TAVARES, Fla.— The Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team matched the program record for wins in season as the Mavericks swept Florida Southern College, 5-0 to move into the top position of the Pool D standings after the first day of the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, which got underway on Friday here at Hickory Point Beach.
The defending NCAA Division II champion Mavericks, who are seeded fourth this year, won all five matches of the dual with the Mocs to improve to 2-0 on the day and 16-7 on the season. Last year's title-winning squad went 16-10 to set the record, which has now been matched.
The Mocs, seeded 13
th out of 14 teams in the tournament, fell to 7-20.
CMU had also claimed a 3-0 victory over No. 12 seed Erskine College on Friday morning and now leads Pool D ahead of the Spring Hill College Badgers, who they will face in the pool-decider on Saturday morning at 11:15 a.m. EDT (9:15 a.m. Mountain). Spring Hill is also 2-0 in the tournament, but just behind the Mavs on tie-breaking procedures, after defeating Florida Southern, 3-0 and Erskine, 3-1.
The Mavs won last year's title by a 3-1 score over the Badgers.
CMU will then play a challenge round opponent with a Pool C opponent to be determined on Saturday afternoon.
In Friday afternoon's match-up with the Mocs, the Mavericks held their opponents to 10 or fewer points in four of the ten sets and did not concede any more than 17 in any of them.
The top of the lineup was the most dominant as
Holly Schmidt and
Macie Lachemann recorded their 20
th win of the campaign with a 21-10, 21-9 win over Emma Shaddix, committed to join the Maverick indoor and beach squads next year as a graduate transfer, and Olivia D'Agostino.
Meanwhile,
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer completed a 2-0 day with a 21-9, 21-7 win over Destiny Ramsey and Piper Cowman on Court 2.
Sabrina VanDeList and
Tye Wedhorn also completed a 2-0 day with a 21-14, 21-15 win on Court 4 while
Jada Hall and
Gracyn Spresser did the same with a 21-14, 21-17 victory on Court 3.
Hall and Spresser now have 20 wins on the season as well while VanDeList and Wedhorn lead the team with their 21-7 record. They are now 8-0 together at the last two AVCA Small College Championships.
Savannah Ott and
Hailey Peters also won 21-11, 21-16 on Court 5 to move to 11-6 on the season.
In other action, the Mavs' two other pairs went a combined 3-1 during the Pairs Challenge Tournament.
Rianne Brown and
Sydney Leffler won Pool 8 with a 2-0 mark. They defeated Mollie and Kennedi Wyrick of Ottawa (Kan.) by convincing 21-7 and 21-8 margins before coming from a set down to defeat Erskine's Emily Gilbert and Marissa Possenriede, 20-22, 21-15, 15-13 in a squeaker.
Meanwhile,
Izzy Burns and
Lizzy Hood went 1-1 to take third in Pool 9. They were beaten by a Palm Beach Atlantic pair in their first match, but responded for a 21-10, 23-21 win over Missouri Baptist's Syan Larmond and Paige Glueck.
