By: Courtesy Chris Day, CMU Sports Information

TAMPA, Fla.— The 2025 Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon at the hands of the nation's top-ranked University of Tampa Spartans in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

The Mavericks, appearing in the national tournament for just the second time and the first time in seven years, finish the year with a 13-4 record after the 12-7 defeat.

The Spartans held the Mavs without a goal for the first half and improved to 19-0 while advancing to Sunday's quarterfinals.

CMU had come into the game as winners of nine straight post-season games at the conference level but had not made it to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

Connor Jensen and Erich Petersen scored two goals apiece to lead the Maverick offense while Shaden Shields made 18 saves to smash the Maverick single-reason record.  The Naples, Florida native, recorded 66 of those in the Mavs' four post-season games and finished the year with 178, 17 more than Remi Reeves made in the Mavs' last national tournament qualifying season.  Reeves played in 17 games that year, two more than Shields did this season.

Shields kept the Mavs in Wednesday's game, making a dozen saves in the half, including six in each of the first two quarters.

He held the Spartans to just five first half goals although the Spartans managed to take a 2-0 lead on the final play of the opening quarter before opening a 5-0 lead with 10:29 left in the second.

However, the Mavs kept the Spartans out of the scoring column for 11 ½ minutes and finally got on the scoreboard themselves at the 14:01 mark of the third when Connor Points scored on a Jensen assist.

Jensen then scored seven minutes later before the Spartans extended the lead to 8-2 at the end of the third quarter.

The Mavs then scored five goals in the final quarter to close the final deficit to five.

Petersen book-ended that quarter with two goals, the first of which was man-up.  Jensen, Deuce Kirschke and Dillon Pless also scored in the final quarter.  Pless also had a team-high two assists.

The Spartans finished the game with a 48-31 advantage in total shots and a 39-24 cushion in total groundballs.  They were also able to win 16 of the 22 faceoffs.

Zack Friend led the hosts with four goals off the bench while Davis Lindsey added two goals and three assists.  Jackson Bahaw also had three goals and took eight shots.  He also recorded five groundballs while Connor Theriault registered 14 saves.

Mike Edwards had five groundballs for CMU in his final career game as part of the Maverick senior class that won four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference or Rocky Mountain Division titles while winning four post-season tournament titles.