GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Women's Tennis squad will begin the spring season with three matches in St. George, Utah this weekend, including a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener against the host Dixie State University Trailblazers.
 
The Mavericks will play DSU, a newcomer to the conference, at 2 p.m. on Friday at the Dixie State Tennis Courts before taking on former RMAC rival Western New Mexico on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. in a key NCAA Division II South Central Regional match.
 
They then wrap-up the weekend on Sunday at 11 a.m. against Stanislaus State out of Turlock, California.
 
Revenge on their minds
 
The Mavericks will be trying to avenge a heartbreaking loss to the Trailblazers in what was their final and lone home match of the fall season on Oct. 5.  The Mavericks won the doubles point with two wins out of three but dropped four of the six singles matches.  Three of the singles matches went to three sets, including the No. 3 match between CMU's Rebecca Osterberg and the Trailblazers' Maria Heras, which went to second and third set tie-breakers after Osterberg won the opening set 6-0.  Heras won both tiebreakers to take the match.
 
Kirsten Kirby and Emily Beckley had teamed for an 8-6 win at No. 1 doubles while Taylor Hershey and Osterberg picked up an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles.
 
Kirby also defeated Yolena Carlon in three sets in the No. 1 singles while Maike Waldburger claimed a 3-set win at No. 5 singles
 
Two straight for Kirby
 
Kirby, a junior out of Thornton, Colorado and Mountain Range High School, was named as the RMAC's Preseason Player of the Year for the second straight year on Jan. 28.  She was also joined on the 6-member Preseason All-RMAC team by Emily Beckley.
 
Kirby went 6-5 overall including a 4-1 dual mark at the No. 1 singles throughout the fall season.  She also posted a team-best 7-4 doubles mark with Beckley, going 3-2 in duals in the top flight.  Beckley led the Mavs in singles wins going 7-4 with a 4-1 mark at the No. 2 flight.
 
As a sophomore in 2017-18, Kirby was a First Team All-RMAC selection in both singles and doubles while Beckley, a senior this year, earned Second Team All-RMAC honors in singles and honorable mention accolades in doubles last season.
 
In the polls
 
The Mavericks were picked second as a team in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.  They received one first place vote and had seven points overall.  MSU Denver garnered two first place votes and had eight points overall while Dixie State was picked third with six points.  They also had a first place vote.  CSU-Pueblo was picked fourth with three points.
 
Looking back at the fall

The Mavericks had a strong fall season going 3-2 in dual meets while playing in two individual tournaments as well.  At the CSU-Pueblo duals on Sept. 14-15, the Mavericks went 3-1 blanking both Fort Hays State and Texas-Permian Basin by 7-0 scores.  They also picked up a 4-3 win over Newman after starting the weekend with a 6-1 set-back to Nebraska-Kearney.
 
In total, the Mavs posted winning records in five of the six singles flights and in two of the three doubles flights as well. 
 
A look at the spring schedule
 
The Mavericks have 19 regular season matches on the spring slate and will then play host to the RMAC Championships on Apr. 26-27.  The Mavs will play each of their three RMAC rivals twice, once at home and once on the road, although only of the matches against each opponent will count towards the conference standings and regular season tournament title chase.  Those standings will also determine the seeding for the conference tournament.
 
Friday's encounter against Dixie State straight out of the shoots is the first of CMU's three official RMAC matches.  They also host CSU-Pueblo on Mar. 2 and travel to MSU Denver on Apr. 5 for their other RMAC tilts.
 
The Mavs will play three regular-season home matches in total, facing MSU Denver on Mar. 1 and Dixie State on Apr. 20 before the RMAC Tournament, a week later.
 
Veteran Head Coach Dan MacDonald, in his 14^th year in charge, will also take his squad to Wichita Falls, Texas for three South Central Regional matches on Mar. 8-9 and to California for five matches in four days from Mar. 16-19.
 
They will also play four on the road at Division I Northern Colorado on Apr. 11 and at Division III Colorado College a day later after squeezing in a morning neutral-site regional match against Tarleton State on the morning of Apr. 12 in Pueblo.
 
Scouting the Opponents
 
Dixie State
 
The Trailblazers played just two matches in the fall, but won both.  In addition to the aforementioned 4-3 win over the Mavs, they defeated Colorado College by an 8-1 score in Grand Junction.
 
Hattie Erekson, Kyra Harames, Isable Heras and Megan Lynch all went 2-0 in singles play while the Trailblazers posted a 3-3 cumulative doubles record.
 
They were 9-10 as a team in 2017-18 while members of the PacWest Conference.  They split two matches with the Mavericks that season with CMU winning in St. George during the spring season.
 
Western New Mexico
 
The Mustangs are off to a 3-0 start this spring having defeated NAIA Ottawa University Arizona and Arizona Christian last Saturday in Surprise, Arizona before besting Mesa Community College a day later in Mesa, Arizona.  In the process, they have already surpa2ssed their win total from 2017-18 when they went 2-19.
 
The Mavs defeated the Mustangs, 7-2 on Feb. 24 in Phoenix, Arizona last year and also won a 2017 spring season match by a 6-3 score.
 
Prior to departing the RMAC for the Lone Star Conference following the 2016-17 season, the Mustangs were a conference power.  They won the RMAC's regular season title in 2013 and 2015 and won four RMAC Tournament titles in a five year span (2012-16) while playing in the championship match in all five.  The 2016 title came against CMU.
 
Stanislaus State
 
The Warriors have yet to officially open their spring season after watching their Feb. 2 and Feb. 10 home matches be postponed.  They did play a Jan. 25 scrimmage against Division I Fresno State, losing 6-1.
 
The Warriors are ranked 10^th in the most recent ITA West Region Rankings (Jan .16) as a team.
 
In three fall individual tournaments, they were led by Cassidy Ferrell who went 9-1 in singles play winning two of those tournaments.  She is ranked 49^th nationally according to the Nov. 21 Oracle/ITA Division II rankings. 
 
Taylor Galya (7-3) and Sylvana Talamantes (6-4) also had winning records in the fall.  Galya and Amlia Gogalija also had a 3-0 record as doubles partners while Ferrell and Kayla Nguyen teamed to post a 3-2 record.  Galya also played with two other partners and went 5-2 in doubles overall.
 
In 2017-18, the Warriors went 8-14 as a team posting a 1-3 record in the PacWest Conference Championship.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekends' matches, the Mavs will take a weekend off in preparation for two home matches at the Elliott Tennis Center against RMAC rivals on Friday, Mar. 1 and Saturday, Mar. 2.  They will face MSU Denver in a non-conference match on Mar. 1 at 2 p.m. before taking on CSU-Pueblo on Mar. 2 at 9 a.m.