GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Riding a 5-match winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University will look to take their momentum on their annual spring break trip to southern California.
The Mavs, 6-3 overall, are scheduled top play six matches over three days in the greater Los Angeles area playing in Long Beach on Tuesday, Northridge on Wednesday and Irvine on Thursday.
They will open the trip at 10:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. Mountain) against 13
th-ranked Long Beach State before taking on Boise State for the second time this season later in the day. Those duals will now be played at Rosie's Dog Beach.
On Wednesday, the Mavs will be at CSUN and will also play against Hope International. They will then wrap up the trip with a tri-dual against junior college programs Golden West and Irvine Valley.
Follow the Mavs
Daily recaps of each day's action will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com and the CMU Beach Volleyball Instagram Account is a great follow. -
https://www.instagram.com/cmu_beachvolleyball/
Long Beach State will provide live statistics of Tuesday's matches, which can be
accessed here.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks continued to roll as they posted the fourth and fifth straight 5-0 sweeps in a home doubleheader against Trinidad State Junior College on Thursday. The Mavs won all 20 sets and held their Trojan opposition to single digit point totals in 18 of the total sets.
A complete recap of the action can be seen here.
Record Looming
Maverick fifth-year senior
Holly Schmidt won her 34
th and 35
th career matches on Thursday with partner
Macie Lachemann, who now has 33 career wins. Lachemann is also a fifth-year senior.
Schmidt is now on the verge of matching the CMU record of 36 career wins, held by now assistant
Ara Norwood.
Another fifth-year senior in
Tye Wedhorn and
Sabrina VanDeList, who has another year of eligibility remaining, have also both gone over the 30 career win mark and will enter this week with 31 career wins.
Entering Thursday's doubleheader, here is a look at the top-5 winningest Mavericks in program history.
36-
Ara Norwood; 2018-22
35-
Holly Schmidt; 2019-23
33-
Macie Lachemann; 2019-23
31-
Tye Wedhorn; 2021-23
31-
Sabrina VanDeList; 2021-23
Dominant Win Streak
The Mavericks' 5-match winning streak is the second longest in the program's history, only shy of their 6-match streak from Mar. 11-23 of last year.
They have won each of their matches during the current streak by 5-0 scores and have not dropped a set in each of the last four.
Speaking of Streaks
The Mavericks' No. 1 pair of
Macie Lachemann and
Holly Schmidt have also been faring well and have won six straight matches while raising their record to 7-2 this spring in the top flight. The duo is 8-7 overall after having represented the Mavericks at the AVCA Fall Beach Championships in November.
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer have also won six straight matches, including five in the No. 2 spot of the CMU lineup. They are also 7-2 this spring
Meanwhile,
Jada Hall and
Gracyn Spresser have won five straight matches to raise their record to 6-3. They have played all but one match in the No. 3 spot.
Sabrina VanDeList and
Tye Wedhorn have also won five straight matches in the No. 4 spot and lead the team with an 8-1 record. They have now won 14 of their last 15 and 21 of their last 25 matches since Mar. 11, 2022. They went 16-5 together last year.
Still perfect
The Mavericks raised their all-time program record at home to 12-0 with Thursday's wins over Trinidad State. Those matches were their first home matches of the year at the CMU Beach Courts.
The Mavericks are slated to play four more times at home hosting Texas A&M-Kingsville and Mesa Community College in a pair of tri-duals on Apr. 7 and 8.
The Mavs have now defeated Trinidad State four times at home over the past two years They have also defeated Utah four times and have defeated Colorado Northwestern Community College twice. Their other two home wins came over Salt Lake Community College (2022) and Colorado College's club team (2018).
Scouting the Opponents
Long Beach State – Tuesday, Mar. 21 (10:30 a.m. PDT/11:30 a.m. Mountain)
The Beach is currently ranked 13
th in the latest AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll with a new edition of the poll due on out Tuesday. They could very well move up after going a perfect 4-0 during a home tournament weekend defeating Utah and No. 16 Stetson on Sunday on campus after defeating Texas and Stetson on Saturday at Long Beach City College. Both of the wins over the Hatters came by 3-2 margins. They defeated Texas, 5-0, and Utah, 4-1.
The Beach is now 8-8 on the season. All eight of their losses have come against nationally-ranked squads, seven of which have been against top-10 ranked squads.
The team has yet to leave southern California this season.
No. 3 duo Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah are now 12-4 this season and have won five straight matches.
Boise State – Tuesday, Mar. 21 (11:45 p.m. PDT/12:45 p.m. Mountain)
The Broncos, receiving votes in the AVCA poll, are currently 13-4 and like the Mavericks, are riding a 5-match winning streak. They went 4-0 at the San Jose State tournament this past weekend, defeating San Francisco and the Spartans by 5-0 margins on Sunday after getting by CSU Bakersfield (3-2) and Oregon (4-1) on Saturday. They won 17 of the 20 total matches.
They also have a 4-2 record in Southland Conference play in their first year of membership in the conference.
Ava Anderson and Rorianna Chartier had the team's best record (7-5) heading into the San Jose State Tournament. They have played in the No. 2 and 3 positions this season and went 2-2 in the No. 2 spot this past weekend to move to 9-7.
The No. 1 duo of Madison Nichols and Sierra Land went 4-0 over the weekend and is now 9-8. They have won five straight.
CSUN – Wednesday, Mar. 22 (9 a.m. PDT/10 a.m. Mountain)
The Matadors defeated Texas and Utah last Friday in Long Beach to raise their overall record to 9-5. They have now won four of their last five overall, winning three of those matches by 5-0 margins.
Abby Sweeting and Gabriela Griego are 10-3 and have the team's best duo record, playing in the No. 4, 5 and exhibition spots in the Matador lineup. They are both 11-3 overall having played matches with different partners.
The No. 1 pair of Lauren Elknoian and Tasha Mae and the No. 2 pair of Emily Sparks and Mikael Maughan are both 8-6 this season.
They have gone 6-5 in Northridge and have not left southern California playing their other three matches in Santa Clarita and Long Beach.
Hope International – Wednesday, Mar. 22 (11 a.m. PDT/Noon Mountain)
A recent addition to the Maverick schedule, the Royals currently have a 6-8 overall record. They last played on Saturday, defeating Irvine Valley College, 3-2 after dropping a 5-0 decision to Nebraska. They are 4-4 in Golden State Athletic Conference match-ups and were receiving votes in the latest NAIA Coaches' Top 10 Poll.
Last year's Royal squad went 7-13.
The institution is located in Fullerton, California.
Golden West – Thursday, Mar. 23 (1 p.m. PDT/2 p.m. Mountain)
The Rustlers are also a recent addition to the Maverick schedule. They have a 2-5 record having defeated Fullerton, 4-1 in their last match on Mar. 10. They had dropped five straight before that.
Irvine Valley – Thursday, Mar. 23 (2 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. Mountain)
The Lasers are currently 3-5 and are scheduled to play The Master's and Boise State on Wednesday before hosting the tri-dual with Golden West and the Mavs on Thursday.
They dropped 5-0 and 3-2 decisions to Nebraska and Hope International on Saturday after winning three of their previous four.
Series Histories
CMU is 0-4 all-time against Long Beach State, having played the Beach in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in Long Beach and in 2021 in Irvine. All four previous matches have been decided by 5-0 scores.
The Mavs are also 0-4 against Boise State and played them last month (Feb. 24) in Tucson, Arizona. The Broncos won that match by a 4-1 score and had defeated them at home in Boise last year by the same score. The first two matches were won by the Broncos by 5-0 scores in 2019.
CMU is 1-6 against CSUN, having split last year's doubleheader (Mar. 23). The two teams have faced one another every spring since 2016, excluding 2020, when they were also scheduled to play before COVID prevented the Mavs' trip.
The Mavs have never played Hope International, Golden West or Irvine Valley.
Up Next
The Mavericks will continue their season with their third and final trip to Arizona, when they will play four matches at the Wildcat Spring Challenge in Arizona on Mar. 31 and Apr. 1.
