Box Score SURPRISE, Ariz. – Although they got off to a good start by winning the doubles point, Colorado Mesa women's tennis was unable to build momentum in singles, falling 4-2 to local rivals MSU Denver in the first round of the Pacific West Conference Women's Tennis Tournament.
The No. 8-seeded Mavericks will now conclude their season with a consolation match against No. 5 seed Fresno Pacific, which lost 4-3 to No. 12 seed Stanislaus State, scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. Regardless of whether CMU wins or loses, the Mavs' season will end after Thursday's dual.
Things looked promising early on for the Mavericks, who were matching up with the ninth-seeded Roadrunners for the third time this month after recording their first two wins over the Roadrunners in seven years. MSU Denver's nationally-ranked doubles duo of Isabel Heras and Kinsey Fields cruised over CMU's No. 1 team of
Halle Romero and
Makenna Livingston 6-0, but the Mavericks rebounded to win on the other two courts.
On court No. 2,
Macy Richards and
Issy Coman defeated MSU Denver's Hanna Haber and Marie Cool by a 6-1 score to make the doubles point come down to court No. 3. Maverick duo
Julianna Campos and
Paige Furin beat Roadrunners pair Kayla Myburgh and Lilly Stienemeier 6-3 to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead heading into the singles matches.
Makenna Livingston was hampered by an injury on court No. 1, falling behind 6-1, 1-0 to Heras before retiring. Stienemeier gave the Roadrunners the dual lead with a 6-0, 6-3 win over
Halle Romero on court No. 4. Romero was unable to replicate her history of success against MSU Denver, as the redshirt junior was 3-0 against the Roadrunners across singles and doubles this season prior to today.
Issy Coman pulled a point back for the Mavs to even the score at 2-2, winning on court No. 2 over MSU Denver's Marie Cool 6-1, 6-3. Kinsey Fields notched a gutsy win for MSU Denver over
Macy Richards on court three in which Fields was dominant early but Richards kept recording valiant comeback efforts.
Fields took a 5-1 lead in the first set, but Richards won five straight games to take a 6-5 lead before Fields won a game to force a tiebreak. Fields raced out to a 5-0 lead in that tiebreak, but Richards cut the deficit to 5-4 before Fields won the next two points to take the set.
In the second set, Fields again took a 5-1 lead, and again Richards went on a run with her back against the wall. This time, however, she was only able to win three straight games before Fields iced it, winning the match 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Court six saw MSU Denver's Monica Guarin, who only played singles for the Roadrunners, narrowly defeat
Paige Furin 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the dual for MSU Denver. CMU's
Julianna Campos was ahead 7-5, 3-3 on court five, but the match went unfinished with the final outcome secured and the Roadrunners advancing.
With the loss, CMU is 13-12 overall and drops to 2-1 this year against the Roadrunners. The Mavericks are now 4-7 against Pacific West opposition during the spring season. The Mavs played Fresno Pacific, Thursday's opponent, once this season back on March 19 and lost 4-1. Fresno Pacific took the doubles point and then won on singles courts one, two and four to clinch while
Macy Richards grabbed a 6-2, 6-0 win for CMU on court three.
