GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team will play their second NCAA Tournament game in program history and their first in seven years when the now nation's 14^th-ranked Mavericks, seeded eighth out of the South Region, will take on top-ranked, top-seeded and undefeated Tampa on Wednesday afternoon in Tampa, Florida.
 
The game at the Spartans Naimoli Family Athletic Complex will begin at 4 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. Mountain).
 
Live statistics can be found here.

The Live stream on NCAA.com can be accessed here.
 
The Mavericks will enter the game with a 13-3 mark and won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament title on Friday in St. Augustine, Florida to earn their automatic qualification into the NCAA Tournament.  The Spartans are 18-0 on the season and won the Sunshine State Conference crown.
 
What's at Stake
 
Wednesday's game is one of eight first round games that will be played in the 16-team single elimination tournament, divided into 8-team North and South Regional brackets.  The first three rounds are played on campus sites and are hosted by the higher seed.
 
The winner of the Mavs/Spartans match-up will play either No. 4 seed Lenoir-Rhyne or No. 5 seed Wingate in Sunday's regional semifinal/national quarterfinal.
 
The regional finals will then be played on May 18 before the national championship game pitting the North and South Regional champions against each other on May 25 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFL's New England Patriots.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavs won their way into the NCAA Tournament, defeating Flagler by an 18-14 margin on Friday in the overall Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship game to claim the conference's automatic qualification spot.
 
The Mavs led the game 10-6 at the half and then used a 6-1 run over six total minutes in the late third and early fourth quarters to pull away for the win, one of the most important in program history.
 
Eleven different Mavericks scored as Connor Jensen recorded three goals and two assists.
 
Senior faceoff specialist Mike Edwards had a career game, winning 19 of his 27 draws while scooping up a career-high 12 groundballs.  He also scored two goals for the first time in his career as one of six different Mavericks to score two or more times in the game.
 
A full recap of the win can be seen here.
 
Post-Season Winning Streak
 
The Mavs have now won nine consecutive post-season games over the past four years.  They won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before winning this year's Peach Belt Conference/Rocky Mountain Division Tournament title and then Friday's win at Flagler in the overall PBC Tournament Championship game.
 
Back to Florida
 
The Mavs have racked up the frequent flier miles this spring and will be making their third separate trip to Florida this season.  CMU has already played four games in the Sunshine State this year, going 2-2 while winning their last two.
 
The Mavs played Florida Southern in Lakeland, Florida Tech in Melbourne and against and in Saint Leo during their Mar. 15-20 Spring Break trip before last week's trip to St. Augustine.
 
CMU flew back to Colorado on Saturday and then departed campus again late Monday morning for this NCAA trip to Tampa.
 
Should the Mavs win on Wednesday, they plan to travel directly to North Carolina for the match-up with Lenoir-Rhyne or Wingate instead of making a fourth cross-country flight of the season.
 
MVP Shields
 
Maverick sophomore goalkeeper Shaden Shields, a native of Naples, Florida, was named as the MVP of the Peach Belt Tournament after making 48 combined saves in the Mavs' three victories, including 16 in the overall championship against Flagler and a co-season-high 20 in the Rocky Mountain Division Championship over Concordia on Apr. 26.
 
Shields has now made 160 saves this season, just one shy of the Mavs' single-season record of 161, set back in 2018 by Remi Reeves, who played and started in 17 of the Mavs' 20 games that year.  Shields has played in 14 and started 13 of the Mavs' 16 games this season.
 
All-Tournament Team
 
The Mavs led the whole field with six total All-PBC Tournament picks, which were announced following Friday night's game at Flagler.  JJ Brummett, Mike Edwards, Wolfi Gottschalk, Connor Jensen and Erich Petersen joined Shields on the team.
 
Brummett has now been named to the post-season All-Tournament team in three of his four years as a Maverick, also receiving the All-RMAC Tournament recognition in 2022 and 2024.
 
All-Division
 
The Mavericks had eight player selected to the All-Rocky Mountain Division teams, following a vote of the division's head coaches.
 
Five of the honored Mavs were first team picks in in senior attackman JJ Brummett, junior midfielder Dillon Pless, senior defender Caden Hathaway, redshirt sophomore defender Brady Porter and junior short stick defensive midfielder Deuce Kirschke.  Sophomore goalie Shaden Shields, redshirt sophomore attack Connor Jensen and redshirt sophomore long stick midfielder Ryan Pless were all selected to the second team.

Late Season Success
 
Connor Jensen has put up some impressive numbers in the latter stages of the season, posting hat tricks in four of the Mavs' last five games while recorded at least three offensive points in all five.
 
He had a career-high six points (3G, 3A) in the Rocky Mountain Division Tournament Championship game win over CUI and then added five points in the most recent outing against Flager.
 
The Brentwood, Tennessee native is second on the Maverick squad in both goals (34) and points (51).
 
Nearing No. 2
 
Maverick senior JJ Brummett scored two more goals in Friday's win at Flagler and is now just one goal away from matching Jack Griffin for second place on the Mavs' all-time goal scoring charts.
 
Brummett has now scored 134 goals in 67 career games, an average of exactly 2.00 goals per game.
 
Griffin scored 135 times in his 2016-19 career.
 
Steve Brandenburg set the Maverick record of 145 in 2017.
 
Home Sweet Home
 
While winning the Rocky Mountain Division Tournament on home turf, the Mavericks were able to continue some impressive success at home.
 
The Mavs had won 19 straight home games over nearly four years prior to dropping their regular season finale but have now won 21 of their last 22 and 27 of their last 29 home games since 2020.
 
They now have a 71-9 all-time record at home, good for a .888 winning percentage.
 
They are 15-1 at home (.944) with head coach Troy Moyer at the helm of the program.
 
CMU was 5-1 at home this season.
 
In the Polls
 
After winning Friday's game over Flagler, the Mavericks moved up three spots to 14^th in this week's USILA NCAA Division II Poll (Week No. 13), which was released on Monday.  They had been ranked 17^th in last week's poll and have now moved up three spots in both of the last two weeks after sitting 20^th in the Week No. 11 poll.
 
CMU has been between No. 13 and 20 in all 14 editions of the poll this season, including the preseason.
 
CMU is the only team in the Rocky Mountain Division currently in or receiving votes in the poll.
 
Despite the win over Flagler, the Saints remained two spots ahead of the Mavs in the No. 12 spot of this week's poll.  They were ranked ninth heading into the Peach Belt Tournament Championship game.
 
Ranked Wins
 
The Mavs have played two opponents who were ranked in the USILA's Top 20 at the time of the meeting.  The Mavs have won both of those games, which were both played in Florida, a possible forecasting of Wednesday's game against the top-ranked Spartans.
 
The Mavs beat then 13^th-ranked Saint Leo by a 21-14 margin on Mar. 20 before taking down No. 9 Flagler last Friday.
 
The win over Flagler was the Mavs' first over a top 10 team since Mar. 11, 2023, when the Mavs defeated seventh-ranked Rollins in a neutral-site match-up against the Tars in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 
No. 1 Opportunity

Wednesday's game against the Spartans will mark the first time since the Mavs' debut season in 2011 that they will play against a team ranked No. 1 in the country.  In their second ever game on Feb. 22, 2011, the Mavs played top-ranked C.W. Post, falling 21-3.
 
One of the Mavs' four wins over Tampa, came when the Spartans were ranked third in the country.  That was on Mar. 10, 2018 in Salt Lake City.
 
The Award-Winning Bench Boss
 
Troy Moyer is in his third season in charge of the Maverick program and was named as the Rocky Mountain Division Coach of the Year by a vote of his peers following the regular season.
 
He was promoted to the head coach role in the fall of 2022 after a brief stint as the interim head coach.   Moyer took over for former CMU Head Coach Vince Smith, who left the position for other opportunities outside of coaching.
 
Moyer had originally been hired as an assistant on Smith's staff for the 2018-19 season.
 
In his three seasons as a head coach, including 2025, Moyer has guided the Mavericks to a combined 42-9 (.824) record, including a 20-2 mark in RMAC regular season games and a perfect 7-0 mark in the post-season.
 
The Mavs are also a nearly flawless 17-1 record at home.  The Mavs have won both the RMAC/RMD Regular Season and Tournament titles in all three seasons in charge.
 
In his overall time with the Mavericks, Moyer has helped the program win four RMAC regular season titles and four tournament crowns.  The Mavs have gone a combined 82-23 (.781) in his now seven seasons with Moyer on the sidelines.
 
Know Your Foe
 
The Spartans have put together an impressive season and recent run and will be making their tenth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014.  They won the 2021 national title with a perfect 21-0 record and reached the semifinals last year, going 18-2.
 
They are 18-0 this year and are the only undefeated team in Division II and one of just three in all of NCAA men's lacrosse this year.
 
Despite that undefeated mark, they rank just ninth in the county for scoring margin at +6.72 and just behind the Mavs' eighth place mark of +6.75. 
 
The Spartans do have one of the country's top defensive units and rank fourth in the country for scoring defense at 7.28 goals allowed per game.  They are 14^th in the country for scoring offense, averaging 14 goals per contest and have been deadly on extra-man-opportunities, ranking second in the country for man-up offense, having converted for 18 man-up goals on 35 attempts, a 51.4 percent success rate.
 
Goalkeeper Connor Theriault ranks fifth in the country for goals against average (7.32) and seventh for save percentage (.601).  He has made 188 saves and has started all 18 games for the Spartans.
 
Attackman Davis Lindsey leads a trio of very prolific offensive threats with 61 points.  He has 34 goals and a team-high 27 assists.  Ryan Kemp is right behind with 60 points and has scored 40 goals while assisting on 20 others.  He was named as the Sunshine State Conference's Offensive Player of the Year.
 
Jackson Bashaw leads the Spartans with 42 goals and has contributed seven of their 18 man-up markers.  He has 48 offensive points.
 
Tommy Ortega (23), Rafe Bradshaw (20) and Grant Green (20) have all scored 20 or goals as well.
 
Faceoff man Michael Flores has won 187 of his 309 attempts, good for an impressive .601 success rate and leads the Spartans with 80 groundballs.
 
Defensively, Conley Stone leads the team with 19 caused turnovers and has claimed 44 groundballs.   Gordy Gombold has 17 caused turnovers and 35 groundballs while A.J. Pascarella has 12 caused turnovers and 46 groundballs to rank second on the team behind Flores.
 
Led by head coach J.B. Clarke, the Spartans' received the SSC Coaching Staff of the Year award.  They have guided six First Team All-SSC picks in Gombold, Kemp, Lindsey, Ortega, Pascarella and Theriault.

The Spartans also had six second team and a third team pick.
 
Series History
 
Despite being two time zones and more than 2,000 miles away from each other by road, the Mavericks and Spartans have an extensive history of playing each other.
 
The two teams have played each other in each of the last seasons from 2022-24 and 11 times overall, facing each other every year between 2012-19 as well.
 
The two teams were also scheduled to play in 2020 but had that game canceled in the very early days of the COVID pandemic.  They also did not play in the disjointed 2021 season
 
The Spartans have won seven of the previous meetings and hold a 7-2 record over the Mavs in Tampa.  The Spartans have come West twice, playing in Grand Junction in 2013, a game the Mavs won, 11-4.  CMU also won a 2018 neutral site game in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 
The Spartans have won the last four match-ups, all at home in Tampa.
 
Up Next
 
If the Mavericks win Wednesday's game, they  would make program history by claiming what would be their first NCAA Tournament victory.  They would then travel directly to North Carolina to take on either No. 4 seed Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory or No. 5 seed Wingate in the city of Wingate on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
If Tampa wins, the Spartans would remain at home to face the Lenoir-Rhyne/Wingate winner and end the Mavericks' season with what would be a 13-4 record.
 
The quarterfinals will be played on Sunday, May 11 while the semifinals will take place a week later on May 18.  The national championship game will be played on Sunday, May 25 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFL's New England Patriots.