All eyes are now on Colorado Mesa University women’s lacrosse.
Normally it is the men’s program who are getting the primetime attention in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament, however, the women are making a case for their own name to be formally recognized after the very successful regular season the Mavericks had.
The CMU women’s lacrosse team will enter the RMAC Tournament as a three-seed where they will take on the sixth seed in the conference. The Mavericks ended the regular season on Friday after their dominating 20-1 win over Adams State.
CMU improved to 11-3 after the win on Friday which is the very familiar spot from the season before where the Mavericks went into the postseason with a slightly better 12-2 record.
“It is up to us to determine how many games we have left in this season,” Head coach Wiley said. “We need to make sure we are putting in the work and doing what we need to do.
CMU’s only losses during the season have come at the hands of Lindenwood University, who is currently the best team in the RMAC right now and also the number two team in the country. The other losses came against Regis University who has been the biggest thorn in the side for the Mavericks in the last eight years.
Out of the last eight years since first becoming a program, CMU has never beaten Regis in a women’s lacrosse game, but if the Mavericks win in the first round, then they will most likely see Regis for the third time this season.
“The biggest issue is that we need our players to follow the scout and do what we need to do,” Wiley said. “If they would start following those things and execute them, I have no doubt in my mind…no doubt.”
Regis sits as the eleventh best team in the nation and sits above CMU but behind Lindenwood in the RMAC rankings.
There have also been three major positives in the Mavericks locker room this season and those three are currently the three leading scorers for CMU.
Lindi Peters, Olivia Hayden and Jessica Cook are considered the dynamic trio who lead the young and very talented CMU locker room and are a very big reason why the Mavericks are where they are currently.
“All three of them are putting up great numbers,” Wiley said. “I tell them all the time that their energy, enthusiasm and positivity will go onto everyone else.“
The trio has scored a total of 103 out of the 219 the team has put up as a whole. Jessica Cook is the only senior out of the three and leads the team in goals with 38, however, Lindsi Peters leads the team in total points with 52. Hayden then rounds it out nicely by leading the team in shot percentage with a .567.
Hayden was also just named the 2018 RMAC Women’s Lacrosse Academic Player of the Year. Hayden, along with both Jessica Cook and Lindsi Peters also made the RMAC All-Academic First Team roster this last week.
The Mavericks will now have full focus aimed towards the RMAC Tournament in which they have yet to make to the finals in their short time as an NCAA Div. II program. The Mavericks will play as the three-seed and will more than likely be playing against Rockhurst University on May 3. CMU played Rockhurst earlier on in the season on March 14 where the Mavericks came away with the convincing 16-8 victory.
Last season in the RMAC Tournament, CMU played against Rockhurst in the first round of the tournament and won 16-4. The Mavericks have never lost the Hawks since they have been playing them since the 2014 season.
