GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The regionally-ranked Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will get the spring portion of the season underway this weekend as they travel to Ogden, Utah and Pocatello, Idaho for three indoor matches in two days, two of which will be against NCAA Division I foes from the Big Sky Conference.
Off from competitive action since competing in the ITA West Regional on Oct. 3-4, 2019, the Mavericks will begin the stretch with a Friday afternoon exhibition match at NCAA Division I Weber State at 2 p.m. in the Ogden Athletic Club.
The Mavericks will then travel up Idaho to face NAIA Lewis-Clark State on Saturday at 5 p.m. in a neutral-site encounter at Idaho State's Reed Gym. They will then stay in that facility for a Super Bowl Sunday clash with the host Bengals at 12:30 p.m.
Looking Back at the Fall
In their four dual meets, the Mavericks went a strong 3-1 posting 5-2 neutral-court wins over regional foes Dallas Baptist and Texas Permian-Basin before closing out the season with a 6-1 home win over Division III Colorado College. The Mavericks also competed in two individual style tournaments, including the Oct. 3-4 ITA West Regional Championships, their last competition of the fall season.
The Mavericks had four singles players and two doubles teams that posted winning records in the dual meets, a group led by freshman
Tyler Landen who went 4-0 in the No. 4 singles spot while teaming with sophomore
Steven Howe for a 3-1 record at No. 2 doubles. Landen finished the fall season with a 7-1 overall record in singles and won his last five matches.
Meanwhile,
Alain De La Bastide and Howe each went 3-1 at No. 2 and No. 5 singles while
Mitchell Steadman was a spotless 3-0 at the No. 6 spot in dual meets. He was 6-3 overall while Howe (5-4) and
Moises Cure (5-5) also contributed to the success in singles play.
In doubles,
Christian Albrechtsen and
Thiago Nejm went an impressive 7-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in duals at the No. 3 spot. Howe and Landen were 3-1 at the No. 2 spot and were 5-2 overall.
Independent Path in the South Central
For the second straight year, the Maverick men are playing as independents as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference no longer sponsors tennis.
Although they competed at the ITA West Regionals, the Mavericks will compete for a spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament out of the South Central Region once again this year. The region, which will qualify four teams for the NCAA Tournament, including the Lone Star Conference Tournament Champions as automatic qualifiers, is made up of 12 men's tennis playing institutions. Nine of those are in the expanded LSC, which merged with the now defunct Heartland Conference this season. The region also includes former RMAC rivals CSU-Pueblo MSU Denver, who like the Mavericks are both playing independent schedules again this year. The Mavs will play each of those teams twice this spring.
In the fall, the Mavericks went 2-1 against regional foes. They have eight more matches on the spring slate against in-region opponents, including contests with MSU Texas, Cameron and Western New Mexico, who they will play twice.
They will also play five other NCAA Division II opponents throughout the spring, including four that will count toward their "in-region" record due to the NCAA's contiguous state policies.
Sitting Sixth
The Mavericks will begin the spring season ranked sixth in the
Oracle/ITA Division II South Central Regional Rankings, which were released on Jan. 15. In the fall, the Mavericks defeated No. 8 Texas-Permian Basin and No. 10 Dallas Baptist. Their lone loss was to Newman, ranked seventh in the Central Regional Rankings.
Although these rankings have no ramification on the official NCAA Division II Tournament selection process, they are a good guide of where the Mavericks stand in their hunt for a spot into the national tournament.
On Mar. 6, they will play against Midwestern State and Cameron ranked second and third in the region. They will also play Southwest Baptist, ranked second in the Midwest Region a day later.
They also have matches at Azusa Pacific, ranked first in the West Region, at West No. 9 Biola and two neutral-court matches against Holy Names, tenth in the West, on the spring slate.
A New Face
The Mavericks have added a new face to the team this spring in mid-year addition
Jandre van Wyk. The Pretoria, South Africa native graduated from Hoërskool Waterkloof in December of 2018 before taking last year off. Including the United States, the Mavericks have representatives from six different countries on their 10-man roster.
Returning to Pocatello
This weekend's matches will be a homecoming of sorts for Maverick redshirt senior
Mitchell Steadman, who spent his 2015-16 freshman campaign as a member of the Idaho State squad. The Jacksonville, Oregon native has been with the Mavericks for the past four seasons, including his 2016-17 redshirt campaign.
D-I Start
Including Friday's exhibition match, the Mavericks will play three of their first four and four overall spring matches against NCAA Division I opposition. They will also play Southern Utah in their first of four matches at the Dixie State Duals on Feb. 21 and then will play at Fresno State on Mar. 15 during their spring break swing in California.
Doubles
No. 1:
Alain De La Bastide/
Moises Cure (3-4 overall, 2-2 in duals)
No. 2:
Steven Howe/
Tyler Landen (5-3 overall, 3-1 in duals)
No. 3:
Christian Albrechtsen/
Thiago Nejm (7-1 overall, 4-0 in duals)
OR
Mitchell Steadman*/
Jandre van Wyk: (0-0)
OR Albrechtsen/van Wyk (0-0)
*Albrechtsen is 1-1 in doubles.
Singles
No. 1: Albrechtsen (3-5 overall, 1-3 in duals)
No. 2: De La Bastide (4-4, 3-1)
No. 3: Cure (5-5, 1-3)
No. 4: Landen (7-1, 4-0)
No. 5: Howe ((5-4, 3-1)
No. 6: Steadman (6-3, 3-0) or van Wyk (0-0)
Exhibitions: Nejm (1-4, 0-1)
Road Warriors
The Mavericks' 2020 spring schedule, which includes 19 total matches, including this weekend's spring-season openers and Friday's exhibition at Weber State, will see the student-athletes play in five different states, including Colorado. They will travel to Utah (twice), Idaho, Texas and California before playing each of their last five matches inside Colorado.
The Mavericks will have nine total matches as the away team and will play eight other matches on neutral courts. They were 2-1 in neutral-site matches in the fall.
CMU will have just one home weekend and two home matches hosting fellow independents MSU Denver and CSU-Pueblo during the CMU Dual Tournament on Apr. 17-18. The Mavs played at home once in the fall defeating Colorado College, who they will return a visit to this spring on Apr. 11.
About the Wildcats
The Weber State University Wildcats have had a busy and successful month of January having already played five duals. They have posted a winning 3-2 record as a team claiming tight 4-3 wins over Bryant and Air Force on the academy campus last Saturday and Sunday, respectively. They also opened the spring with a 5-2 home win over Grand Canyon before falling at Utah and at Denver by identical 5-2 scores on Jan. 16 and 24.
Individually, Arthur Serafim has been the leading producer for Wildcat Director of Tennis Brad Ferreira' squad. Serafim, named as the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week on Jan. 22, has gone a perfect 5-0 at No. 2 singles this season. Sebastian Buxman and Kris van Wyk also have winning 3-2 records. Van Wyk, who like CMU's newcomer, also hails from South Africa. He has been at the No. 1 spot while Buxman moved up to the No. 4 position after playing his first three matches at No. 5.
In their five meets, the Wildcats have used seven different doubles combinations, none of which have played more than two matches together.
In 2019, the Wildcats were just 4-17 as a team. They went 2-8 in Big Sky Conference play, finishing in a tie for tenth out of 11 teams in the conference standings. However, they were picked in a tie for fourth in the conference's preseason coaches' poll.
About Lewis-Clark State
The Warriors will open their season on Saturday against Idaho State after posting a 9-11 team record a year ago.
They will begin the year ranked 25
th in the NAIA Men's Tennis Top 25 Poll.
They also have three men who are ranked 13
th through 15
th in the ITA's NAIA West Region singles rankings, a trio led by Larry Magalasin, who went 9-4 in singles play last spring. Luca Menezes and William Bruchard are just behind. Menezes and Vannasak Chheang are also ranked ninth in doubles, one spot ahead of Magalasin and Bruchard.
About Idaho State
The Bengals, who will play Lewis & Clark Sate on Saturday morning before facing the Mavericks, are off to a 1-1 start this spring. They were on both ends of lopsided scores last week in Boise, Idaho defeating Seattle 6-0 before dropping a 7-0 decision to Boise State.
In 2019, they went 9-12 and were 5-5 in Big Sky Conference play to earn the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament. They then up-ended No. 3 seed Portland State in the quarterfinals before falling 4-0 to eventual champion and top-seeded Northern Arizona. Coach York Strother's team has been ninth in this year's Big Sky Preseason Coaches' Poll.
Current Bengal senior Gary Rendek was an honorable mention All-Big Sky singles player a year ago and was part of a first team all-conference doubles team. Playing with a new partner in Patrik Trhac early this spring, Rendek is 1-1 at No. 2 doubles thus far. He is also one of four Bengals to have gone 1-1 on the opening weekend of the season. Additionally, Lukas Ridemar won his No. 1 singles match against Seattle but did not play singles against Boise State.
Up next
The Mavericks will have three weeks off before returning to action with four matches at the Dixie State Duals from Feb. 21-23 in St. George, Utah. They open that trip against Division I Southern Utah before squaring off with Holy Names and Western New Mexico in neutral-site matches on the following day. They will meet Western New Mexico for a second time on Feb. 23 as well.
