Following yet another season of narrowly missing the NCAA playoffs, Maverick men’s lacrosse is off to a 5-2 start, including a 2-0 start to Peach Belt Conference (PBC) play. Even more impressive, all of these wins have come on the road.
“[It] was a little crazy, especially facing some of the weather in the midwest in Kansas City. Even when we did have a break between games it felt like everything was still moving 100 miles an hour. The big one was the [win against] Rockhurst. It gave us a chance to play against someone who usually gets some national recognition, and it gave us some national recognition,” said head coach Troy Moyer.
It was announced last year that the RMAC and the PBC would merge the men’s lacrosse programs in their respective conferences in order to gain an automatic bid to the NCAA postseason tournament. Since both the PBC and the RMAC would only have five programs going into the 2025 season, and a minimum of six teams is required to grab the autobid, the conference would in effect become 10 teams, and get the auto-bid. The oddity of this merger is that the group of teams from the RMAC, or the RMAC division and the teams originally from the PBC, or the Peach Belt division, will run their seasons entirely separately until a single game between the division champions. While the wins will officially count as PBC wins, they will only matter for the RMAC division, and the RMAC division tournament is still counted as an RMAC championship to the winning team.
In the wins, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has outscored opponents by a combined 80-38, largely off the stick of Senior Attacker JJ Brummet. Brummet leads the Mavericks in both goals and assists, tallying 33 total points, which also leads the team. Sophomore midfielder Carson Points has also had some big games this season, including a hat trick in the season opening win against Concordia University Irvine(CUI), and putting up four goals in the 18-8 thrashing of nationally ranked Rockhurst.
Play in net for the Mavs has also been stellar, thanks to sophomore transfer Shaden Shields. Shields
transferred in from American International University, and won the starting job from last year’s starting goalie, Junior Luke Parrish, who lead the RMAC in goals allowed average(GAA). Shields has won a pair of RMAC division defensive player of the week honors. While in the crease, Shields boasts a .556 and save percentage, and a 9.54 GAA. Shields’ save percentage leads the RMAC division, while his GAA ranks second and he’s fourth in saves per game with 6.27.
“[Sheilds] has been a blessing to our team. I think he came in with the right mindset and the right attitude of not being handed anything, but working for it. The competition amongst all of our goalies this year has been something different,” said Moyer.
The great early season for the net-minder has either won, or at least kept them in, almost every game. In their heartbreaking 10-9 loss to the Florida Tech Panthers, Shields notched nine saves on 23 shots. The penultimate goal was scored while the Panthers had a man up advantage.
The loss against Florida Southern (FSU) in the following game wasn’t close after the first half, as FSU utilized a pair of 3-0 scoring runs to take down the Mavericks 15-8. Redshirt sophomore attacker Connor Jensen was one of just two Mavericks to score multiple goals, as he was joined by senior midfielder Logan Smith, with the duo each scoring a pair. As a team, CMU was outshot 40-32.
The closest a win has ever gotten for CMU was a five goal margin, defeating the CUI 13-8. Carson Points had three goals, with his brother, senior attacker/midfielder Ethan Points dishing out three assists in the RMAC division victory.
“One thing that’s been [instrumental] to our success that we’ve had is that we’ve all been really leaning on each other and showing each other love during games. Lacrosse is a really emotional sport, and you can really get in your own head when things aren’t going well,” said Ethan Points.
Following the Mavericks’ 1-2 week, they dropped five spots to 17 in the latest Inside Lacrosse media poll. While this poll is fun to look at, it actually doesn’t really matter. The NCAA will release their regional rankings later on in the season, with the final selection show taking place on May 4. Eight teams from both regions will be selected for the 16 team single-elimination tournament, with automatic bids being received from qualifying conference champions.
Now that the Mavs have finished their six week road trip, CMU will finally have a game at Community Hospital Unity Field. Face-off is at 4 pm this Friday, March 28, as part of a doubleheader with both men’s and women’s lacrosse.