GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University tennis teams will get their 2021 seasons underway this Friday and Saturday as they travel to Grand Island, Nebraska for a series of duals hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney at the indoor Grand Island Tennis Center.
The Maverick men will face Oklahoma Baptist University twice on Friday at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. CST (7 a.m. & 3 p.m. MST) and then play NAIA Hastings College on Saturday morning, starting at 11 a.m. CST (10 a.m. MST).
Meanwhile, the Maverick women will begin their weekend against Oklahoma Baptist at 4 p.m. CST (3 p.m. MST) before facing the host Lopers four hours later in the evening at 8 p.m. CST (7 p.m. MST). After a short overnight rest, they then wrap up the weekend against Hastings at 8 a.m. CST (7 a.m. MST) on Saturday morning.
A look back
This weekend's matches will be the first official team matches for the Mavericks since Mar. 7, 2020 due to the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mavs did play scrimmages against MSU Denver and CSU Pueblo in October, 2020 and several players played as individuals in an ITA Tour: Fall Circuit by UTR event that CMU hosted later than month, but otherwise did not have their normal fall season.
Their 2019-20 season was also cut short.
The Maverick wen were 6-6 overall at the time while the women were 8-8.
A new conference home
In late February, 2020, CMU and the Pacific West Conference jointly announced that the Mavericks would join the conference as affiliate members, beginning this academic year. Longtime Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival MSU Denver also joined as an affiliate member.
For more about this addition and the conference, please see the
original announcement and
Coach Dan MacDonald's reaction to the news at that time.
The move also puts the Mavericks in the West Region for the NCAA Division II Tournament selection process.
Although the PacWest does not have a set regular season schedule, even in more "normal" years, the Maverick men are scheduled to play four PacWest foes in five total matches this season. The Maverick women have six PacWest matches against five different opponents on the current schedule, which is certainly subject to change.
Both CMU squads are slated make a trip to southern California on Mar. 5-6, where they will play Concordia, Azusa Pacific and Biola. The Mavericks will also travel to Denver to face MSU Denver on Apr. 9 before hosting the Roadrunners a week later.
CMU's women also have a neutral-court match slated for Mar. 12 against Dominican in Denver and MSU Denver's Regency Athletic Complex.
The PacWest Tournament is slated for Apr. 21-24 in Surprise, Arizona.
The rest of the schedule
Despite so much uncertainty in the pandemic-effected world, the Mavericks and Coach
Dan MacDonald have put together a challenging and comprehensive schedule with a wide variety of regional opponents from all levels of collegiate tennis.
The Maverick women currently have a slate of 22 official matches ahead, starting this weekend. The men are currently slated to play 17 official matches before the PacWest tournament and excluding a neutral-court Apr. 3 scrimmage with Seward County Community College in Denver.
Included in the schedule are four women's and two men's matches against Division I opponents Idaho State, Weber State, which will come to Grand Junction and the Elliott Tennis Center on Mar. 19, and Dixie State. The Maverick women also have three matches against Division III foes, including a home-and-home series with Colorado College and a neutral-court meeting with Austin (Texas) College at CC's courts. They are also slated to play at NAIA opponents Ottawa (Ariz.) and Arizona Christian next weekend after facing NAIA Hastings this week.
The men have a similar overall schedule and are slated to face two Division I foes in Utah State (Feb. 20) and Weber State (Feb. 21) later this month.
To view both schedules, please visit here (
MEN,
WOMEN).
Looking forward to being home
In addition to the many road and neutral-court matches on the slate, CMU is slated to be at home for three men's and five women's home matches this spring, where they will finish the regular season. Both teams will host Dallas Baptist on Tuesday, Mar. 9 and then MSU Denver and Colorado College on Apr. 16 and 17, respectively. The women are also scheduled to take on Division I Weber State on Friday, Mar. 19 and CSU Pueblo on Apr. 17 at the Elliott Tennis Center.
The Mavericks went a combined 3-0 at home during the fall of 2019 but did not have any home matches in the spring of 2020 prior to the pandemic.
Tough conference
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its' Oracle/ITA Division II Preseason Coaches' Polls on Tuesday.
Four PacWest men's teams are ranked in the nation's top 25, including No. 8 Azusa Pacific and No. 14 Concordia (Irvine), who the Mavs are slated to play in their early March trip to Southern California. No. 5 Hawai'i Pacific and No. 20 (tie) Hawai'i-Hilo are also ranked while MSU Denver is in the receiving votes category of the poll.
In the women's poll, No. 5 (tie) Hawai'i Pacific leads a group of PacWest teams that were included. No. 11 Azusa Pacific, No. 17 Fresno Pacific and No. 25 Concordia (Irvine) are also new conference rivals. Point Loma Nazarene is in the others receiving votes category.
Veteran lineup
All eight of the men on the 2021 roster are returning players as are six of the nine women.
Steven Howe led the 2019-20 men's team with nine singles wins while he and
Tyler Landen, who also returns, went a combined 8-7 in doubles play, the most wins of any particular doubles combination that CMU had last season.
Christian Albrechtsen and
Thiago Nejm were a solid 7-2 as a duo as well.
On the women's side,
Maike Waldburger is expected to lead the team after going 12-8 in singles play during the 2019-20 season to be a joint team-leader in singles wins. She played in the No. 5 position last year, but is slated to move up to the No. 1 position. Waldburger and now graduated
Rebecca Osterberg were also 11-10 in doubles play last season.
New faces
The Mavericks do have three new players this year in
Julianna Campos,
Kira Coffee and
Issy Coman, all of whom are freshman— either true or redshirt— eligibility wise. Campos is the younger sister of Maverick fifth-year senior
Carolena Campos and is a Grand Junction native. Coffee, a native of Littleton, Colorado, joins the CMU program after transferring from Nebraska-Kearney, who the Mavericks will face this weekend. She was on the Lopers' team in 2019-20 but did not see any official action before the COVID cancelation.
Coman hails all the way from Auckland, New Zealand recently arrived on campus. She attended CMU online from her home country in the fall semester.
The planned lineup
Here is a look at Coach MacDonald's probable lineup for this week along with each players' 2019-20 overall and dual-meet record.
Men's
Singles (2019-20 Overall/Dual Meet Records)
- Christian Albrechtsen (5-11/3-9 (No. 1))
- Steven Howe (9-8/7-5 (No. 4 & 5))
- Tyler Landen (8-7/5-6 (No. 3 & 4))
- Moises Cure (5-7/1-5 (No. 3-5))
- Jandre van Wyk (2-4/2-4 (No. 5 & 6))
- Thiago Nejm (1-4/0-1 (No. 6))
Singles (2019-20 Overall/Dual Meet Records)
- Albrechtsen (8-8/5-7) & Landen (8-7/6-5)
- Howe (8-7/6-5) & van Wyk (0-1/0-1)
- Cure (3-8/2-6) & Nejm (8-6/5-5)*
*-0-1 as a pair
Women's
Singles (2019-20 Overall/Dual Meet Records)
- Maike Waldburger (12-8, 8-5 (No. 5))
- Issy Coman (New)
- Carolena Campos (6-13, 5-10 (No. 4))
- Halle Romero (1-5, 0-4 (No. 6))
- Julianna Campos (New)
- Alexi Klabunde (1-1, 0-0)
Doubles
- Waldburger (11-10, 8-8) & Coman (New)
- Carolena Campos (8-10, 7-7) & Julianna Campos (New)
- Romero (4-4, 4-2)/Klabunde (0-2, 0-0)*
*-0-2 as a pair
About Oklahoma Baptist
The Bison hail from Shawnee, Oklahoma and are members of the Great America Conference (GAC) in most sports, including tennis. Their men's & women's swimming programs are also associate members of the RMAC, CMU's primary conference.
Their men's tennis team went 5-5 in the spring of 2020 after playing a series of fall individual tournaments in the fall of 2019. One of their wins came over then 15
th-ranked MSU Texas.
Aaron Brewer, who returns for his sophomore season, led the 2020 team with a 6-4 singles record. He and Gianlucca Galdi, a 2020 senior, were also 5-5 in doubles and were tabbed eighth in the ITA Central Regional Doubles rankings. Bruno Suiama also returns for his senior year after playing all five of his matches in the No. 1 singles spot last year, where he went 2-3.
Meanwhile, OBU's women also went 5-5 last year, when they were led by then senior Kim Moosbacher, who was ranked first in the final ITA Central Regional Singles Rankings. She was 9-1 at the No. 1 position and is one of many losses to what is now a new-look lineup, that features Janna Noel, who played in the No. 5 singles last year, going 3-4.
Jason Proctor is in the third year as the head coach of both Bison programs.
About Nebraska-Kearney
The Lopers had a strong 8-2 team record in 2019-20 before COVID-19 wiped out the rest of the season but have just two returning players from that spring on their roster this year. Brooklyn Hunter went 7-3 last season, playing mostly at the No. 5 singles position and with Claire Neil, the only other returner at No. 3 doubles. Neil was 7-3 in singles play, mostly in the No. 6 spot. The duo was 7-3 in doubles play. Both are seniors
Two others in junior Pranathi Gannavaram and sophomore Thi Huynh also played fall matches. Melisa Becerra, Myraziym "Mia" Sherikulova and Jazmin Zamorano are all freshman.
Scott Shafer is now in his second year as the head coach of the program, a spot he was elevated to in the summer of 2019. He was the top assistant for six prior years.
About Hastings
The Bronco women were 1-6 in 2019-20 before the remainder of the season was canceled. Their lone win came on Feb. 1 against Tabor. The men went 0-7 last season.
Mark Gueswell is in his fourth season as the head coach of both programs.
All eleven members of the women's roster are underclassmen with seven of them being freshman. Gueswell also has four freshman on his 8-man men's roster. He does have two seniors and a junior as well.
Series Histories
This weekend's match-ups with Oklahoma Baptist will be the first in known history.
The Maverick women are 15-21 against Nebraska-Kearney, which used to be a part of the RMAC, dating back to 1994. The Lopers have dominated the series as of late, winning each of the last 11 matches since 2011, when the Mavericks posted their last win, which was good for the Mavericks to claim that year's RMAC title.
Many of the recent meetings have come during the fall portion of the last several seasons in Pueblo, Colorado. However, the Mavericks have faced the Lopers in Grand Island, the site of this year's encounter in both 2013 and 2016 as well.
In the last meet, UNK won 5-2 on Sept. 13, 2019 in Pueblo.
The Maverick men are 5-0 against Hastings, dating back to 2009. The Mavericks have won four of those matches by 9-0 margins and another by an 8-1 score. The last meeting was on Apr. 2, 2016, when the Mavericks beat the Broncos in Colorado Springs by a 9-0 margin.
The Maverick women are 3-0 against Hastings since 2010. All three of those victories have come by 9-0 margins. All three previous meetings have been in Nebraska, including each of the past two in Grand Island. The last was on Mar. 4, 2016.
Up Next
After this weekend's matches in Nebraska, the Maverick will briefly return home and then head south for a series of matches in the Phoenix metropolitan area on Feb. 12-13. They will play away matches at Ottawa (Ariz.) in Surprise on Feb. 12 and at Arizona Christian in Glendale on Feb. 13. The Mavericks are also slated to take on Western New Mexico in a neutral-court affair in Surprise on the morning of Feb. 13.
