GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Beach Volleyball squad will return to action this weekend competing in four intriguing matches at the University of New Mexico's Lucky 66 Bowl in Albuquerque.
The Mavericks, who have been off since their busy 10-match spring break trip to southern California from Mar. 12-17, will play four total matches, including one against the host Lobos to open the weekend on Friday at Noon and two against Arizona State, receiving votes in the latest AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Poll. Those are slated for 2 p.m., Friday and 1 p.m., Saturday.
In between, CMU will square off against Abilene Christian at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
The Mavericks enter the weekend with a 2-8 overall record and have played a challenging schedule including three nationally-ranked Division I squads. Although they did not win any matches in those, the Mavericks have recorded at least one victory in each of their other seven tilts.
The Mavericks' No. 1 duo of
Katie Scherr and
Taylor Woods has fared the best as that pairing went 4-6 in California.
Kasie Gilfert and
Samantha Ritter are also riding some momentum after picking up a No. 2 victory over Missouri State in the final match of the spring break trip. They had occupied the No. 3 spot for the rest of the trip and went 2-8 overall.
The normal No. 2 pairing of
Megan Gianinetti and
Hana Peterman and the No. 4 duo of
Hailey Crane and
Lindy Dixon also have two wins each.
The host Lobos will enter the weekend having won 10 straight home-court matches dating back to 2015. Having yet to play at home this season, they are 2-9 and have had two common opponents with the Mavericks in Loyola Marymount and Grossmont, posting similar results. Like CMU, the Lobos defeated Grossmont, 3-2. They fell 4-1 to LMU while the Mavericks dropped that match 5-0.
New Mexico has won all six previous meetings between the teams with four of those coming in Albuquerque.
Maddie Irwin and Erin Martin lead the team with five wins at the No. 1 position while Eastyn Baleto and Lauren Twitty are 4-4 overall splitting time between the No. 2 and 3 spots.
Arizona State will enter the weekend with a 4-10 overall record after losing six of their last seven. However, they did pull off a 3-2 win over No. 19 Washington at last weekend's Pac-12 South Invitational. The Sun Devils share just one common opponent with the Mavericks in No. 2 UCLA which defeated both 5-0.
The Mavericks and Sun Devils did not meet in 2017 although Arizona State did win a pair of 2016 matches, including a match-up at the Lucky 66 Bowl.
Ellyson Lundberg and Katelyn Carballo are 8-4 on the year to lead the squad while the pairings of Katie Cross/Cierra Flood and Samantha Plaster/Kate Baldwin are both 8-6.
Abilene Christian, a first year beach program, enters the weekend with a 1-7 mark having split their two matches with Benedictine University at Mesa at two different tournaments in Arizona earlier in the season. Fourteen of their 19 players on the roster were part of the Wildcats' indoor team that advanced to the 2017 Southland Conference Championship match.
They fell 4-1 to Grossmont on Mar. 10 in the only match with a common opponent of the Mavericks.
