GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Coming off a national tournament title for the first time in program history, the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball squad will open the 2023 spring season this weekend playing four matches at the Cactus Classic at the University of Arizona's Bear Down Beach in Tucson.
The Mavericks will face a challenging weekend slate facing the host Wildcats, ranked 18
th in the nation, in their tournament finale on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Mavs will also take on a pair of teams who are receiving votes in the
AVCA Preseason Top 20 Coaches poll in Boise State and Arizona State while also squaring off with UTEP for the first time in program-history in their second of four matches throughout the weekend.
The Mavs' complete weekend schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 24
vs. #RV Boise State – 10 a.m.
vs. UTEP – 4 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25
vs. #RV Arizona State- 9 a.m.
at #18 Arizona- 11 a.m.
Follow the Mavs
Live results for all four matches
can be accessed here.
Daily recaps will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com and the
CMU Beach Volleyball Instagram Account is a great follow.
A look Back to 2022
The Mavericks made program history last spring winning the NCAA Division II title at the AVCA Small College Championships in Tavares, Florida. The Mavs took down defending national champion Tampa in the Gold Bracket semifinals and defeated Spring Hill, 3-1 in the finals on Apr. 16.
They had blanked rival Texas A&M-Kingsville, 5-0 in the Challenge Round on the day prior to avenge an opening-weekend defeat to the Javelinas after going 2-1 in Pool Play.
The Mavs also won a school-record 16 matches throughout the season, going 16-10. Their list of victories featured five wins over NCAA Division I institutions, including Pac 12 Conference foes Oregon and Utah (twice). The Mavs also defeated Santa Clara and CSUN and finished the season as winners of seven of their final ten matches.
Numerous individuals also picked up some prestigious honors, the first in CMU's relatively young beach volleyball history.
Sabrina VanDeList and Tye Wedhorn were named as the AVCA/College Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week on Apr. 18, 2022 for their undefeated efforts (6-0) at the national tournament and were named as the
Mavs' first ever AVCA Top Fight Award winners for their season long efforts at No. 5.
No. 1 duo
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer were also named as the program's AVCA Small College Beach Championship All-Americans.
Built for a Repeat
The Mavericks will be hoping for repeated success in 2023 and bring back 15 players from last year's national tournament title winning squad, including eight of the ten who competed for the Mavs in the team portion of AVCA Small College Championships plus four others who were undefeated in the AVCA Pairs Challenge.
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer played at the No. 1 spot of the lineup in 23 of the team's 26 dual matches last year and are both back. The same can be said for
Macie Lachemann and
Holly Schmidt who co-set a new CMU record for single-season wins (16) with a 16-8 record at No. 2.
The No. 5 duo of
Sabrina VanDeList and
Tye Wedhorn also returns after going 15-5 at No. 5.
Jada Hall was 15-10 last year but will have to find a new partner this year after playing with graduate student
Jessa Megenhardt last year, nearly exclusively in the No. 3 spot.
Sierra Hunt also returns to the roster as one half of the 2022 No. 4 pair but is expected to miss the beach season due to an injury late in the 2022 fall indoor season.
Ara Norwood, her playing partner, is now an assistant coach for the Mavericks after ending her career as the winningest beach player in CMU history.
Rianne Brown,
Izzy Burns,
Sydney Leffler,
Savannah Ott,
Hailey Peters and
Taylor Scherff also return after posting winning records in spot starts, extra matches and individual tournaments last season while
Lizzy Hood redshirted last year.
The Maverick beach roster also features six indoor players, who enjoyed another fine 22-7 season in the fall, which included a run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Three of those players were Honorable Mention All-Americans indoors in
Sierra Hunt,
Savannah Spitzer and
Sabrina VanDeList.
The lone newcomer
The Mavericks' lone newcomer to the team this season is redshirt freshman
Gracyn Spresser. The Johnson, Arkansas native and Fayetteville High School graduate redshirted at Division I Missouri State last season.
While in high school, she was a 4-year starter for the Bulldogs and led the team to a 21-1 record, a state championship and No. 9 national ranking as a senior. She was named as the MVP of the 6A West state tournament and was a 3-time all-state tournament performer, who recorded over 1,000 digs in her career. The Bulldogs also won the state title during her freshman season.
In the Fall
Fifth-year Maverick seniors
Macie Lachemann and
Holly Schmidt played competitive matches in the fall, representing the Mavericks in the first-ever AVCA Fall Beach Championships, played Nov. 4-6 in Huntsville, Alabama. They went 1-5 overall, falling in the semifinal round of the 53rd place bracket.
Lachemann and Schmidt's win came over a pair from the University of Oregon.
First of Three
This weekend's trip will be the first of three for the Mavs to the state of Arizona this season.
The Mavs will also head to the Phoenix area for three matches on Mar. 11-12 against South Mountain Community College, Wayne State and Park University Gilbert and will head back to Tucson for the Wildcat Spring Challenge on Mar. 31 and Apr. 1.
In between, the Mavericks will make their annual spring break pilgrimage to southern California for several matches from Mar. 21-23.
They are scheduled to host Mesa Community College and Texas A&M-Kingsville for a tournament on Apr. 7-8 in their only home matches and then will return to the AVCA Small College Beach Championships from Apr. 14-16.
Beach Boss
David Skaff is in his 16
th year as a member of the Colorado Mesa University Maverick volleyball coaching staff and in his eighth as the only head coach in the history of the Mavs' beach volleyball program, which begin in 2016. Starting as an undergraduate coach at Colorado Mesa University in 2007, he was elevated to a full-time assistant for the indoor program in 2011.
During his time on the indoor coaching staff, he has helped guide the Mavericks' indoor team to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles, two RMAC Regular Season crowns and two RMAC West Division titles.
In 2016, Skaff was one of just three NCAA Division II Coaches to receive the American Volleyball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30 Award, which honors up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport.
He and his wife Michelle were married in July, 2020, and just celebrated the birth of twin daughters on Jan. 1.
The Assistants
Both of the Mavs' assistants are also very experienced with the Mavs.
Bri Strong joined the Maverick indoor and beach coaching staff in March, 2020 and is Skaff's top assistant on the the beach side. She also received an AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award in the initial 2021 beach class and has been taking on an even larger role with both teams this academic year as the Skaff family has doubled.in size.
She came to CMU after serving as an assistant indoor coach at Cornell College in Iowa and was a standout player at Northern Colorado.
New to the Maverick coaching staff, but no stranger to the program, this year is Ara "Bob" Norwood. She was a 5-year player for both the indoor and beach squads and helped the Mavs win the national beach title last year, graduating as the winningest beach player in program history with 36 career wins.
Scouting the Opponents
Boise State
The Broncos are receiving a vote in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Preseason Top 20 Coaches' Poll and are coming off a 20-9 season from a year ago. They won 10 of their final 11 matches, including a 4-1 win over CMU in Boise, Idaho on Apr. 2.
They were picked third out of seven teams in the Southland Conference preseason poll, receiving seven first place votes from the voting panel of head coaches and sports information directors from all seven schools. They are now entering their first year of conference membership.
Rorianna Chartier, Sierra Land and Madison Nichols were all selected as Players to Watch. Chartier and Land went 18-11 together in the No. 1 and 2 spots and competed at the AVCA National Pairs Championship for the
Broncos. Nichols went 20-9 as a freshman last year and finished the year on an 11-match winning streak.
UTEP
The Miners are entering their first ever season with a beach team. Their 14-player roster includes eight players who are also a part of UTEP's indoor team. Ben Wall is the team's head coach.
They are the eighth Conference USA school to field a beach team.
Arizona State
The Sun Devils are coming off their second-highest win total in program history after winning 17 matches in 2022. They were 17-15 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-12 last year.
Senior Lexi Sweeney has been on court one since her sophomore season. Junior Kate Fitzgerald is also amongst the Sun Devils' 14 returnees and led the team in wins last year. Sweeney ranks 11
th in program history with 30 career wins while fellow senior Sarah Waters is right behind with 29.
Head Coach Brad Keenan's squad is the second team outside of the AVCA Preseason Top 20 Poll and received seven points in the in the voting.
Arizona
The Wildcats are ranked 18
th in the AVCA Poll with 78 points and are coming off a 19-12 overall season. They were 3-3 in Pac-12 play last year and were the No. 5 seed for the conference tournament, where they went 1-2.
The Wildcats' roster is quite experienced with ten seniors, fifth year or graduate students plus another three juniors.
Returner Sarah Blacker and Maja Kaiser, who is not back were 23-8 in the No. 2 spot last year while Alex Parkhurst and Alana Rennie were 15-14 at No. 1 a year ago and return to anchor Head Coach Steve Walker's lineup.
Up Next
The Mavericks will be off next weekend before returning to Arizona for three matches on Mar. 11-12.
