TAVARES, Fla.— The Colorado Mesa University Beach Volleyball team had a strong Friday going 2-0 in team matches to clinch a spot in the Gold Bracket at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships here at Hickory Point Beach.
The Mavericks also had two extra pairs go a combined 6-0 in the Pairs Challenge portion of the tournament to reach the Gold Bracket quarterfinals of that event as well.
In the team matches, CMU downed Catawba, 5-0 before claiming a 3-2 win over Carson-Newman to improve to 5-10 on the season. The Mavericks, who are seeded sixth amongst 12 teams in the tournament, will face top-seeded Tampa with the Pool A title on the line on Saturday at noon EDT (10 10 a.m. Mountain) The Mavs will then play a challenge round match against a team from either Pool B or C later Saturday, which will shape the Gold Bracket positioning for Sunday.
Against Catawba, the Mavericks dropped just one set. The Mavericks also dominated the No. 3, 4 and 5 matches against Carson-Newman and clinched the team win before the Eagles came back to take 3-set affairs at both No. 1 and 2.
At No. 3,
Sierra Hunt and
Hahni Johnson went 2-0 on the day with a 21-18, 21-10 win over Catawba and a 21-14, 21-12 victory over Carson-Newman.
Ara Norwood and
Tye Wedhorn also posted a pair of straight set wins at No.5 while
Ashton Reese and
Sabrina VanDeList evened up their overall record at 6-6 with a pair of victories at No. 4. They came from a set down to defeat Catawba's Payton Medich and Arianna Colon, 18-21, 21-10, 15-12 before claiming a more comfortable 21-13, 21-17 win over Mia Toribio and Lindsey Geurin of Carson-Newman.
Meanwhile,
Holly Schmidt and
Maddi Foutz won their No. 1 match against Catawba's Jade Brooks and Morgan Pearson as they snapped an 8-match losing slide. They then won their opening set, 21-19, over CN's top duo of Summer Coulter and Megan Oldenburger before falling, 21-17 and 17-15 in a tight battle.
CMU's No. 2 duo of
Macie Lachemann and
Savannah Spitzer also claimed an easy 21-7, 21-9 victory over Catawba before falling to C-N in three sets despite winning a marathon second set, 30-28.
In the Pairs Challenge, CMU's
Mary McGinnis and
Rianne Brown posted a pair of wins over duos from Lake-Sumter and Hendrix to win Pool 8 before winning a 28-16 single-set challenge round match against Ottawa's (Ariz.) to earn a spot in the Gold Bracket.
Savannah Ott and
Hailey Peters, a late addition to the Pairs Challenge, also won Pool 2 with straight set wins over pairs from St. Thomas and Lake-Sumpter to also earn a spot in the Gold Bracket for Saturday.
In 2019, the Mavericks placed fourth in the tournament. The 2020 event was canceled.
