GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will face another challenging weekend as they head to Idaho and Utah to play a pair of NCAA Division I opponents from the Big Sky Conference this weekend.  The Mavericks (2-3) will play at Idaho State in Pocatello on Saturday afternoon (12:30 p.m.) in the Bengals' Reed Gym before heading to Ogden, Utah for a Sunday morning (9:30 a.m.) match-up with Weber State at the Ogden Athletic Club.
 
The Maverick women will also play both teams and have a third neutral-court match-up with the College of Idaho scheduled for Saturday afternoon at ISU.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks had a difficult start to the spring portion of the season last weekend, dropping matches to Ottawa University of Arizona, Western New Mexico University and Arizona Christian University last Friday and Saturday in metropolitan Phoenix.  The Mavs fell 6-1 in the first and last matches against the NAIA foes and were defeated 4-3 by fellow NCAA Division II Western New Mexico in their second contest on Friday.
 
The Mavericks were playing from behind in all three matches as they won only one doubles match in each of the three duals.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavs managed three singles wins against Western New Mexico taking, the No. 2, 3 and 5 matches thanks to Jorge Abreu, Moises Cure and Tegan Hartman.
 
Cure also won his No. 3 singles match against Arizona Christian after Christian Albrechtsen won his No. 4 match against Ottawa.
 
All six Mavericks to play over the weekend claimed a doubles win.
 
Consistent Doubles
 
The Mavericks have used the same doubles pairings and lineup in each of their first five duals of the 2021-22 season.  Albrechtsen and Cure have played together at No. 1 doubles, going 3-2 in duals and 5-5 overall this season.  Meanwhile, Hartman and Jandre van Wyk are 5-4 overall and have the same 3-2 dual mark in the No. 3 spot.  Abreu and Howe are 2-3 at No. 2 doubles and 3-6 overall this season, including tournament matches.
 
Mostly the same singles
 
The Mavericks have also had a fairly consistent singles lineup throughout the year, although Cure has been the most versatile Maverick.  He has a team-best 6-5 overall singles record and is 4-1 in duals.  He played at No. 4 in both duals of the fall season before seeing action at both the No. 2 and 3 spots this past weekend. 
 
Howe has been at the top of the lineup all season, going 3-2, while his doubles partner Abreu has played four of the five duals in the second spot of the lineup, going 4-1, including his 3-1 No. 2 mark.
 
Albrechtsen has split time at No. 3 and 4 while van Wyk went 2-2 at No. 5 singles before moving down a spot to No. 6 for Saturday's match-up with Arizona Christian, which he retired from after winning the first set due to injury.  Instead, freshman Tegan Hartman got the start at No. 5 against the Firestorm.
 
Regionally Ranked
 
Thanks to their strong fall, Hartman and van Wyk were ranked eighth in the ITA Division II West Regional Doubles Rankings, which were announced after the fall season on Nov. 23.  They reached the quarterfinals of the ITA West Regional Championships.
 
In the poll
 
The Mavericks were tabbed eighth out of ten teams in the Pacific West Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll, which was announced on Feb. 2.  The Mavericks are in their second season as affiliate members of the PacWest.  They went 9-10 overall and participated in their first PacWest Championships last spring.
 
Nearing Coaching Milestones
 
CMU 17^th-year Head Coach Dan MacDonald is just three wins shy of his 200^th men's victory.  MacDonald, who also coaches the Maverick women, will enter the weekend with a 197-204 coaching record with the Maverick men.    He also has guided the Maverick women to 248 team wins in his tenure and is just five wins shy of 450 combined victories.
 
Scouting the Bengals
 
After starting the spring 0-3, the Bengals have won five of their last six matches to move to 5-4.  They are a perfect 4-0 at home thus far heading into a Friday match-up with Weber State, which will be their first Big Sky Conference match-up of the year.
 
They claimed a 6-1 win over Nevada last Friday and then swept NCAA Division III Linfield (Ore.) University last Saturday, posting 7-0 wins in both legs of the doubleheader.
 
Normal No. 1 Patrick Trhac got the day off against Linfield as Coach Alexander Free was able to use some other players.  The San Diego, California product who is the only American on Free's roster is 3-4 thus far.  Patrick Kristensen has also been very strong, posting a 6-2 record, mostly at No. 5 singles.  Andreas Kramer (5-4) and Wikus Robbertse (2-0) also have winning singles records.
 
Meanwhile, Trhac and Aleksandar Petrovic are 3-1 at No. 1 doubles and are ranked 38^th in the Division I Top 60 Doubles Rankings as of last week (Feb. 9).  They have won three straight matches together.
 
Ege Cankus and Hiroki Fujita have won four straight and are 4-1 as major contributors to the Bengals' overall and solid 14-9 doubles match record.  The Bengals have won the doubles point in each of their last six duals.
 
They went 8-11 overall last season.
 
Scouting the Wildcats
 
Weber State will enter a Friday afternoon Big Sky Conference match-up at Idaho State with a 2-7 overall record.  Their two wins have come against UC-Riverside (4-0) on Jan. 29 and at MSU Denver (6-1) last Saturday.
 
Tristan Sarap has won each of his last three singles matches and has a 4-3 record, playing at No. 1 (1-1) and No. 2 (3-2) singles for Director of Tennis Brad Ferreira. 
 
The Wildcats have been respectable in the top three spots of the singles lineup, going 10-12 thus far this spring.  However, they have just two wins in 19 concluded matches in the bottom half of the Ferreira's lineup.
 
They are a combined 13-13 in doubles matches.  Jordan Coutinho and Matteo Savio have been especially strong.  They are 4-2 as a duo, playing five times at No. 3 and once at No. 2 doubles.  Coutinho is also 2-1 with Arthur Serafim at No. 1 and has a team-best 6-3 doubles record.  Sarap is 5-3 while Savio is 4-3.
 
The team went 5-9 overall and 1-2 in BSC play last spring.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks are 0-3 all-time against Idaho State.  They played the Bengals in Pocatello in both 2019 and 2020 in what had been the first meetings since a neutral-site encounter in Phoenix way back in 2002.  In the last contest on Feb. 2, 2020, the Mavericks fell 6-1 as Steven Howe recorded a No. 5 singles win to earn the Mavs' lone team point.
 
The Mavs are 0-5 all-time against Weber State.  All five meetings have been in Ogden.  The last match-up was on Feb. 9, 2019.  The Wildcats took that decision, 6-1.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will take next weekend off from competitive action before heading out to southern California to play three PacWest foes in as many days from Mar. 3-5.  They will play at Biola, Concordia Irvine and Point Loma on that trip.