GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Women's Tennis team will travel to California for their final out-of-state trip of the season. The Mavericks will play four matches in as many days starting Saturday against the nation's 12
th-ranked Azusa Pacific University Cougars.
The Mavs then play a neutral-site match against Holy Names in Fresno on Sunday before returning to the metropolitan Los Angeles area to face Biola on Monday in La Mirada before wrapping up the trip in San Diego against 20
th-ranked Point Loma Nazarene.
The Mavericks were also scheduled to play Fresno Pacific on Sunday but that match has been cancelled.
The Mavericks will enter the trip with a 3-9 team record and will try to stop an 8-match slide.
The Maverick men are also playing the same four opponents on the same days.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks went 0-3 last weekend against Lone Star Conference foes in Wichita Falls, Texas at the Midwestern State Duals. They lost by 6-1 margins to 14
th-ranked Midwestern State and Cameron, receiving votes in the Oracle/ITA NCAA Division II National Rankings, on Friday before dropping a 7-0 decision to Angelo State on Saturday. The Mavericks did win a doubles match against Angelo State, ranked eighth in the pre-spring set of ITA South Central Regional rankings. Midwestern State and Cameron were second and third in those rankings, respectively.
Waldburger tabbed by RMAC
Maverick freshman
Maike Waldburger was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Week on Wednesday, becoming the third straight Maverick to earn the award.
The Wesel, Germany native led the Mavericks' efforts in Texas recording two wins while coming close to victory in two other matches. Against Cameron, Waldburger won her No. 6 singles match over Pilar Jaurena (6-1, 7-5). She then teamed with
Georgia Hansen to win the No. 3 doubles match against Angelo State's Lucie Maitrot and Maria Delgadillo, 7-6 (7-4). She also split 7-5 sets with Maitrot at No. 6 singles before dropping a 10-4 extended tie-breaker on Saturday after she and Hershey lost a tie-breaker in their doubles match against Midwestern State's Juliette Mary and Lea Cizeron.
Three straight for CMU
Waldburger's RMAC Player of the Week honor is the third straight for the Mavericks.
Kristen Kirby received the Mar. 6 honor after
Taylor Hershey was recognized on Feb. 20. The award was not bestowed on Feb. 27 as less than half of the RMAC's four teams played that week. MSU Denver's Helena Steenberg is the only other RMAC Player of the Week selection this year. She won the Week No. 1 award on Feb. 6.
Watch the Mavs
Live streaming and scores, which will be updated approximately every 10 minutes, of the Monday afternoon match at the Biola Tennis Center can be seen at the links above. The match is slated to start at 1:30 p.m. PDT (2:30 p.m. Mountain).
A live stream of Tuesday's match against Point Loma Nazarene is also scheduled and can be accessed at the link above.
Double-Figure Duo
Senior
Emily Beckley and junior
Kristen Kirby's 6-4 win over MSU Denver's Tabitha Porter and Helena Steenberg at No. 1 doubles on Feb. 28 was the pair's 10
th of the season. They are 10-8 together and have a 6-6 mark in the top flight in dual matches this season.
The victory was the 50
th career doubles win for Beckley, who is now 50-47 in her Maverick career for doubles. She is a 3-time overall and 2-time Second Team All-RMAC selection in doubles.
Kirby has now reached double-figures in each of her three seasons with the Mavericks going 14-19 last year after a 16-6 record with her older sister Katie in 2016-17. She has earned First Team All-RMAC honors in doubles after each of the last two years. She is 40-33 in doubles play thus far in her collegiate career.
Triple digits
Beckley has also recently surpassed the 100-career win mark overall. In addition to her 50 doubles wins, she has 52 singles wins to her credit and is 102-91 as a Mav. She earned her 100
th career win with Kirby when they pair defeated Western New Mexico's Julia Tozzi and Camila Gomez in No. 1 doubles play on Feb. 16 in St. George, Utah. Beckley is 52-44 in singles.
Scouting the Opponents
Azusa Pacific
The Cougars are 7-4 as a team this spring and have won four of their last six matches. The two losses in that stretch have come to Division I Ball State and to Division II No. 1 ranked Barry. The Cougars are ranked 12
th in the Oracle/ITA NCAA Division II National Rankings as of Feb. 20 after starting the spring in the No. 13 position. They also began the spring ranked third in the West Region.
Petra Ivankovic is currently ranked 27
th nationally in singles while Jackie Wagner and Kera Hinton are tabbed 19
th in doubles. Those rankings were based on the fall season.
Ivankovic is 6-1 at No. 1 singles this spring and has only lost to a Division I foe from Cal State Fullerton.
Hinton and Wagner are 4-2 as a pair at No. 1 doubles and have won three straight matches. Hinton also played one match at No. 2 doubles with Courtney Page against Ball State.
The Cougars and Mavericks do have two common opponents this spring in Western New Mexico and Angelo State. The Cougars defeated those teams in their last two matches on Tuesday and Wednesday by 7-0 and 6-1 margins, respectively. The Mavericks have lost matches to both.
Holy Names
The Hawks are currently 5-3 on the season and will host Tampa in Oakland before making the trip to Fresno for Sunday's neutral-court match against the Mavericks at Fresno Pacific University. They have lost two of their last three matches by 7-0 scores to Fresno Pacific (Mar. 7) and Sonoma State (Mar. 8) but defeated Mills by the same margin earlier on Mar. 8.
Lada Baglaeva is 4-3 this spring, playing mostly at the No. 1 singles spot.
The Mavericks and Hawks also played a neutral-court match in 2018. The Mavericks won that encounter, played Feb. 25 in Phoenix, by a 6-3 margin.
Biola
The Eagles are currently 5-4 this spring but will play at Point Loma Nazarene on Saturday before hosting the Mavs on Monday in La Mirada. They have won three of their last four matches with the lone loss coming to Angelo State by a 4-0 score on Tuesday. Esther Lee has a 3-2 record at No. 1 singles while Allisson Torres has compiled the same record in the fourth, fifth and sixth flights.
In doubles, Lee and unrelated Lauren Lee are 4-3 at No. 1 doubles while Torres and Ines Diaz have gone the same in the No. 2 and 3 positions. They are 3-0 at No. 3 doubles.
The Mavericks claimed a 6-3 win over the Eagles last year on Mar. 17 in La Mirada as CMU won all three doubles matches to seize early momentum before
Emily Beckley, Rebecca Osteberg and
Georgia Hansen all won singles matches to complete the victory.
Point Loma Nazarene
The PLNU Sea Lions are 4-3 this spring but have had a weather-plagued schedule that has resulted in five cancellations.
They are ranked 20
th nationally as of Feb. 20 but have dropped their last two decisions falling 7-0 to city rival UC San Diego on Feb. 27 before dropping a 5-2 decision to Division I Southern Utah on Tuesday. They are slated to play two more matches before facing the Mavericks hosting Western New Mexico on Friday morning and Biola on Saturday afternoon.
The Sea Lions are slotted fifth in the pre-spring ITA West Region Rakings and began the spring ranked 21
st before moving up a spot in the midst of a strong 4-1 start that included a win over Division I Idaho State.
Shelby Groeneveld and Gabi Armas are both 4-3 at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles spots this spring while Nicole Camaratta has a team-best 5-2 record, playing in the No. 5 and 6 positions. In doubles, the duos of Groeneveld/Michelle Torres and Armas/Ellie Gamble are both 3-3. Armas and Gamble have played at No. 1 while Groeneveld and Torres have occupied the No. 2 spot.
The Sea Lions won a Mar. 14, 2018 match against the Mavericks by an 8-1 score.
Up Next
After this weekend's trip, the Mavericks will return to Colorado for the rest of the season, which will resume on Apr. 5 when the Mavs take on MSU Denver in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference encounter. CMU then visits CSU-Pueblo on Apr. 6.
