GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's and women's tennis teams will commence their 2021-22 seasons this weekend as the Mavericks will head to Denver to compete in the MSU Denver Fall Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
 
Action will begin at 8 a.m. each day on eight courts on MSU Denver's campus (1390 Shoshone St., Denver, CO 80204) and six courts at the Denver Tennis Park (1560 S. Franklin; Denver, CO 80210).
 
The singles portion of the tournament will be limited to 48 men and the same number of women divided into 16-player A, B and C draws.  A doubles tournament will also be contested and players will be guaranteed two singles and two doubles matches.

Singles play will be the best of three sets with a 10-point tie-breaker in the third set if the first two split.  Doubles matches will be determined with an 8-game pro-set.
 
Maverick Coach Dan MacDonald has entered eight men and eight women into the field, which will also include players from the host Roadrunner program, Air Force, Colorado College Seward Community College.  The CSU Pueblo women's team and University of Denver men's team will also be represented.
 
More details about the tournament can be accessed through the Universal Tennis platform.
 
A look at the Maverick Lineup
 
The Mavericks are sending eight men to the tournament, including four newcomers to the program in Collin College transfer Jorge Abreu as well as freshman Wayne Aggen, Tegan Hartman and Brandon Keller.  Aggen and Keller, who attended Colorado State as a student last year, are both products of Fruita Monument High School while Hartman hails from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  Abreu originally hails from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks will also have four veterans in Steven Howe, Christian Albrechtsen, Moises Cure and Jandre van Wyk, all of whom were regular producers in the CMU lineup last spring.
 
Howe earned Third Team All-Pacific West Conference honors in singles and teamed with van Wyk for the same in doubles as the pair set a CMU single-season record for doubles winning percentage (.789) after going 15-4 together last spring.
 
However, they will not play together this weekend as Howe will team with Abreu as CMU's top doubles duo while Van Wyk will play with Hartman.
 
Albrechtsen and Cure will also join forces while Aggen and Keller will make up an all-FMHS Wildcat pair.
 
Howe was 8-9 overall in singles play during the spring, going a strong 8-4 at No. 2 while filling in for a then-injured Albrechtsen at the No. 1 singles spot during the middle of the campaign.
 
Meanwhile, VanWyk co-led the Mavericks with ten singles wins last year.
 
On the women's side, MacDonald will bring four of his five freshman in the 2021 recruiting class along with four returning starters, three of whom will play with newcomers in doubles this weekend.
 
The list of freshman includes Makenna Livingston of Huntington Beach, California, Macy Richards of Bountiful, Utah Audrey O'Rear of Lone Tree, Colorado and Paige Furin of Henderson, Nevada.
 
Issy Coman of Auckland, New Zealand, returns for her sophomore year after playing in the No. 1 singles spot of MacDonald's lineup for much of last season and will pair up with Halle Romero in doubles.  Romero had ten singles wins last spring while she and Coman had a strong 9-8 doubles record, mostly in the No. 2 spot on the internal team ladder.  Coman also had a team-high 13 doubles wins overall in the spring.
 
Meanwhile, Maike Waldburger returns for her fourth season and redshirt junior year in a Maverick uniform.  She had nine singles wins a year ago at the No. 1 and 2 positions and played with now graduated Carolena Campos in doubles last year.  The German will pair with Livingston in doubles this weekend as CMU's top pair.
 
Meanwhile, Richards and Furin will play together while O'Rear will partner up with sophomore Julianna Campos, who led the Mavericks with 11 singles wins as a freshman.  Julianna Campos also went 12-7 in doubles play last spring with four different partners.
 
A look back
 
In the spring of 2021, the Maverick women went 12-13 as first-year members of the PacWest.  They started 6-0 for the first time in school-history and later claimed two wins each over CSU-Pueblo and Colorado College, who they will have a chance to see this weekend.
 
The Maverick men, who also joined the PacWest, went 9-10 last spring and had two wins over CC as well.  They also had a 5-1 start.
 
Due to COVID related issues, the Mavericks did not play any fall-season duals in 2020.  However, they did host an ITA Tour: Fall Circuit tournament last October, where many of the CMU players got the taste of some outside competition on the individual level.
 
Up Next
 
After this weekend's tournament, which will be geared on individual results and sharpening up for the season ahead, the Mavericks will turn their focus to the start of team play.  Both CMU units will compete in the Pueblo Duals next weekend (Sept. 17-18).  The Maverick men will play Dallas Baptist and Texas-Permian Basin in duals while the CMU women will play those teams in between matches with Nebraska-Kearney and Fort Hays State.
 
The Mavericks will then have one weekend off before heading to the ITA West Regional in Fresno, California to wrap up the brief fall portion of the season from Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
 
MacDonald has not yet announced his team's spring season schedules.