams in the RMAC.
“There’s been a huge difference in our blocking through the first three weeks of practice,” Edwards said.” Our blocking is probably in of our strongest suits now which is really cool to see how much we’ve progressed in the spring.”
Although the Mavericks face a tough early season schedule, the group hopes to embark on a successful season and capitalize on their chance to take early control of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
