GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After winning duals during each of their first two road trips of the spring, the Colorado Mesa University women's team will try to do even better as they play the first three of nine scheduled matches against fellow Pacific West Conference foes in as many days in southern California.
 
The Mavericks (4-5 overall), begin the stretch on Thursday ­at 2 p.m. PST (3 p.m. Mountain) when they will play at Biola University, ranked 25^th nationally, in La Mirada.  They then play Concordia University Irvine, receiving votes in the national poll, at the same time on Friday in Irvine before taking on No. 23 Point Loma in San Diego at 10 a.m. PST (11 a.m. Mountain) on Saturday.
 
Live streams of the matches at Biola and Point Loma 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.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks were off last weekend but played three matches on Saturday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 20 in Idaho and Utah.  The Mavs were downed 7-0 by NCAA Division I foes Idaho State and Utah State on the front and end of that trip but claimed a dominant 7-0 neutral-court win over NAIA College of Idaho in between at Idaho State's Reed Gym on the afternoon of the 19^th.
 
The Mavericks won all nine official matches in the dual against the Yotes and also won three exhibition sets.
 
Paige Furin, Makenna Livingston, Macy Richards and Maike Waldburger all went 2-0 while all nine Mavericks to see action, including the exhibitions, were victorious against the Yotes.
 
Livingston and Richards then teamed up to claim a doubles win during the dual at Utah State in Ogden.
 
Homecoming for No. 1
 
Maverick freshman Makenna Livingston will have the opportunity to return close to home for this weekend's matches.  The Huntington Beach, California product will have the opportunity to play in her home Orange County in Irvine on Friday.  Livingston, who has been in the No. 1 singles spot for all six duals this spring, is ranked 14^th in the ITA's Division II West Regional Singles Rankings, which were  announced after the fall season on Nov. 23.  She missed the Pueblo Duals weekend in the fall but posted a pair of ITA regional wins advancing to the Round of 16 in the championship bracket.  Livingston has posted a 2-4 dual record and is 5-6 overall in singles play.
 
She is also 6-4 in doubles play and has won three straight matches with fellow freshman partner Macy Richards.
 
Freshman Leaders
 
Two other freshmen lead the Mavericks in wins this year.  Macy Richards has recorded 14 wins already this year, going 8-7 in singles and 6-6 in doubles.  Paige Furin is just one win behind with 13, having gone a team-best (percentage wise) 6-1 in singles, including a 3-1 dual meet mark.  Furin has a team-high seven doubles wins to her credit.
 
Redshirt junior Maike Waldburger also has 13 wins this season.
 
The start of "conference" play
 
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. 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.
 
Nearing 250 and 450
 
Maverick Head Coach Dan MacDonald will enter this weekend inching ever closer to a couple of win milestones.  The 17^th-year CMU head coach has compiled a 249-183 (.576) winning percentage on the women's side and also has a 197-206 men's coaching record.
 
He is just four combined wins shy of 450 and one shy of 250 women's victories and has the potential to reach both of those milestones this weekend.
 
Scouting the Biola Eagles
 
The Biola University Eagles are enjoying a strong season to date.  They have posted an 8-1 record and have won five straight matches.  They are currently ranked 25^th in the latest (Feb. 17) ITA NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Poll after occupying the No. 24 spot in the preseason poll.  One of their recent wins came over No. 11 Azuza Pacific by a fairly comfortable 5-2 margin, the Eagles' first win over the Cougars in 24 years.  They also defeated No. 23 Point Loma in their last outing on Saturday (Feb. 26).
 
Their only loss was by a 4-0 count at then No. 13 Hawai'i Pacific on Feb. 13. 
 
Six different Eagles have winning singles records including Alexandria Mann, who is a perfect 8-0 in the third and fourth flights.  Ines Diaz is also a perfect 5-0 at No. 6.
 
Colbeyshae Emery is also a strong 4-3 in the No. 1 spot while Marcy Brascia has gone 4-3 at No. 2 while picking up a No. 1 win as well in place of Emery.  They are also a perfect 7-0 together at No. 1 doubles.
 
Emery is ranked 13^th in the ITA's National Singles rankings while Brascia is tabbed 42^nd.  They are ranked 13^th as a doubles duo.
 
On a regional scale, Emery is second in the ITA West Regional singles rankings while Brascia is sixth.  They are also ranked second as a doubles duo.  Gaby Carvajal and Brooke Fager are ranked fifth in doubles.  However, they have had different doubles partners this spring as Carvjal has posted a 5-0 record with Diaz at No. 3 while Fager has gone 3-2 at No. 2 alongside Alexandria Mann and Lilly McNeill.
In 2021, the Eagles went 13-8 overall and finished fourth in the PacWest Championships before being downed 4-2 by Azusa Pacific at the NCAA Division II West Regional.
 
The Eagles were picked third in this year's PacWest Preseason Poll.
 
Scouting the Concordia Eagles
 
The Concordia University Irvine Eagles are 3-4 and have dropped three straight matches while seeing two others postponed after getting out to a 3-1 start.
 
They have been listed amongst the others receiving votes category of both of the ITA NCAA Division II Top 25 Coaches' Polls to date and were picked fifth in the PacWest Preseason Poll after going 15-5 while finishing third in the PacWest Tournament last year.  They also qualified for last year's NCAA Division II West Regional.
 
On an individual level, Heather Richards is ranked 35^th in the ITA's national singles rankings and fifth in the West Regional rankings.
 
Scouting the Sea Lions
 
The Sea Lions are currently 6-4 thus far this spring and have alternated wins and losses for their last six matches.  They host NAIA Westcliff on Friday before taking on the Mavericks.
 
They are currently ranked 23^rd in NCAA Division II according to the Feb. 17 edition of the ITA Coaches' Poll.  They were not ranked amongst the top 25 in the preseason poll but got off to a 4-1 start to earn a spot in the rankings.  One of those wins came over Division I Portland State.
 
More recently, they have won at Fresno Pacific, at Redlands and at home against Cal State LA.
 
Arianna Audelo is ranked 19^th nationally in the ITA Division II Singles Rankings and is one of four Sea Lion players amongst the top 15 in the West Region rankings.  She sits in the No. 4 spot while Thelma Sepulveda is ninth.  Faith Pearson and Amanda Letzring are also ranked 12^th and 15^th.
 
Pearson and Audelo are also ranked seventh regionally in doubles.
 
In 2021, the Sea Lions went 7-9 overall, including a 2-2 mark at the PacWest Championships.  They were picked fifth in the PacWest Preseason Poll.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs are 2-1 all-time against Biola, having won away matches in 2018 and 2019 before joining the PacWest.  Biola won last year's encounter, 7-0, which was also played in La Mirada.  Lauren Thomas and Julianna Campos did win their No. 3 doubles affair last year.  Now fourth-year redshirt junior Maike Waldburger also claimed a doubles win against the Eagles as a freshman in 2019.
 
Last season's trip to Irvine was CMU's first ever match-up with Concordia.  The Eagles claimed a 5-0 win on Mar. 5.
 
The Mavs are 0-3 all-time against Point Loma, having played then in March of 2017, 2018 and 2019.  The Sea Lions won the last match-up on Mar. 19, 2019, by a 6-0 score.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will play a doubleheader at NCAA Division I Dixie State next Saturday (Mar. 12) before returning home to host Western New Mexico in their first home match of the year on Wednesday, Mar. 16.