GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will return to action this weekend playing the first two of seven March matches, all of which will come against fellow Pacific West Conference foes.
 
The Mavs (5-5) will play at Biola University in La Mirada on Friday at 2 p.m. PST (3 p.m. Mountain) and then at No. 18 Azusa Pacific University on Saturday in Azuza at 10 a.m. PST (11 a.m. Mountain) in their first of two trips to California this month.
 
BU and APU are slated to play each other on Thursday in Azusa.
 
Links to a live stream and live results for Friday's match at Biola can be found above.

Daily Recaps will also be posted on www.cmumavericks.com.
 
The Maverick women will also be on the trip facing the same two opponents after a recently added Friday morning match at Concordia University Irvine.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks were off last weekend but have enjoyed a solid start to the spring season, going 5-2, including a 1-2 mark in the Phoenix Duals two weeks ago.  All three of those matches were decided by 4-3 margins as the Mavs ended the weekend on a high note with a 4-3 win over Ottawa University of Arizona on Feb. 18 after falling to Western New Mexico and Arizona Christian a day earlier.
 
Freshman Diogo Manzano and redshirt junior veteran Jandre Van Wyk led the Mavs' singles lineup in Arizona.  Manzano went 3-0 in singles play at No. 5 and 6 while van Wyk was 2-1 in the No. 4 and No. 5 spots.
 
Meanwhile, Jorge Abreu was a perfect 3-0 in doubles play in the third flight, teaming with Emil Hultman for two wins and Henry Scheck for another.
 
Doubles Means Nothing?
 
In many matches, winning the doubles point tends to be the key.  However, it was completely the opposite for the Mavericks in their recent trip to the Phoenix area.  The Mavs won the doubles point against both Western New Mexico and Arizona Christian but ended up dropping the duals, 4-3.
 
The Mavs then dropped the doubles point against Ottawa, but rallied to win four of the six singles matches to win the dual.
 
No. 3 doubles dominance
 
The Mavericks have won the No. 3 doubles match in all seven of their duals this spring as Jorge Abreu has led the charge, teaming with three different partners to post a perfect 6-0 mark in that flight.  Abreu and Tegan Hartman, his partner for the first four matches of the spring, also had a No. 2 doubles win over Hastings on Feb. 10.
 
Abreu is 7-4 overall in doubles play this season, including a 7-1 dual meet mark.  He is tied for the team lead in doubles victories with two other Mavs in Tyler Landen (7-5,) William Leschig (7-7).  Hartman is 4-0 in doubles play this year but did not play on the trip to Arizona.
 
Triple 8's & Streaking youngsters
 
Abreu is also one of three Mavericks sitting on eight singles wins this season, all of whom could potentially reach double-figures this weekend.  He is 8-6.  Jandre Van Wyk has an impressive 8-3 singles record this year, including a 7-1 dual record.  William Leschig is also 8-8.
 
Meanwhile, freshman Diogo Manzano and Henry Scheck are right behind with seven wins each.  Manzano has won six straight matches while Scheck has won five straight.
 
Matching Mavs
 
With five wins this spring, the Mavericks have already matched their 2021-22 season total, when CMU went 5-15 overall.
 
PacWest Play
 
This weekend's matches against Biola and Azusa Pacific will be the first two of seven straight against fellow PacWest foes this month.  The Mavs will also play against Holy Names, Hawai'i Hilo, CUI and Fresno Pacific in four straight days from Mar. 18-21 in Fresno, California and will close out the month on Mar. 31 against in-state rival and fellow affiliate conference member MSU Denver.  The Mavs are also slated to play Hilo and MSU Denver again in April.
 
All of those matches will have significant impact on the selection and seeding process for the Apr. 20-22 PacWest Championships, which will include eight of the conference's ten teams.  CMU missed out on that tournament a year ago after going 1-9 in PacWest matches last year.
 
There are no official conference standings nor any mandated conference playing schedule although members are encouraged to play each other to help the ranking committee sort out qualifiers and seeding for the championship tournament.
 
Ranked at the top
 
Maverick redshirt junior Tyler Landen is currently ranked 14^th in the ITA's West Region Singles rankings while he and fall season doubles partner William Leschig are ranked eighth in doubles.
 
Landen has gone 2-5 in No. 1 singles play during dual meet this season but has missed three duals.  Leschig has filled in on those, going 1-2 while also holding a 4-3 No. 2 singles record.
 
They are 4-3 together as doubles partners, but all of those matches together were during the fall.
 
Know your Foes
 
Biola
 
The Eagles are currently 3-2 heading into a Thursday afternoon dual at Azusa Pacific, which will be their first action in nearly two weeks.  They had played five matches in the first 18 days of February, claiming shutout wins over Hope International (4-0) and Westmont (5-0) and a 5-2 win at Fresno Pacific in their first PacWest match on Feb. 13.  They then fell to CUI, 4-3 on Feb. 18.
 
Alexey Prokopchuk has had a solid spring, going 4-1 at No. 1 singles and ended the fall ranked 19^th in the country and third in the West Region, according to the ITA rankings.  He reached the semifinals of the ITA West Regional that the Mavs hosted in the fall.
 
Meanwhile, Adrian Solorzano has won four straight matches at No. 3 and 4 singles and is a perfect 4-0 this spring.  He is ranked 20^th in the ITA regional rankings.  Solorzano and Sebastian Herrera are 3-2 at No. 2 doubles but have dropped the last two.
 
Prokopchuk and Antonio Rosales Varona are slotted ninth in the ITA's regional doubles rankings and are 2-3 together this spring in the top flight.
 
The Eagles went 18-9 as a team last spring and placed fifth in the PacWest Championships before receiving a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they were downed 4-1 by Azusa Pacific in the first round.  They were picked fourth in this year's PacWest Preseason Poll, one spot behind the Cougars.
 
Azusa Pacific
 
The Cougars, currently 5-2 this season, are coming off a 21-5 2022 season that saw them win the PacWest title before advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
 
The Cougars, ranked 18^th in Division II, have won three straight matches  since suffering their only two losses to Division I Hawai'I and Division II No. 9 Hawai'i Pacific.  They beat PacWest foes Hawai'i Hilo and Point Loma by 5-2 scores and then won at Division I UC Riverside by a 4-1 margin in their last action on Feb. 20 heading into Thursday's home match with Biola.
 
Leyton Bohren, the older son of Head Coach Mark Bohren, ended the fall 12^th in the ITA's National Singles Rankings and second in the region while Elias Emilio Walter is ranked sixth in the West Region and 31^st nationally.
 
However, Bohren has had a difficult spring, going just 1-4 and losing his last three matches at No. 1.  Walter is 3-3 this spring having played in the top three flights.
 
Miha Velicki and Villi Bonen have helped pick up the slack, going 5-2 and 4-2 respectively, this spring.
 
Layton Bohren and Marko Nikoliuk have gone 5-2 together at No. 1 doubles while Brody Bohren, Layton's younger brother, and Bonev have posted a 5-1 record at No. 3 doubles. 
 
Walter and Velicki are also 4-2 as the Cougars have posted an impressive 14-5 overall doubles record this spring.  Leyton Bohren and Velicki were ranked sixth as a doubles duo in the fall regional rankings but have played exclusively with separate partners this spring.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs have a 2-2 all-time record against Biola, having played the Eagles in La Mirada during four of the last five seasons.  Their Mavs won the first two of those match-ups by 5-4 and 4-3 margins in 2018 and 2019 but have been blanked by 7-0 margins in each of the last two years since joining the PacWest as affiliate members.  Their scheduled 2020 match-up was canceled at the start of the COVID pandemic.
 
The Mavs are 0-7 all-time against Azusa Pacific and have played each spring, outside of 2020, since 2017.  They also fell in 2012 and in the opening round of the 2021 PacWest Tournament, CMU's debut in that event.  Tyler Landen won both of his matches against the then 22^nd-ranked Cougars last spring.
 
Up Next
 
The Maverick men will be off next week as their women's counterparts head to St. George, Utah for a Mar. 11 doubleheader at Division I Utah Tech.  The CMU men and women will then play four PacWest matches in as many days between Mar. 18-21 in Fresno, California during the opening half of CMU's spring break.