GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Beach Volleyball team has been named as the sixth seed and placed in Pool A for the start of this weekend's American Volleyball Coaches Association Small College Beach Championships, which begin Friday here at Hickory Point Beach.
The Mavericks will play No. 12 seed Catawba and No.7 seed Carson-Newman in their first pool matches on Friday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. EDT (8 a.m./Noon Mountain) before facing top seed Tampa in their final pool match on Saturday at Noon EDT (10 a.m. Mountain). All twelve teams will then play a challenge round match on Saturday afternoon which will set the brackets for the Gold and Silver Divisions on Sunday. The top two teams in each of the three 4-team pools will be guaranteed a spot in the Gold Division while the third and fourth place teams will find themselves in the Silver Bracket.
More information about the tournament can be accessed on the tournament webpage.
Results will be updated here throughout the tournament and Maverick fans can review daily updates on
www.cmumavericks.com.
A subscription to live stream the tournament via BallerTV is also available to be purchased for $50.
Last Time Out
The Maverick beach team, which is 3-10 on the season, last played on Apr. 3 when they faced UC Davis in the final match of the Arizona Invitational that weekend. The Mavericks fell to the Aggies, 4-1 and went 0-4 on the weekend, although two of their matches were against top-10 ranked teams in then No. 8 Pepperdine and then No. 10 Grand Canyon.
Both of the Mavericks wins came from the No. 5 pair of
Ara Norwood and
Tye Wedhorn, who won 15-11 third set wins over both Missouri State on Friday, Apr. 2 and UC Davis.
Record Setter
Norwood's wins allowed her to become CMU's winningest player in program history. She now has 20 career wins in her 4-season Maverick career, two more than her former teammate
Katie Scherr, who won 18 matches from 2017-19.
Norwood and Wedhorn lead the team with their 5-9 record this year. Norwood also won five matches as a freshman in 2018 before matching a single-season record with nine in 2019 and one in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Last Time in Florida
The Mavericks last competed in the AVCA Small College Beach Championship in 2019, which was the second year of the competition. The Mavericks went 4-3 throughout the tournament that year finishing fourth. The Mavericks went 2-1 in pool play and won both of their challenge round matches before falling 3-2 in the semifinals. The Mavs then fell to Spring Hill in the third place match.
The tournament was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experienced Mavericks
Four members of the Maverick squad who are making the trip to Florida this week were a part of CMU's team at the 2019 AVCA event.
Ara Norwood and
Holly Schmidt played together at No. 4 in 2019 and went an impressive 5-1 while winning another match by default throughout that weekend.
As a freshman,
Macie Lachemann went 3-4 in the No. 2 flight alongside
Samantha Ritter.
Ashton Resse went 2-0 with partner
Jordan Cody in the Best of the Rest Pairs challenge event and also played in the No. 3 flight in the third place match against Spring Hill.
Tough Schedule
The Mavericks have played a difficult schedule thus far in 2021 facing NCAA Division I opponents in 11 of their 13 duals. Six of those matches have come against teams ranked in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Top 20 poll at the time. The Mavericks claimed two wins over those foes, sweeping a home doubleheader against Pac-12 conference foe Utah on Mar. 6.
The Mavericks then won their next match on Mar. 22 against The Master's, an NAIA opponent, before dropping their last seven team duals.
A look at the Lineup
Here is the lineup that the Mavericks plan to use throughout the weekend.
- Maddi Foutz/Holly Schmidt
- Macie Lachemann/Savannah Spitzer
- Sierra Hunt/Hahni Johnson
- Ashton Reese/Sabrina VanDeList
- Ara Norwood/Tye Wedhorn
Pairs Challenge
The Mavericks have also entered the duo of
Rianne Brown and
Mary McGinnis into the Pairs Challenge, which will be contested on Friday and Saturday. Twenty-four pairs outside of the teams' 10-person lineups, including a handful from the NAIA bracket and Division III Hendrix, have been divided into eight pools of three. Brown and McGinnis have been put in Pool 8 and will play against Eckerd's Nicki Bechtold and Nicole Perekhodko and Hendrix's Morgan Ford and Isabella Eurgil at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ED(9/11 a.m. MDT). They will then play a one-set to 28 point challenge round match that afternoon, which will help shape the Gold, Silver and Bronze brackets for Saturday.
Brown and McGinnis are 2-1 in extra matches this season and have a 2-2 record as a pair.
About the Opponents (Pool Play)
Catawba
The Indians saw their first action in more than a year against Spartanburg Methodist on Wednesday, beginning a jam-packed and brief season that runs through May 1. They won the matches, 5-0 and 4-1.
In their debut 2020 season, the Indians played two matches, dropping both to Coastal Carolina by 5-0 scores.
Carson-Newman
The Eagles are 6-4 on the season entering this weekend's tournament. They have won three of their last four posting a pair of 5-0 wins over St. Andrew's on Mar. 31 before splitting a doubleheader on Apr. 1 in their last action. Four of their wins have come at home in Jefferson City, Tennessee. The Eagles are 2-4 on the road.
The No. 2 duo of Sierra Still and Abby Struewing and the No. 3 pair of Lindsey Geurin and Mia Roribio are both 5-3 on the year to lead the team. Alanis Mendez and Lauren Williams are 5-4 overall, including a 4-3 mark at No. 5.
Tampa
The Spartans have posted a 13-11 record thus far in 2021. Seven of their losses, and one of their wins, have come against nationally-ranked teams. After an 0-4 start against nationally-ranked foes at a tournament at Florida State, the Spartans won eight of their next nine.
They have yet to leave the state of Florida this season.
In 2020, the Spartans went 9-5 before the COVID related cancelation.
In 2019, the Spartans went 20-5 and won the AVCA Small College title. One of their wins at the tournament came by a 4-1 score over the Mavericks in the only previous head-to-head meeting with CMU.
The No. 1 duo of Julia Oswald and Rachel Rosequist has gone 12-8 while the duo of Taiana Gutierrez and Katie McKiel is a team-best 14-2. They have played twice at No. 2 and have gone 12-2 at No. 3. They have won six straight matches.
The other Pools
Pool B includes Spring Hill, Saint Leo, Eckerd and Tusculum.
Pool C includes Palm Beach Atlantic, Texas A&M Kingsville, Wayne State and Florida Southern.
At the 2019 AVCA Championship, the Mavericks defeated Tusculum and Eckerd. They lost to Texas A&M Kingsville and Spring Hill, which is the No. 2 seed overall. Palm Beach Atlantic is seeded third overall.
Added Home Matches
The Mavericks have extended their season by a week and have added a home doubleheader next Saturday (Apr. 24) against Trinidad State Junior College at the CMU Beach Courts. Matches will begin at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. that day.
