GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will head to California for their busiest and likely most important stretch of the season. 
 
The Mavs (3-9 overall) will play four fellow Pacific West Conference opponents in as many days as they look to impressive the conference's championship selection and seeding committee with some positive results on the trip, which begins Saturday afternoon and continues through Tuesday.
 
The Mavs begin the stretch in Azusa to face the nation's 22^nd-ranked Azusa Pacific University Cougars.  They will then head for Fresno to play matches against Holy Names, Fresno Pacific and Hawai'i Hilo on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
 
The match against Hilo was a late addition to the Mavs' schedule and will be played as Fresno Pacific's Haak Tennis Complex, which will also be the site of Sunday's neutral court affair with Holy Names and the Monday re-match with Fresno Pacific, a team the Mavericks defeated at home last Friday (Mar. 11).
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks made program history last week when they defeated Fresno Pacific at the Junction Indoor Tennis Center.  The Mavs' 5-2 victory was their first over a PacWest foe since joining the conference as an affiliate member last season.
 
The Mavericks won five of the six singles matches and won five of six set tie-breakers to take the thrilling win over the Sunbirds. 
 
Christian Albrechtsen won both of his matches in the dual, teaming with Tyler Landen for a No. 2 doubles win before claiming a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) No. 2 singles wins.  Steven Howe, Jorge Abreu, Jandre van Wyk and Tegan Hartman also won singles matches to help the Mavs claim the dual.
 
The Mavericks were also in action on Tuesday afternoon (Mar. 15) as they took on Western New Mexico for the second time this season.  Tuesday's match was originally scheduled for Wednesday at home but was moved up a day and to Denver.
 
The Mustangs won the re-scheduled dual by a 5-2 margin after claiming a 4-3 win over the Mavericks on Feb. 11 in another neutral-site encounter in Glendale, Arizona.
 
Hot Dane Reaches 50

Christian Albrechtsen, a native of Denmark's capital city of Coppenhagen, has been victorious in each of his last four matches, going 2-0 against Fresno Pacific and Western New Mexico.  In the process, Albrechtsen has taken over the team lead for both doubles and overall victories.  He is now 7-10 in doubles play and leads the Mavericks with 13 total wins, having gone 6-10 in singles play.

With his recent victories, Albrechtsen has now reached the 50-career win milestone.  He has won 32 doubles matches and has 18 career singles wins to his credit.
 
Singles streak
 
Jorge Abreu is riding an even better winning streak in singles having won each of his last three matches.  Al three of those victories have been tight.  He started the streak on Mar. 5 taking down regionally-ranked Lukas Schuster from Point Loma by a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 margin.  Abreu then moved up a spot to the No. 3 singles position and claimed a 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) win over Joshua Wong during last week's win over Fresno Pacific.  Abreu then scored one of the Mavs' two team points (Albrechtsen) with a 3-set, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Western New Mexico's Javier Romero on Tuesday.    Abreu now has a winning 8-7 singles record this season, including a 7-5 dual-meet mark in the No. 2, 3 and 4 positions.  Two of his wins have come over Romero.  Both of those have come in 3-set battles.
 
Snapping the slides
 
The Mavericks' 5-2 win over Fresno Pacific snapped a slide of eight straight team defeats.  The Mavericks had entered the spring portion of the season with a 2-0 mark but had dropped each of their first eight spring matches prior to last Friday's win.
 
The Mavs had also lost 11 straight match-ups against PacWest foes since joining the conference in 2021 prior to the win over the Sunbirds.  CMU was 0-5 in regular season duals against conference foes last year and went 0-3 in the PacWest Tournament.  The Mavs had also gone 0-3 against conference foes earlier this season.
 
In the poll
 
The Mavericks were tabbed eighth out of ten teams in the Pacific West Conference Men's Tennis Preseason Poll.  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.
 
The Mavs will play the two teams ranked below them in that poll during their upcoming trip to California.
 
Fresno Pacific was picked ninth while Holy Names was tabbed tenth.
 
However, the Mavericks will also face the top two teams in the poll in pre-season favorite Hawai'i Hilo, which won the PacWest and NCAA West Regional titles in 2021, and poll No. 2 Azusa Pacific, on their trip to California.
 
PacWest Tourney implications
 
This trip to California will certainly be a major part of the Mavericks' PacWest Tournament qualification and seeding resume.  Although each of the four matches are technically non-conference affairs as the PacWest does not have a mandated conference regular season schedule nor keep official regular season conference standings, the results will weigh heavily in the selection and seeding process for the Apr. 21-23 conference championship tournament.  Only eight of the ten men's teams in the league will qualify, making the upcoming matches critical.
 
The Mavs are currently 1-3 against PacWest foes and by the end of the season will have played eight of their other nine PacWest competitors a combined ten times by the end of the regular season.
 
CMU already has a leg up on Fresno Pacific thanks to last week's win and by completing a season sweep could take a monster step towards potential qualification.  The result of Sunday's match-up with Holy Names is also likely to have significant impact.  Upset wins over Azusa Pacific and/or a struggling yet highly talented Hawai'i Hilo squad on the front and ends of the trip could also raise significant interest from the conference championship selection and seeding committee.
 
Scouting the Azusa Pacific University Cougars (Saturday – 2:30 p.m. PDT/3:30 p.m. Mountain)
 
Azusa Pacific is currently ranked 22^nd in this week's Division II ITA National Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point.  Those computerized rankings were released on Thursday (Mar. 17) and include five PacWest squads.  The Cougars are the second highest of those (No. 7 Hawai'i Pacific) squads.
 
The Cougars have an 8-4 overall record heading into a Friday afternoon dual with fifth-ranked Indianapolis.  They are 6-2 against PacWest foes with their lone two "conference" losses coming against Hawai'i Pacific, ranked eighth in the nation.
 
The Cougars are in the midst of a 12-match homestand and are currently 4-3 at home this season.
 
On an individual basis, Ryan Nuno is ranked 20^th nationally in singles while Leyton Bohren and Miha Velicki are 23^rd in doubles despite not playing together this spring.
 
Nuno holds a 5-4 record at No. 1 singles  while three other Cougars behind him in the lineup all have seven dual wins to their credit.   Sam Sippel is 7-3 at No. 2 while Elias Emilio Walter holds a 7-4 primarily at No. 3 with spot starts at No. 1 and 4.  Leyton Bohren is also 7-3, including a 5-2 mark at No. 4.
 
Bohren and Nuno are a solid 8-3 at No. 1 doubles while Velicki and Walter are 5-2 at No. 2 doubles.  The Cougars have used multiple combinations at No. 3 and have won the doubles point in eight of their 12 duals to date.
 
Scouting the Holy Names University Hawks (Sunday – 2 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. Mountain)
 
According to their website, the Hawks are 1-3 officially this year, including setbacks to Biola and Point Loma on Mar. 9 and 12, respectively.  The PacWest site has the Hawks with a 1-6 mark, which included results against Division I Sacramento State, UC Davis and Division III UC Santa Cruz, matches that were marked as exhibitions on the Hawks' website.
 
They are due to play Fresno Pacific before facing the Mavs on Sunday.
 
Scouting the Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds (Monday – 2 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Sunbirds enter their home match with Holy Names with a 3-7 record and have lost four straight and seven of their last eight.  They dropped 5-2 decisions to both CMU and MSU Denver on their road trip to Colorado last weekend.
 
The Sunbirds are fielding a men's team for the first time since 2014 this year
 
Joshua Wong is the Sunbirds' only regionally ranked player.  He was ranked 16^th in the ITA West Regional Rankings at the end of the fall season.  However, the freshman had lost seven straight matches before snapping that slide last Saturday with a win over MSU Denver's David Kijak.
 
Estonian Gregor Kliimask leads the Sunbirds' singles lineup with a 5-4 mark, playing mostly in the No. 4 spot of Coach George Rodriguez's lineup.  As a unit, the Sunbirds are 5-5 in the No. 1 spot with Ben Cronau going 3-5 as the primary top flight starter.
 
Rodriguez has used a variety of doubles pairings.  Wong and Kliimask have the best doubles records on the team at 5-4 but have not played with each other.  Cronau and Wong are 4-3 as a duo and have played five times together in the top flight.
 
They have swept the doubles matches in all three of their dual wins but have managed to claim the doubles point on just one other occasion.  That was against the Mavericks last week.
 
Scouting the Hawai'i Hilo Vulcans (Tuesday – 9:30 a.m. PDT/10:30 a.m. Mountain)
 
The Vulcans won the PacWest and NCAA Division II West Region titles last year before reaching the national semifinals during a strong 11-3 2021 season.
 
However, they have struggled this season going just 2-8 through Thursday.  In the midst of an extended trip to the mainland and California, the Vulcans have dropped matches to three nationally-ranked PacWest foes on the Golden State swing after going 0-3 against other nationally-ranked squads at the ITA Indoor National Championships.
 
They will hope to pick up some momentum before playing the Mavs on Tuesday in what was a late scheduled match that extends their time in California by a day.  They play at Point Loma on Friday morning and then are due to face Holy Names twice on Monday in Fresno.
 
Martin Soukal leads the Vulcans singles lineup with a 7-2 mark.  All of his matches have come in the top flight.  He is ranked 11th nationally.  Luca Matheiowetz has also been impressive with a 6-2 mark, including his 5-2 record at No. 5.
 
Soukal and Demichelis are 5-4 in the No. 1 doubles spot.  However, the Vulcans have gone 0-10 at No. 2 doubles and have just two victories at No. 3 to their credit this year.

Series Histories
 
The Mavericks are 0-6 all-time against Azusa Pacific and played them twice last year.  They Mavs dropped a 6-1 decision in Azusa on Mar. 6 before falling 4-0 in the opening round of the PacWest Tournament.  Current Maverick Moises Cure won his No. 4 singles match during the regular season while Steven Howe and Jandre van Wyk were able to win at No. 2 doubles during their record-setting season a year ago.
 
The Mavs are 2-2 against Holy Names having met the Hawks on neutral grounds four times since first playing in 2014.  The most recent match-up was on Feb. 21, 2020, when the Mavs claimed a 4-2 win in St. George, Utah.  Three current Mavericks won at least one of their matches on that day.
 
Last Friday's 5-2 win over Fresno Pacific came in the first ever meeting with the Sunbirds, fielding a men's team for the first time in eight years this season.
 
The Mavs have only played Hawai'i Hilo once before.  That was back on Mar. 29, 2007 when the Vulcans claimed a 9-0 win in Grand Junction.
 
Up Next
 
After this busy stretch in California, the Mavs will return home to Colorado for their final four matches of the regular season.  They will have one weekend off before heading to the front range to play MSU Denver, ranked 50^th nationally, on Friday, Apr. 1 before taking on Division III Colorado College a day later.  The Mavs will the host the same two teams on Apr. 8 and 10, respectively.