GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team will continue life on the road, heading west to play NCAA Division I Dixie State University in a Saturday doubleheader before heading in the opposite direction for a neutral-site re-match with Western New Mexico on Tuesday in Denver.
 
Saturday's twin-bill in St. George, Utah, will pit the 4-8 Mavericks against the 2-10 Trailblazers, beginning at 9:30 a.m.  The Mavericks, who were due to host Western New Mexico at home on Wednesday, will instead head to MSU Denver's Assembly Athletic Complex for a Tuesday afternoon (1:30) encounter.
 
The Mavs, who have yet to play at home this season, defeated the Mustangs, currently 4-3 overall, by a 6-1 margin on Feb. 11 in Glendale, Arizona.
 
The Mavs are 3-2 in neutral-court matches this season but just 1-6 in away matches heading into Saturday.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks are coming off a brutally difficult road trip to southern California that saw the Mavericks take on three of their fellow Pacific West Conference foes, all of whom are nationally-ranked or receiving votes in the ITA Division II Top 25' Coaches Poll at the time.  The Mavericks were defeated 7-0 last Thursday (Mar. 3) by No. 25 Biola before Julianna Campos delivered a No. 6 singles win in a 6-1 team loss to Concordia Irvine, receiving votes in the poll, on Friday.  The Mavs then fell 7-0 to No. 23 Point Loma on Saturday in San Diego.
 
Biola is now ranked 11^th in the ITA's new computerized national rankings, released on Thursday.  Point Loma was ranked 29^th.
 
Last Two of Four
 
Saturday's matches against Dixie State will be the Mavs' third and fourth of the season against NCAA Division I opponents.  The Maverick had earlier played on the road at Idaho State (Feb. 19) and at Weber State (Feb. 20). 
 
Freshman Leaders and "Senior" Leadership
 
Maverick freshman Macy Richards leads the team in overall wins this season, claiming 14 total wins.  She is 8-10 in singles play and is one of five Mavericks with six doubles wins, going 6-9 thus far in her collegiate career.
 
Fellow freshman Paige Furin is right behind with 13 overall wins  She has a solid 6-1 overall singles record, including a 3-1 dual record.  However, she has not been in the singles lineup in each of the last three duals.  Furin also has a team-high seven victories in doubles, going 7-7.
 
She has been playing with "senior" and team captain Maike Waldburger, who also has 13 total wins to her credit this season.  Waldburger is 7-11 in singles and along with Richards is the only Maverick to have been in the singles lineup in all 12 team matches thus far.  Waldburger, a fourth-year Maverick is also 6-10 in doubles play.  The German is eligible to return for a fifth year in 2022-23 if she chooses to take advantage of the NCAA's COVID-19 eligibility relief waiver.
 
A break from "conference" play
 
The Mavericks played the first three of their nine "conference" matches last weekend but are taking a hiatus from the PacWest with their next three matches.  All of CMU's matches against fellow PacWest foes are technically non-conference affairs as the PacWest does not have a mandated conference regular season schedule nor keep official regular season conference standings.
 
However, the results against them will weigh heavily in the selection and seeding process for the Apr. 20-23 conference championship tournament, which will include 12 of the 15 women's teams in the league as determined by a conference seeing committee at the end of the regular season.
 
The Mavericks will also make another extended trip to California playing Azusa Pacific, Holy Names, Fresno Pacific and Dominican on consecutive days from Mar. 19-22.
 
CMU will also play in-state rival and fellow PacWest affiliate member MSU Denver in a home-and-home series in April facing the Roadrunners in Denver on Apr. 1 before hosting them on Apr. 8.
 
In the poll
 
The Mavericks were tabbed 11^th out of the 15 teams in the Pacific West Conference Women's Tennis Preseason Poll, which was announced last week.  The Mavericks are in their second season as affiliate members of the PacWest.  They went 12-13 overall and participated in their first PacWest Championships last spring.
 
Milestone approaching
 
Maverick Head Coach Dan MacDonald will enter this weekend incredible coaching milestone.  The 17^th-year CMU head coach has compiled a 249-186 (.572) winning percentage on the women's side could claim his 250^th career women's victory as early as Saturday.
 
Scouting the Dixie State Trailblazers      
 
The Trailblazers will enter Saturday's doubleheader with a 2-10 overall record.  However, they have won two of their last three, defeating NAIA foes Arizona Christian and Ottawa (Ariz.) on Mar. 4.
 
In their last outing, the Trailblazers were swept 7-0 by fellow transitioning Division I foe Tarleton State on Mar. 5 in a neutral-court encounter in Phoenix.
 
Three different players in Juliana Honczaruk, Sabrina Longson and Rachel Mellor have recorded three singles wins.  Honczaruk has picked those up at No. 3 while Longson and Mellor have played in the bottom half of the lineup.
 
Alexandra Hildreth and Ya-Chi-Hsu have a 3-3 doubles record, playing at No. 2.  They had won three straight before falling to Tarleton State.  Honczark and Mellor have been their representatives at No. 1 throughout the campaign.
 
Scouting the Mustangs
 
The Mustangs enter a busy stretch of matches with a winning 4-3 record after having defeated NCAA Division III McMurry and Howard Payne on Feb. 18 and 19, respectively.  Getting back over .500 in the process, the Mustangs are due to play two more Division III foes in the coming days, hosting Sul Ross State today (Thursday) before playing the first of four matches over three days in Colorado on Sunday at Colorado College.
 
They then will play at MSU Denver and against Seward County Community College in Denver on Monday before wrapping up the swing with the re-match against the Mavericks.
 
Back on Feb. 11, CMU defeated WNMU, 6-1 after winning a trio of 3-set and five overall singles matches.  The Mavericks also won two of the three doubles matches to seize the early momentum.
 
Entering Thursday, Livia Leite has been the star of the Mustang show.  She is 6-1 in singles thus far, posting a 5-0 record at No. 1.  Caini Wang (4-2), Kajsa Gedlitschka (4-3) and Massiel Paredes (2-1) also have winning singles records.
 
Leite and Gedlitschka have also paired for a 4-2 doubles record, mostly in the No. 2 spot.  Wang and Nicold Gonzales Suancha are also 4-2, having played primarily in the No. 3 position.
 
Leite was the Mustangs' only singles winner in the earlier dual with the Mavericks, winning in three sets (4-6, 6-1, 6-2) over Maverick freshman Makenna Livingston at No. 1.  Leite and Gedlitschka also squeaked out a No. 2 doubles victory by a 9-7 margin in the tie-breaker of the No. 2 doubles match against Livingston and Macy Richards.
 
Series Histories
 
Both of this week's opponents were once Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals who have all gone their separate ways in recent years as the RMAC has dropped sponsorship of the sport of tennis.
 
Dixie State left the RMAC for the Division I ranks last season after both schools were NCAA Division II independents in 2020 following the loss of RMAC tennis.  However, the teams have continued the rivalry playing twice last year on Mar. 27 after playing on Feb. 21, 2020 as well.  All three of those matches were played in St. George and have gone the Trailblazers way.
 
The Mavericks are 6-6 all-time against the Trailblazers in St. George and hold a 14-11 lead in the overall series.  However, the Trailblazers have controlled things in recent years, winning three straight, seven of the last eight and ten of the last 12 duals since the fall of 2016.  The Mavericks had won the previous ten match-ups.
 
Meanwhile, the Mavericks have also continued their rivalry with Wester New Mexico after the Mustangs left the RMAC to join the Lone Star Conference following the 2016 season.
 
The teams have squared off in each of the past six seasons and will play for a second time this year on Tuesday.  The Mavericks have won five of the last six match-ups, all of which have been on neutral-courts in Arizona and Utah, building a 20-7 lead in the all-time series.
 
Up Next
 
After the upcoming hiatus from PacWest Conference foes, the Mavericks will jump back into the meet of their unofficial conference schedule, playing four PacWest opponents in as many days in California from Mar. 19-22.  The stretch begins at Azusa Pacific, ranked 14^th in the new ITA Division II Women's National Rankings, which now included a Top 50 computerized Team Ranking instead of a coaches' poll.  The rankings, which were released on Thursday, also include top 75 singles and top 50 doubles components.