GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After playing 15 matches out of the state throughout the spring season, the Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team will have finally have the opportunity to stay close to home this weekend as they head across the Rocky Mountains to play three matches on Colorado's Front Range.
 
The Mavericks will play Pacific West Conference foe MSU Denver on Friday at 2 p.m. in Denver at the Roadrunners' Assembly Athletic Complex before heading down I-25 to face Division III Colorado College on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs.  They then wrap up the swing in Pueblo taking on former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival CSU Pueblo on Sunday morning at 11 o'clock at Pueblo City Park.
 
The Mavericks, who have a 7-11 overall record, including a 6-9 mark this spring, will then play the same in-state foes from April 8-10 as they close out the regular season in their only home weekend of the entire season at the Elliott Tennis Center.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks played four PacWest foes in as many days during their recent Spring Break trip to California.  The Mavs went 1-3 on the trip from Mar. 19-22, crushing Holy Names, 7-0 in a neutral court encounter in Fresno on Mar. 20 after falling to 19^th-ranked Azusa Pacific by the same margin on the previous day.  The Mavs were then downed 7-0 at No. 46 Fresno Pacific and 4-3 by Dominican in Fresno to wrap up the trip.
 
Makenna Livingston and Maike Waldburger led the Mavs throughout the trip as they both went 2-2 in the No. 2 and 3 singles spots, respectively.   Issy Coman and Halle Romero also picked up singles wins at No. 1 and 4, respectively, against Holy Names.  Macy Richards and Julianna Campos were also default winners for the Mavericks against the Hawks, who only fielded a lineup of four.
 
In doubles, Coman and Romero picked up a No. 2 doubles win against Holy Names while Paige Furin and Waldburger were No. 2 winners over Dominican.
 
PacWest Rankings
 
The Maverick women currently sit 11^th out of 15 teams in the PacWest Tennis Rankings, released Tuesday for the second time.  The rankings are voted upon by administrators from the conference, representing the geographical regions of it.  They will continue to be updated on a weekly basis leading up to the Apr. 11 qualifiers and seeding announcement for the PacWest Championship Tournament.
 
That tournament will be held from Apr. 20-23 in Surprise, Arizona and will include 12 teams.
 
The Mavericks have a 3-8 record against Division II foes and are 1-6 against other PacWest opponents. 
 
MSU Denver, which is 5-7 against Division II opposition and 0-4 against other PacWest teams, is ranked just above the Mavericks in the No. 10 spot, which will make the results of the two upcoming matches with the Roadrunners on the next two Fridays, massively important.
 
The Mavericks' PacWest losses have come against the No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 teams in the rankings.  They defeated No. 14 Holy Names on the recent road trip and will not play No. 12 Cal State LA, No. 13 Stanislaus State and No. 15 Chaminade, who currently sit below the Mavericks.
 
To see the complete and current rankings, click here.
 
Double Digits
 
Maverick redshirt junior Maike Waldburger became the first Maverick to reach double figures for singles wins this season in the Mavs' last dual, defeating Dominican's Gina Dudley.  Waldburger is now 10-14 in singles this season having posted a 7-11 record in duals.
 
Freshman teammates Makenna Livingston (9-11) and Macy Richards (9-14) are on the verge of joining her with nine wins each. 
 
Another freshman in Paige Furin has nine doubles wins to her credit while Issy Coman, Halle Romero and Waldburger all sit on eight doubles wins entering the weekend.
 
Recent and upcoming coaching milestone
 
Maverick Head Coach Dan MacDonald will enter this weekend having won his 250^th career women's match on Mar. 12 when the Mavericks swept Division I Dixie State.  He now has 252 career wins and is 252-189 (.571) with the Maverick women.  He also 196 victories with the Maverick men and could reach the 450 total win milestone as soon as Friday, entering the men's and women's duals at MSU Denver with 448 career wins.
 
Scouting the MSU Denver Roadrunners
 
As mentioned above, the Roadrunners have a 5-7 record against Division II foes and are 0-4 against PacWest opponent.  They have a 5-8 overall record having also lost to Division I Wyoming on Feb. 20 after a string of other exhibition matches against Division I and Mountain West Conference opponents.
 
The Roadrunners also just wrapped up a trip to California and went 0-4 having dropped matches Point Loma, Fresno Pacific, Biola and Concordia.  Prior to that the Roadrunners, had won four straight non-conference matches.
 
Ava Neuburger-Higby leads the Roadrunners with a 12-6 singles record.  She is 9-3 in duals meets having gone 6-3 at No. 1 and 3-0 at No. 2.  Monica Guarin also has a winning record at the other end of the lineup having gone 8-7 overall and 6-6 in duals, all but one of which has been played in the No. 6 spot.
 
The Roadrunners have fared better in doubles posting winning records in all three flights.  They are 7-6 at No.1 and have 8-5 records in both the second and third flights.   The Roadrunners have won the doubles point eight of their 13 duals and have won 14 of the 15 doubles matches in their team victories.
 
Isabel Heras and Neuburger-Higby have won nine doubles matches together (9-7), having gone 7-4 in the No. 1 flight.  The Gala Castello/Marie Cool and Kayla Myburgh/Lilly Stienemeier doubles duos are both 7-3 at No. 2 and No. 3.

Stienemeier (10-7) and Neuburger-Higby (10-8) both have double-figure overall win totals when including fall individual tournament victories.
 
Scouting the Colorado College Tigers 

The NCAA Division III Tigers hold a 5-7 overall record heading into Saturday's match, which will be played at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs.  They were recently in Orlando, Florida having gone 2-3.  They had defeated NCAA Division II Western New Mexico by a 5-4 in their last home match on Mar. 13.
 
Gigi Jensen is the lone Tiger to have a winning singles record, having gone 8-5 overall and 8-4 in duals.  She has won each of her last six matches and has played everywhere from No. 3-6 this season. 
 
Christina Heffron has also been solid, posting a dual record of 7-4 at the No. 1 position.  She is 7-7 overall.
 
Grace Dereemer has also won three straight matches and is 3-2 at the No. 6 spot and 3-4 overall.
 
The Tigers have put together a 7-5 record in the No. 3 doubles spot with a variety of partnerships.  Elizabeth Girian and Heffron are 3-0 together and have won three straight matches during the stint in Orlando.
 
Scouting the CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves
 
The ThunderWolves, who will play at MSU Denver on Saturday, are currently 0-7 in a limited schedule.  They last played at Mesa Community College last Wednesday (Mar. 23), falling 6-3 in what was their closest dual of the season to date.  New addition Katherine Ambrose, who joined the team semester, won her singles match and teamed with Tilly Blasdale for a doubles victory.
 
They had played at NAIA Ottawa University on Mar. 21 and against Division I New Mexico on Jan. 30 and Air Force on Mar. 5 but have not played a Division II foe this spring.  They went 0-3 against divisional opponents in the fall during the Pueblo Duals, that the Mavs also participated in in mid-September.
 
Series Histories
 
As expected with their relative proximity, the Mavericks have an extensive history against each of their three remaining opponents.
 
The Mavs are 27-29 overall against MSU Denver but have dropped 12 straight matches to the Roadrunners since last defeating them at home on Mar. 15, 2016.  The Mavs are 14-16 against them in Denver.  They played twice last spring, falling 6-1 in Denver on Apr. 9 before falling 7-0 a week later in Grand Junction.
 
Conversely, the Mavericks have defeated the Tigers 12 straight times since Mar. 25, 2012 to take a 16-11 series lead.  The Tigers' last win over CMU came on Apr. 10, 2009.  The Mavericks are 11-5 against the Tigers in Colorado Springs.  The Mavs have won each of the last three duals by 6-1 margins, playing them twice last spring.
 
The Mavericks are 44-11 all-time against CSU Pueblo and have won 35 straight matches against the ThunderWolves since 2007.  The teams were both members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference before the conference dropped sponsorship of the sport following the 2018-19 season.  The Mavs are 14-6 against the Pack in Pueblo and won 7-0 there last spring (Apr. 11).  The Mavs also won 7-0 six days later at home last spring.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return home for their only home matches of the entire year when they play the same three opponents.  They will host MSU Denver on Friday, Apr. 8 at 2 p.m. before taking on CSU Pueblo on Saturday, Apr. 9 at 9:30 a.m.  They then wrap up the regular season on Sunday, Apr. 10 against Colorado College before learning their PacWest Championship Tournament fate.