TUCSON, Ariz.— The Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team crushed Division I UTEP, 5-0 after coming out on the short end of a tough 4-1 battle with Boise State, receiving votes in the AVCA Top 20 Collegiate Beach Preseason Coaches' Poll, as the Mavericks split their 2023 season-openers on Friday at the University of Arizona's Bear Down Beach during the Cactus Classic.
Tye Wedhorn and
Sabrina VanDeList won both of their matches in the fourth flight as they battled back to defeat Boise State's Emilia Guerra-Acuna and Joey Benson in three sets before winning another 3-set match over UTEP's Savannah Marenco and Serena Patterson in the afternoon dual, setting up the Mavericks for the eventual sweep.
The Mavs top duo of
Holly Schmidt and
Macie Lachemann also pulled out a 15-11 third set victory in their No. 1 match against the Miners' Krista Paegle and Katie Martin while
Jada Hall and CMU newcomer
Gracyn Spresser were 15-21, 21-13, 15-4 winners at No. 3 over Aailyah Austin and Paulina Acuna.
The Mavs' other two victories against UTEP, who made their official beach volleyball debut on Friday, were more straight forward as
Savannah Spitzer and
Hahni Johnson won their No. 2 match, 21-17, 21-13 while
Savannah Ott and
Hailey Peters clinched the dual with a 21-14, 21-17 win at No. 5, the third completed match.
The Boise State dual, played in the morning featured four 3-set matches in a very tight affair. The Broncos won three of them and also squeaked out a 21-15, 22-20 win in the top flight to claim victory.
Wedhorn and Van DeList's victory against the Broncos came via a 14-21, 23-21, 15-8 margin while the Broncos were able to win 15-12 third-set decisions at both No. 2 and 3 after the Mavericks had won the opening set in both. Spitzer and Johnson had won the first set, 21-19 over Kaylee Mejia and Lily Patock but dropped a heart-breaking 22-20 second set.
Meanwhile, Hall and Spresser had won the opening set over Rorianna Chartier and Ava Anderson by a 21-17 second but dropped the second set, 21-11.
BSU clinched the dual at No. 5 as Sharli O'Neill and Aris Vetter defeated Ott and
Taylor Scherff, 21-17, 19-21, 15-6.
The Mavs also went 2-1-1 in exhibition matches throughout the day as Scherff and
Sydney Leffler defeated a UTEP duo, 21-15, 21-15 while
Izzy Burns and
Rianne Brown defeated a pair from the Oregon Duck program, 21-12, 26-24. Meanwhile,
Lizzy Hood and Johnson split a pair of exhibition sets with an Arizona pair.
The Mavericks will continue Cactus Classic play on Saturday taking on Arizona State, receiving votes in the AVCA poll and 18
th-ranked Arizona at 9 and 11 a.m., respectively.
