GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Beach Volleyball team will begin its fifth season in program history this weekend as they compete at the Arizona Invitational in Tucson on Friday and Saturday.
 
The Mavericks will also play a Thursday scrimmage against South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.  No official scores will be kept for that encounter.
 
In Tucson at Bear Down Beach, the Mavericks will play the host and nation's 13^th ranked Wildcats at noon on Friday before taking on Stephen F. Austin at 2 p.m.  They then wrap-up the tournament against another Pac 12 foe in Washington on Saturday at 10 a.m.
 
There may also be additional exhibition sets played on Friday evening.
 
A look back to 2019
 
The Mavericks recorded a program-record seven wins and finished fourth in their debut appearance at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships in Tavares, Florida, where they went 4-3.
 
The Maverick also played a very challenging schedule season with ten matches against NCAA Division I institutions.  The Mavericks claimed wins over Nebraska and CSU Bakersfield in that run at The Belmont Shore Challenge.
 
CMU was a strong 5-3 against non-NCAA Division I foes throughout the campaign and finished with a 7-11 overall record.
 
Individually, the No. 4 pairing of Ara Norwood and Holly Schmidt posted a winning 9-8 record as they set a school-record for single-season dual-meet wins.  They went 7-3 in their final ten matches and were 5-1 at the AVCA tournament.
 
Magdalena Dabrowski and Kerstin Layman went 8-9 at No. 5 and were a team-best 9-2 in tournament matches while finishing third at the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Sand 2's Championships, which wrapped up CMU's campaign.
 
Katie Scherr also finished the beach volleyball portion of her Maverick career with 18 career wins as she surpassed the former record of 15, which had been held by Taylor Woods (2016-18).
 
Looking at the 2020 roster
 
The Mavericks have seven returning players and eight newcomers on the 2020 beach roster.  Four of CMU's returning players are also on the Mavericks' indoor volleyball squad, including Honorable Mention All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selections Ara Norwood, a junior, and Kerstin Layman, a sophomore.  Schmidt, a sophomore, and junior Ashton Reese also make up that group.
 
CMU also has three beach only returnees in Lindy Dixon, the team's only true senior, Magdalena Dabrowski, a redshirt junior, and sophomore Macie Lachemann.
 
Amongst the group of eight newcomers on the beach roster are four members of the Mavericks' 2019 indoor volleyball ­squad in Maddi Foutz, Haley Hahn, Courtney Moore and Savannah Spitzer.  Foutz is a redshirt sophomore in beach volleyball eligibility who spent two years at Colorado State before transferring to CMU.  Hahn, Moore and Spitzer were all freshman on the Mavs' 2019 indoor roster.
 
The Mavericks also have four other freshman who will be unfamiliar to those that follow the indoor team.  Savannah Ott of Lakewood, Colorado and Mary McGinnis of Des Moines, Iowa were at CMU in the fall while Paige Gwaltney and McKenna Palmer joined the overall program in January.  Gwaltney graduated from Sacramento, California's Rio Americano High School a semester early while Palmer joins the CMU program after transferring from Division I Northern Colorado, where she played indoor volleyball while helping the Bears to the Big Sky Conference title in 2019 after redshirting in 2018.  She hails from Paonia, Colorado, where she was a multi-sport standout before beginning college in Greeley.
 
Click here to read more about the Mavericks' latest additions.
 
New Pairs/Probable Lineup
 
With the all new faces, the Mavericks will enter the 2020 season with new pairings and combinations in every position when compared to 2019.
 
Here is a look at the probable starting lineup for this weekend's tournament.  Each returning players' 2019 and career records as members of the Mavs' starting lineup (exhibition matches not included) are in parenthesis.
 
No. 1- Maddi Foutz/Holly Schmidt (9-8; 9-8 career)
No. 2- Magdalena Dabrowski (8-9, 8-9 career)/Macie Lachemann (4-14; 4-14 career)
No. 3- Lindy Dixon (3-15; 7-30 career)/Mary McGinnis
No. 4- Ara Norwood (5-14; 14-22 career)/Ashton Reese (0-2; 0-2 career)
No. 5- Kerstin Layman (8-9; 8-9 career)/McKenna Palmer
 
A look at the schedule
 
After this weekend's tournament, the Mavericks will be off until Mar. 18 when they make what has become their annual Spring Break pilgrimage to southern California.  The Mavs will play six matches in a span of four days from Mar. 18-21 playing a series of tri-duals at CSUN, Concordia-Irvine and Long Beach State.
 
The Mavs are then slated to host a tri-dual against Colorado Christian and Colorado Northwestern Community College in what will be their lone home matches of the season on Apr. 4 before wrapping up the regular season with four matches at the University of Utah's tournament on Apr. 10-11.
 
CMU will then wrap up the season in Florida as they make their second trip to the AVCA Small College Beach Championships from Apr. 17-19.
 
In total, the Mavs are slated to play 15 matches plus how ever many they end up with at the national tournament.  Eight of them will be against NCAA Division I institutions.
 
A look at this week's opponents
 
Arizona- Friday, Feb. 28 – Noon
 
The Wildcats began the 2020 campaign hosting the Cactus Classic last weekend and went 4-0 with wins over Missouri State (3-2), San Francisco (5-0), Boise State (5-0) and Missouri State (4-1).  That hot start helped the Wildcats move up two spots from 15^th in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Volleyball Preseason Poll, released on Feb. 10, to 13^th in this week's poll released Tuesday (Feb. 24).
 
In 2019, the Wildcats went a program record-setting 25-6 overall and finished 13^th in the Final AVCA Poll.  They were 4-1 in Pac-12 regular season matches and went 1-2 at the conference tournament.
 
Four different Wildcat pairs are unbeaten thus far in 2020.  The duos of Natalie Anselmo/Carly Lowry and Sarah Blacker/Alex Parkhurst are both 4-0 having split time between No. 2 and 3.  Meanwhile, Jonny Baham and Halie Hess are 3-0 at the No. 4 while Caroline Cordes and Alana Ronnie won their lone match in the No. 5 spot of Coach Steve Walker's lineup.
 
Stephen F. Austin- Friday, Feb. 28 – 2 p.m.
 
The Ladyjacks began their program this year and went 3-1 in their debut tournament last weekend in Kingsville, Texas.  They defeated Cedar Valley, Ottawa-Kansas and Missouri Baptist before falling to the host Javelinas.
 
Iris Fletcher and Corin Evans played in the top flight in all four of SFA's matches thus far and went 3-1.
 
Washington – Saturday, Feb. 29 – 10 a.m.
 
The Huskies will begin their season with this weekend's tournament.  They are coming off a 9-16 (1-4 Pac 12) campaign a year ago.
 
They have eight returners back from last year's squad, including Shayne McPherson, who enters her senior season ranked third in program-history with 40 wins, just seven away from breaking the record.  She was 10-10 with Kara Bajema at No. 2 last year and 10-13 overall.

Series Histories
 
Friday's meeting with Arizona will be the fourth in the last five seasons.  CMU is 0-3 all-time against the Wildcats.  All of the previous meetings have been in Tucson.  The Mavericks dropped 5-0 decisions in 2016 and 2019 and a 4-1 contest on Apr. 7, 2018.  Current Maverick junior Ara Norwood teamed with Natalee Todd for a No. 5 win that day, their second match victory against a Pac-12 foe.
 
CMU's only previous meeting with Washington came on Mar. 22 last year in Long Beach, California.  The Huskies won that match 4-1.  Norwood and Holly Schmidt posted the Mavs' win at No. 4.
 
Friday afternoon's match with beach newcomer Stephen F. Austin will be the first match-up between the teams.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's tournament, the Mavs will be off from competition until Mar. 18 when they begin their spring break trip at CSUN in Northridge, California where they will play the host Matadors and Cal State-Los Angeles.