GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After claiming a win over Division I Utah Tech last weekend, the Colorado Mesa University women's team will head out on a critical trip to Fresno, California for four matches in as many days against fellow Pacific West Conference foes.  The stretch begins Saturday against Holy Names and continues with additional neutral-site matches with Academy of Art and Dominican on Sunday and Monday, respectively.  The Mavericks then finish the trip at Fresno Pacific on Tuesday morning.
 
The matches will be played in three different locations in Fresno.
 
Saturday's encounter with the Hawks will begin at 1 p.m. PDT (2 p.m. Mountain) at the Copper River Tennis Club.  The Mavs will then play at Fresno Pacific's Haak Tennis Complex on Sunday at 3 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. Mountain) against the Academy of Art.
 
The Mavs will then head to the Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club for Monday morning's battle with Dominican before heading back to the Haak Tennis Complex for Tuesday morning's match at Fresno Pacific, which will also begin at 8 a.m. PDT (9 a.m. Mountain).
 
The Maverick men will also play four matches on the same days.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks won five of the six singles matches and roared back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 5-2 road win over Division I Utah Tech last Saturday in St. George. 
 
The Mavs have now defeated their former regional and conference rivals three straight times.
 
Makenna Livingston and Julianna Campos were straight-set winners at No. 1 and 5 singles as the Mavericks tied the overall score before Issy Coman, Halle Romero and Paige Furin all claimed 3-set wins in the even numbered flights to give the Mavericks the win.
 
The teams then started the second dual of a scheduled doubleheader, but that dual would be rained out in the early stages with only one of three doubles matches in the books.
 
An important trip
 
The results of this trip to Fresno are going to have a large impact on the Mavs' overall season and their hopes of qualifying for a third straight PacWest Tournament.  Twelve of the 15 PacWest's women's teams will be selected and seeded by a conference committee.
 
Although no official conference standings are kept, head-to-head results have a large impact on that process.
 
The Mavericks are currently 0-3 against PacWest foes having fallen to CUI, Biola and Azusa Pacific on their last trip to California earlier this month (Mar. 3-5) and will have just three more "conference" matches following this trip, making it critically important for the Mavs to pick up some wins on this trip.
 
Double Figures
 
Maverick sophomore Makenna Livingston became the first Maverick to reach double figures for singles wins this season.  She won her No. 1 singles match over Utah Tech's Rachel Mellor on Sunday by a 6-2, 6-4 margin to claim her tenth singles win.  Livingston, who is 10-8 this year, won 13 singles matches last year as a freshman.
 
About the Opponents
 
Holy Names (Saturday, Mar. 18 – 1 p.m. PDT/2 p.m. MDT – Copper River Tennis Club)
 
The Hawks are 1-8 this season and have lost seven straight matches since claiming their lone win on Feb. 10 at Chaminade.  The university, which operates in Oakland, California, will close at the end of this academic year.
 
Academy of Art (Sunday, Mar. 19 – 3 p.m. PDT/4 p.m. MDT – Haak Tennis Complex)
 
The Urban Knights, who hail from downtown San Francisco, are currently 4-4 on the season.  They are 4-2 against fellow PacWest competition.  They have dropped their last three matches, but all three of those results have come against teams ranked in the top-20 of the nation.
 
They had won each of their previous four matches claiming wins over Holy Names, Dominican, Hawai'i Hilo and Cal State LA.
 
Four different Urban Knight players have four singles wins.  Paulina Alvarez has the top record of 4-2 at No. 6 singles while Jessica Plazas is 4-3 in the No. 1 and 2 spots of the lineup.  Julia Ortega is also 4-3 in the No. 2 and 3 flights.
 
Jessica Plazas and Yun Nicole Shiau are ranked 47^th nationally in doubles but have yet to play together this spring.  They were also ranked third in the West Region at the end of the fall season.
Shiau was also ranked 20^th in the West Region for singles at the end of the fall.
 
Dominican (Monday, Mar. 20 – 8 a.m. PDT/9 a.m. MDT – Fig Garden Swim & Racquet Club)
 
The Penguins are also 4-4 on the season.  They dropped their last match at CUI by a 5-2 score on Mar. 11 after winning their previous three over Stanislaus State, Cal State LA and Hope International
 
Audrey Rafols has put up an impressive 7-1 record at No. 1 singles this season while Gina Dudley is 6-2 at No. 2.  They are also 5-1 together in doubles and have won five straight matches.
 
Rafols was ranked fourth in the ITA's West Regional rankings at the end of the fall while Dudley was 18^th.
 
Fresno Pacific (Tuesday, Mar. 21 – 8 a.m. PDT/9 a.m. MDT – Haak Tennis Complex)
 
The Sunbirds currently have a 3-4 record heading into a Thursday night match-up with Midwestern State (Texas) in Azusa on Thursday.  They will also play Menlo on Saturday at home before facing the Mavs.
 
Lea Falentin is one of four Sunbirds with three singles wins and is currently ranked 65^th nationally.  She is 3-4 at No. 1 while Nayuma Subba is also 3-4 at the No. 2 position.  Sanne Brull is 3-3 at No. 3.  Subba and Elise Leik have the team's best doubles record, going 3-2 at No. 3.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs are 4-1 all-time against Holy Names and won last year's match-up (Mar. 20), also played in Fresno, by a 7-0 count after the Hawks were able to field a lineup of just four players.
 
The Mavs are 1-4 all-time against the Academy of Art.  The Urban Knights have won the last four match-ups, including the last, which came by a 4-1 score during the 2021 PacWest Championships.  The teams had gone eight years since matching-up after playing for four straight springs in St. George, Utah from 2010-13.
 
The Mavs and Penguins have split the only two previous meetings.  The Penguins won 4-3 last year in Fresno after the Mavericks had won a 5-2 decision in Englewood, Colorado in 2021.
 
The Mavericks played Fresno Pacific for the first time last season and dropped a 7-0 decision on Mar. 21 in Fresno before falling 4-0 to the Sunbirds in the PacWest Tournament's first round.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return home to Colorado for the remainder for the regular season.  They will play their final seven regular season matches within the state, playing three matches on the Front Range against MSU Denver, Colorado College and CSU Pueblo on Mar. 31-Apr. 2.