GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team will open their third consecutive Pacific West Conference Championship tournament appearance on Wednesday morning, playing arch-rival MSU Denver in the first round.
 
The Mavericks (13-11), claimed the No. 8 seed, their highest in their young PacWest history, and will take on the ninth-seeded Roadrunners (13-7) for the third time this month and the second in a span of just five days, beginning at 9 a.m. Arizona Time (10 a.m. Mountain) at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Club in Surprise, Arizona.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks capped the regular season on Saturday crushing visiting CSU Pueblo, 7-0 in the morning before claiming another 4-3 win over the Roadrunners in the afternoon.
 
In the morning, the Mavericks dropped just six total games throughout the entire dual.  They won all three doubles matches by 6-1 scores and then won five of the six singles matches by 6-0, 6-0 scores despite resting two of their top four singles players in Makenna Livingston and Halle Romero, who also sat out of their normal No. 1 doubles spots allowing Maverick freshman Kristen Thomas and Delia Maier to get into the lineup in both singles and doubles.
 
Things were tougher against the Roadrunners, although the Mavericks won both completed doubles matches to seize early momentum before picking up convincing straight set wins from Issy Coman and Macy Richards at No. 2 and 3 singles to build a 3-1 lead.  The Mavs then clinched the dual through Julianna Campos at No. 5 singles as her opponent Kambra Roles was forced to retire due to injury.  Campos was up a set.
 
The Roadrunners then won the final two decided singles matches to make the final scoreline tighter.
 
PacWest Rankings
 
A total of 12 teams were selected for the PacWest Tournament based on the conference's rankings.  The final qualifier list was announced last week although the final seeds were not released until this Monday (Apr. 17), taking into account results from last week, including CMU's win over MSU Denver, which shook things up in the middle of the rankings.
 
The Mavericks came into the week ranked tenth while the Roadrunners were seventh.
 
However, CMU's victory, their second 4-3 win of the month over the Roadrunnners, provided enough data points to move the Mavs up two spots while the Roadrunners dropped two spots.  Biola moved up to the No. 7 spot in the rankings while Hawai'i Hilo slid a spot to tenth.
 
The top six and the final two qualifying spots in the final tournament seeding remained unchanged.
 
Tourney Format
 
The top four seeds all receive first round byes while the other eight teams will play their first round matches on Wednesday morning.  The winners of those four duals will then join the four top seeds in Thursday's quarterfinals.  All eight of those teams will also play on Friday and Saturday in the main bracket or consolation matches that will sort out the first through eighth places.
 
Meanwhile, the four Wednesday losers will play a consolation match on Thursday evening, which will conclude each team's season.
 
If CMU were to win on Wednesday over MSU Denver, the Mavericks would take on top-seeded Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday morning and would be guaranteed of playing matches on Friday and Saturday as well.
 
If CMU were to lose on Wednesday, they would play a consolation round match against the loser of the 5/12 match-up between Fresno Pacific and Stanislaus State.
 
All of the duals will be played to clinch.
 
The tournament winner will receive the PacWest's automatic qualification spot into the NCAA Division II Tournament, which will include four West Region and PacWest teams overall.  The other three qualifiers will be selected at-large via the official regional rankings.
 
A complete PacWest Tournament bracket can be seen at the link above. 
 
Live results of each dual can also be accessed through the PacWest website.
 
A daily recap will also be posted on www.cmumavericks.com each evening.
 
CMU in the PacWest
 
The Mavericks are in their third year of affiliate membership in the PacWest.  The CMU women have qualified for the championship tournament in each of those three years but are still in search of their first tournament win after going 0-2 in each of the previous two years.
 
This year's No. 8 seed is the highest of the three that the Mavs have ever had.
 
In 2021, the Mavericks were the No. 10 seed and fell 4-1 to the Academy of Art in the opening round before falling 4-2 to No. 8 seed Hawai'i Hilo in the consolation round.
 
Last year, the Mavs were seeded 12^th and fell 4-0 to No. 5 seed Fresno Pacific before dropping a 4-3 heart-breaker to No. 8 seed CUI in the consolation round.
 
Streaking into the tournament
 
As a team, the Mavericks have won three straight and seven of their last eight match-ups and are one of the hottest teams in the field. 
 
On an individual basis, Issy Coman has won each of her last eight singles matches and nine of her last ten.  Freshman Delia Maier also has a 6-match winning streak in singles and a perfect 6-0 dual-meet mark when she has been included in the lineup.  Julianna Campos, Macy Richards and Jane Steur have also won in each of their last three starts.
 
Coman and Richards have also won each of their last eight doubles matches while Makenna Livingston and Halle Romero have won five straight.
 
Doubles is key
 
The Mavericks have won the doubles point(s) in each of their last eight duals and have gone on to record the team win in seven of those duals.  One of those came on Apr. 1, when the Mavericks swept all three doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead in the 9-point Division III format.
 
The Mavs are 10-2 when winning the doubles point in the normal 7-point Division II format this season.
 
Successful Season
 
The Mavericks have already surpassed their win total from each of the past four years and are now just one win away from matching the 2017-18 team's win total of 14 (14-17).
 
If the Mavericks are able to remain above .500, they would record their first winning record since going 16-13 in 2015-16.
 
Know Your Foe
 
The Roadrunners are now 13-7 on the season and saw a 3-match winning streak snapped by the Mavs on Saturday.  They have won of their last six, but both losses in that stretch have come to the Mavs.
 
They went 3-3 in matches against PacWest foes during the regular season.
 
In singles, Kambra Roles leads the team with a strong 17-6 record but retired from her last match on Saturday due to injury.  She went 12-4 in duals, having played everywhere from No. 2-6.  Monica Guarin is 10-1 and has won nine straight matches but has appeared in just seven duals this spring, missing the Apr. 1 first match against the Mavs before playing later that day against CSU Pueblo.
 
Lily Stienemeier is 12-8 overall and 9-6 in duals while Hanna Haber (11-10) and Marie Cool (11-12) also have double-digit singles wins.  Haber and Cool are also 13-5 together in doubles, playing mostly at No. 2, but posting a 3-0 record in spot No. 1 starts.  However, Haber did not play in last Saturday's dual.
 
Kinsey Fields and Isabel Heras also have a 13-6 doubles record, including a 10-5 mark in the No. 1 flight.  They are currently ranked 37^th in the ITA's National Doubles rankings but have dropped both of their meetings to the Mavs' No. 1 duo of Makenna Livingston and Halle Romero.
 
Series History
 
MSU Denver holds a 31-29 lead in the all-time series, the most often played rivalry in CMU's tennis history.  They had won 14 straight matches over the last seven seasons before the Mavs stopped that run with the Apr. 1 win in Denver, which was the CMU's first in the rivalry last win in seven years since Apr. 15, 2016.
 
The Mavs then claimed Saturday's win by the same score to complete the regular season sweep while winning at home for the first time since 2016.
 
Four of the last four matches have now been decided by tight 4-3 margins.  The lone exception to that was when MSU Denver won 5-2 last year in Grand Junction.
 
Although Wednesday's dual will be the first PacWest Tournament encounter, the teams were regular foes in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.  Both institutions are still members of the RMAC but play tennis in the PacWest after the RMAC stopped sponsoring the sport following the 2018-19 season.
 
The last RMAC Tournament meeting between the foes was in the 2018 RMAC final, which the Roadrunners won 5-0 in Denver.
 
Up Next
 
If the Mavericks were able to win this week's PacWest Tournament, they will automatically qualify for the NCAA Division II Tournament.  Otherwise, their season will conclude this week.