GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will continue a difficult stretch as they open Pacific West Conference play.  After going to Arizona to begin the spring season and to Idaho and Utah to face Division I opponents in the week following, the Mavericks are now preparing for the first of two trips to southern California.
 
They begin the trip playing pair of nationally-ranked foes in No. 19 Biola on Thursday in La Mirada before taking on No. 25 Concordia Irvine on Friday.  They then wrap up the stretch on Saturday after at Point Loma in San Diego.
 
Live streams of the matches at Biola, slated for Thursday at 2 p.m. PST (3 p.m. Mountain), and the Point Loma at the same times on Saturday, can be found at the links above.  Live results of the Biola match can also be found at the links above and full match recaps will be posted each evening on www.cmumavericks.com.
 
The Mavericks are 2-5 overall and have dropped all five of their spring season affairs after going 2-0 in team duals during the fall season.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks squared off against a pair of NCAA Division I teams on their last road trip, facing Idaho State on Saturday, Feb. 19 in Pocatello, Idaho before taking on Weber State in Ogden, Utah on Sunday, Feb. 20.
 
The Mavs were off last weekend.
 
Against Idaho State, Jorge Abreu won the second set of his No. 3 singles match, taking Hiroki Fujita to three sets before falling 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.  The Bengals won the other five singles matches in straight sets and swept the doubles affairs to take the dual, 7-0.
 
Against Weber State, Abreu was leading Matteo Savio by a 3-0 score of their No. 4 singles match before Savio retired, giving the Mavericks their lone team point in the 6-1 loss.  However, Tegan Hartman and Jandre van Wyk took their No. 3 doubles match to a tie-breaker while Christian Albrechtsen did the same in the second set of his No. 3 singles match after switching spots in the lineup with Abreu.
 
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.
 
"Conference" matches looming
 
The Mavericks, will play their first three of nine "conference" matches this weekend.  All 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 the fellow PacWest foes will weigh heavily in the selection and seeding process for the Apr. 21-23 conference championship tournament, which will include eight of the ten men's teams in the league.
 
The Mavericks will also make another 3-day trip to California playing Azusa Pacific, Holy Names and Fresno Pacific on consecutive days from Mar. 19-21.  They will also host Fresno Pacific before that trip on Mar. 12.
 
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.
 
Nearing Coaching Milestones
 
CMU 17^th-year Head Coach Dan MacDonald is still just three wins shy of his 200^th men's victory.  MacDonald, who also coaches the Maverick women, will enter the weekend with a 197-206 coaching record with the Maverick men.    He also has guided the Maverick women to 249 team wins in his tenure and is just four wins shy of 450 combined victories.
 
Regionally Ranked
 
Thanks to their strong fall, freshman Tegan Hartman and redshirt sophomore Jandre 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.
 
They are 5-6 overall this year but have dropped their last four No. 3 doubles matches.
 
Scouting the Eagles
 
The Biola University Eagles are off to a 5-2 start this spring and have gone 3-2 against PacWest foes after dominating NCAA Division III foes Caltech and Redlands in non-conference play to begin the year.
 
They had been picked fourth out of ten teams in the PacWest Preseason Poll after finishing the 2021 season with a 10-10 overall record and sixth place finish in the PacWest Championships.

Ranked 19^th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Associations NCAA Division II rankings, released on Feb. 17, the Eagles, have gone 1-2 against fellow nationally-ranked squads with a win over then No. 4 Hawai'i Hilo in O'ahu.  They also won home duals by 7-0 and 6-1 margins over Fresno Pacific and Point Loma last weekend after dropping decisions to No. 9 Hawai'i Pacific and No. 12 Azusa Pacific on the previous two Saturdays.
 
Alexei Prokopchuk was named as the PacWest Player of the Week on Monday after winning both of his No. 2 singles matches last weekend.  He also claimed a No. 1 doubles win alongside Antonio Rosales Varona on Friday before he and partner Alex Sedeno's No. 1 doubles match against Point Loma went unfinished with it heading into a tie-breaker.
 
Prokopchuk has been solid throughout the spring, posting a 6-1 singles record.  Sebastian Herrera also has a winning 4-3 record at the No. 1 position and ended the fall sitting tenth nationally and first in the in the region after winning the ITA West Regional title in early October.
 
Meanwhile, Alex Sedeno is a perfect 6-0 in matches at No. 4, 5 and 6 singles while Tomas Gomez (4-2) and Rosales Varona (3-2) also have winning records in the middle of the lineup.
 
Head Coach David Goodman has used the same doubles duos throughout the spring.  Prokopchuk and Rosales Varona are 3-3  at No. 1 while Herrera and Carlos Solorzano have combined to post a 4-2 record at No. 2.  Gomez and Callen Hein are 5-1 at No. 3.
 
The Eagles had five of the top 20 ranked players in the West Region, according to the ITA's end of fall regional rankings.  Gomez, ranked 11^th, the No. 14 ranked Prokopchuk, No. 19 Solorzano and No. 20 Andres Meneses, who has not played this spring, joined the top ranked Herrera.
 
Prokopchuk and Rosales Varona are also ranked ninth in doubles.
 
Scouting the Eagles (Part 2)
 
The Concordia University Irvine Eagles are currently 1-4 and will host Point Loma on Wednesday afternoon before turning their attention to the Mavericks.  They went 0-3 in a trip to Hawai'i to officially begin the season before collecting their first win on Feb. 18 at Westcliff.  They then had a Feb. 22 match at UC Riverside unfinished due to weather before being downed 6-1 by No. 12 Azusa Pacific in their las outing on Saturday
 
The Eagles were picked fifth in the PacWest Preseason Poll and are currently ranked 25^th nationally as of Feb. 17 after checking in 17^th in the ITA's Preseason Poll.
 
Yassine Smiej sits 24^th in the ITA National Singles Rankings and is ranked third in the West Region, three spots above Adam Large.  Jan Simon also cracked the region's top 10.
 
Smiej and James Caddies were also ranked fifth in doubles for Head Coach Jonathan Sanchez.
 
The Eagles went 9-9 a year ago taking fourth in the PacWest Championships before falling to Hawai'i Hilo in the West Regional Semifinals.
 
Scouting the Sea Lions
 
Point Loma is currently 3-4 this spring and will play at Concordia Irvine on Wednesday before hosting Westcliff on Friday.  They have wins over San Diego Christian, Fresno Pacific and Redlands but have fallen to Azusa Pacific and Biola in their last two outings by a combined 13-1 score.
 
Coach Jonathan Sanchez has four of the top 20 singles players in the region, according to the ITA regional rankings.  David Strassburger ended the fall ranked seventh while Lukas Schuster was ranked ninth.  Tyler Davis was tabbed 13th while Alexander Leischner is 17^th in the rankings.
 
In doubles, Davis and Nabeel Khan were ranked third in the region and 23^rd nationally while Elias Weeks and Leischner are ranked tenth in the region.
 
The 2021 edition of the Sea Lions went 6-9 but won their final two matches in the PacWest Championships consolation bracket to finish fifth.  One of those wins came over the Mavericks.
 
This year's team was picked sixth in the PacWest Preseason Poll.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks hold a winning 2-1 record all-time against Biola but will be looking for their first wins over Concordia and Point Loma.
 
The Mavs won hard-fought 5-4 and 4-3 decisions at Biola in 2018 and 2019 but were downed in La Mirada by a 7-0 score last season (Mar. 6) after joining the PacWest.  Steven Howe and Jandre van Wyk won their No. 2 doubles match over Isaac Cordova and Alex Sedeno.  Current Maverick Moises Cure also won his No. 2 singles match against the Eagles as a freshman back in 2019, clinching the Mavericks' team victory.
 
The Mavs only previous encounter with Concordia was on Mar. 5 of last season.  The Eagles won 7-0 sweeping the match although Tyler Landen took his No. 3 singles match to three sets.
 
The Mavs are 0-4 all-time against Point Loma.  They did not play during the regular season last year but did meet in the consolation semifinals, falling 4-0, on Apr. 23 in Surprise, Arizona.  Howe and van Wyk won their No. 2 doubles match by a 6-3 score over Alejandro Castaneda and Lukas Schuster.  However, the Sea Lions won the other two doubles matches and claimed victories at No. 1, 3 and 5 singles to claim the dual.  The Mavs were leading two of the three unfinished singles matches on that day.
 
The other three meetings have been played in San Diego from 2017-19.  The Sea Lions won those 8-1, 5-0 and 4-0.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return to Colorado to play their first two home matches.  They will take on PacWest foe Fresno Pacific on Saturday, Mar. 12 before hosting Western New Mexico on Wednesday, Mar. 16 at the Elliott Tennis Center.