For the first time this season, the Colorado Mesa University volleyball team is ranked.
With a 15-3 record, the Mavericks vaulted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division II Coaches Top 25 poll for week seven, landing at No. 24.
CMU is riding a seven-game win streak and is 9-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference contests, and one the contributors to the team’s success is former Montezuma-Cortez graduate Naomi Pinnecoose.
Pinnecoose, who was named the Southwestern League Player of the Year and selected to the Class 4A All-State Team, graduated from M-CHS in 2015 and made the transition to CMU, where she is majoring in athletic training.
She played in 16 sets and recorded eight digs and five aces in her redshirt freshman season that was cut short due to a broken foot. But then she bounced back to play beach volleyball last spring in its inaugural season as a varsity program at CMU.
“It was a new experience overall for pretty much everybody on the team,” she said. “It helped me read other hitters more and just be more dynamic.”
After gaining experience on the court and in the sand as a freshman, Pinnecoose has played in 15 of 18 matches and averages nearly two digs per set with a season high 12 digs in games against Wayne State University and Lubbock Christian University.
“This year it’s just more intense and I bring more of a calm setting to the court,” she explained. “I’m playing defensive specialist right now, so I play middle-back for our outside hitters.”
Pinnecoose and the Mavericks play next on Friday against Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota. And, currently tied for second in league play, the Mavs are poised to make a run in the RMAC Tournament and have NCAA Tournament aspirations.
“It’s everyone’s dream to go to nationals,” Pinnecoose said. “But our [goal] is to just work hard and do what we know how to do and know that we’re a good team.”
