GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will begin their spring season this weekend with a pair of away matches against NCAA Division I foes. The Mavericks, who had a solid 2-1 dual-meet record in the fall portion of the season, are eager to get back to competitive action and will take on Idaho State on Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. in Pocatello, Idaho and the Bengals' Reed Gym. They will then head south to face Weber State for a Saturday afternoon encounter in Ogden, Utah, which will commence at noon.
Independent Life
This weekend's matches are the first of 17 on the books for head coach
Dan MacDonald and his experienced squad that includes three seniors and three juniors.
The Mavericks will playing a schedule as an independent this year as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference no longer sponsors men's tennis after Colorado Christian dropped its program following the 2017-18 campaign. However, the Mavericks will play former RMAC foes MSU Denver and CSU-Pueblo both home and away. The home matches on Mar. 1 (MSU Denver) and Mar. 2 (CSU-Pueblo) will be the only encounters at the Elliott Tennis Center.
The Mavericks will also scrimmage MSU Denver in St. George, Utah on Feb. 17 a day after playing Western New Mexico in a South Central Regional match-up. After the home contests two weeks later, the Mavericks will head to Wichita Falls, Texas for four matches in the Mar. 7-9 Midwestern State Duals before playing four matches against California foes in a Mar. 16-19 Spring Break trip.
They then head to MSU Denver and CSU-Pueblo for the return matches on Apr. 5 and 6 before closing out the regular season at Division I Northern Colorado on Apr. 11 and at Division III Colorado College on Apr. 12.
Dual perfection
Maverick junior
Alain De La Bastide helped lead the Mavs in the fall recording four singles wins and eight doubles victories. He was perfect in dual meet matches going 3-0 in both singles and doubles with partner
Lucas Martin. He played two of his three matches at No. 4 singles with the other coming at No. 3. In doubles, he and Martin played in the No. 2 flight.
Including tournament play, De La Bastide went 8-3 in doubles in the fall, posting an 8-2 mark with Martin.
Potential Milestone Weekend
Martin, one of the Mavs' three seniors, enters this weekend with a chance to reach the 50-career win mark in doubles and is rapidly approaching the 100-career win mark overall. The 5-time overall (4x Second Team) All-RMAC selection out of Fort Collins, Colorado has 48 career doubles wins (48-40) and 86 overall wins, including 38 singles triumphs (38-51) entering the spring portion of the season, which will be his last.
United Nations
The Mavericks have players from six different countries on their roster this year, including De La Bastide, who hails from Caracas, Venezuela. Freshman
Moises Cure of Puerto, Colombia and
Thiago Nejm of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil also represent South America. Europe and Scandinavia are also well represented on the roster with senior
Max Lindqvist of Sweden and freshman
Christian Albrechtsen from Denmark. More specifically, they hail from the capital cities (Stockholm & Copenhagen) of their respective nations.
There are also six Mavericks from the United States, representing four states, including Colorado (3). There are also Mavs from California (
Steven Howe), Oregon (
Mitchell Steadman) and Texas (
William Agritelley).
Former Mates
Steadman spent his freshman year at Idaho State, where he went 1-1 in singles and 0-3 in doubles during the 2015-16 year. He then redshirted in 2016-17 before earning Second Team All-RMAC honors in doubles with
Max Lindqvist last year. The duo was 7-7 overall and Steadman was 10-11 in doubles player overall as a redshirt sophomore. He teamed with
Christian Albrechtsen in tournament play this past fall.
About the opponents
Idaho State will enter Friday's match, their first at home, with a 1-2 record as well. They dropped a 4-3 decision to in-state rival Boise State on Feb. 3 a day after claiming a 6-1 win over Lewis-Clark State. They also lost by a 6-1 score to Utah State on Jan. 13.
Meanwhile, Weber State is 0-7 on the year. They went 0-3 at the UNLV Tournament last weekend. The Mavericks are their lone Division II foe of the year.
