ST. GEORGE, Utah— The Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision at Dixie State University in both teams' Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and spring-season openers on Friday afternoon here at the Dixie State Tennis Courts.
 
The Mavericks received a doubles win from Rebecca Osterberg and Taylor Hershey in the third flight but came up on the short end of a tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles to lose the doubles point.  Hershey and Emily Beckley also won singles matches although the Mavericks lost two of the three 3-set matches in the singles to drop the overall match.
 
They are now 3-3 overall, with two of the three losses coming to the Trailblazers.  Dixie State improved to 3-0 with the win.  They had claimed a 4-3 win over CMU in October in the Mavs' final match of the fall.
 
In doubles, Osterberg and Hershey defeated Hattie Erekson and Juliana Honczaruk (6-4) after Yolena Carlon and Isabel Heras took down CMU's Kristen Kirby and Beckley by a 6-3 score in the No. 1 doubles match.  The doubles point then came down to the No. 2 flight where Kyra Harames and Megan Lynch won the tiebreaker, 7-6 (3), over  Maike Waldburger and Georgia Hansen to give the Trailblazers the advantage going into singles.
 
Hershey responded quickly taking down Erekson 6-1, 6-1 in No. 6 singles before Lynch and Heras won tight matches at No. 4 and No. 3 singles to put the Trailblazers up 3-1.
 
Beckley would then finish off Harames (4-6, 7-5, 6-0) at No. 2 before Emily Lloyd clinched the dual with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win over Waldburger at No. 5 singles.  Carlon then completed the dual with a come-from-behind 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Kirby at No. 1 singles.
 
"The doubles point was huge," Maverick coach Dan MacDonald said.  "Our young ladies fought to the end and that is all we can ask. Dixie was just able to win a few more big points than us."
 
The match was the first of the weekend for the Mavs at the Trailblazer Invite.  They will play Western New Mexico on Saturday morning and Stanislaus State on Sunday.