GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's team faces as close to a must-win match as ever when they will head to Denver to square off with Hawai'i-Hilo in a key Pacific West Conference clash on Friday morning at MSU Denver's Assembly Athletic Complex before returning home to take on NCAA Division III and in-state rival Colorado College on Saturday for their long-awaited home-opener at the Elliott Tennis Center.
 
Both matches will begin at 10 a.m. at the same times as women's encounters.
 
The Maverick men, 7-10 overall, sit eighth and just one spot ahead of the ninth-ranked Vulcans (3-8) in last and this week's PacWest Men's Tennis Rankings, largely due to their earlier 4-0 head-to-head win on Mar. 20 in Fresno, California.  However, they will likely need to back that victory up on Friday at MSU Denver's Assembly Athletic Complex to remain in the top eight and qualify for the Apr. 20-22 PacWest Men's Tennis Championships.
 
The eight qualified teams will be announced next week.
 
CC will enter Saturday's affair, a re-match of CMU's 8-1 win in Colorado Springs this past weekend, with a 4-7 overall record.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks played two duals last Saturday (Apr. 1), falling 6-1 at nationally-ranked MSU Denver in the morning before driving to Colorado Springs to post a convincing 8-1 win over the Tigers late that afternoon and into the evening at Memorial Park.  The match with MSU Denver was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon but was postponed due to high winds.
 
Freshman Henry Scheck won both of his singles matches to lead the Mavericks.  He scored a 3-set win over MSU Denver's Carlos Pinedo at No. 6 to give the Mavs their lone team point of that dual before moving all the way up to No. 3 to claim a win over CC's Nate Beerman in the evening.
 
The Mavs also won all three doubles matches against the Tigers and were straight-set winners in four of their five singles victories.
 
PacWest Rankings
 
The Mavs continued to hold on to the all-important No. 8 spot in the PacWest Rankings, which were released for the second time on Wednesday morning.  Only eight of the ten men's teams in the conference will qualify for the Apr. 20-22 PacWest Championships in Surprise, Arizona.
 
Although there are no official conference standings, the rankings, put together by a seeding committee of representatives from all geographical areas of the conference, and are based upon a variety of criteria, including head-to-head results, results amongst common opponents, strength of schedule and records in both PacWest and Division II matches.
 
The eight tournament qualifiers are announced next week with results from this week figured in.  The final seeds will then be determined after all regular season play wraps up on Apr. 15.
 
The Mavericks sit one spot ahead of Hawai'i Hilo, largely thanks to the head-to-head win over the Vulcans.   Holy Names, which lost to Hilo, is ranked tenth but does have the tight victory over the Mavericks that has created an interesting 3-way fight for the final spot.
 
Hilo will also play MSU Denver on Saturday while the Mavericks will get another shot at the Roadrunners in their regular season finale next Saturday, although that will come up after the selections are determined and will only effect seeding, not actual qualification.
 
The top three teams in the conference rankings held on to their spots with national No. 24 Point Loma Nazarene leading the way, one spot ahead of National No. 25 Hawai'i Pacific.  No. 29 Azusa Pacific is ranked third in the conference while MSU Denver, down two spots to 33^rd in the ITA National Rankings, moved up two spots to fourth in the conference rankings.
 
CUI, ranked 47^th nationally, is fifth in the conference rankings while No. 38 Biola is now sixth.  Fresno Pacific is seventh ahead of the final group of three, likely fighting for the last remaining spot.
 
Streaking Scheck
 
Maverick freshman Henry Scheck remained perfect in dual-meet singles matches claiming his ninth and tenth consecutive victories on Saturday.  He is now 4-0 at No. 5 and 5-0 at No. 6 along with his No. 3 win over Colorado College.  The Camarillo, California native who is one of three Weil Tennis Prep products on this year's Maverick roster also leads the team with his 12-3 overall record, including his 2-3 fall tournament record.
 
Record-Matching Pace
 
With his 12-3 record and .800 winning percentage, Scheck is currently on pace to match the CMU single-season record for singles winning percentage (minimum 8 matches).  Alex Barrios went 8-2 in 2010-11 while Andres Garcia-Rojas, tied for second in single-season total wins, went .778 in 2014-15, when he was 21-16.
 
Weil Prepped
 
The Weil Tennis Academy and College Prep School, based in Ojai, California, certainly prepared the Maverick trio of Henry Scheck, Brazilian Diogo Manzano and German William Leschig for success this season.  Manzano has the team's second best dual singles record at 8-4 and is 9-6 overall while Leschig is second on the team in overall wins with 11 (11-12) and sports an 8-9 dual-meet record in the top two flights.
 
Homecoming
 
After making trips to Nebraska, Arizona, California on two separate occasions and to Colorado's front range this spring, the Mavericks will have just one more short trip to Denver for Friday's neutral site encounter before coming home for the their long-awaited home-opener on Saturday.  The Mavs will also be at home to close out the regular season on Apr. 15 against MSU Denver.
 
The Mavs were at home to host the ITA West Regional in the fall but have not had a home dual at this season. 
 
Home Success
 
Although their opportunities have been limited in recent years, the Mavs have posted a winning home-court record in eight straight seasons, going 2-1 at home last season.  The Mavs also went 2-1 in 2020-21 and 1-0 in 2019-20 after posting a 2-1 home record in 2018-19.
 
Opportunities for home matches were more prevalent before the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dropped sponsorship of the sport.  The Mavs had gone a combined 21-6 at home in the previous four seasons from 2015-18 and have not lost more than two home matches in any season since 2012-13 when they went 3-3.
 
Re-Matches
 
Both of this weekend's encounters will be re-matches of recently played matches.
 
The Mavs defeated Hawai'i-Hilo for the first time in program history on Mar. 20 in Fresno, California winning 4-0 in a match that was played to clinch and somewhat closer than the final scoreline would indicate.
 
The Mavs claimed the doubles point with 6-1 and 6-3 wins at the No. 2 and 3 positions and were leading 5-2 in the No. 1 doubles match that was left unfinished.  In singles, the Mavericks claimed straight-set wins at No. 2, 4 and 6 to clinch the dual although the Vulcans had slight leads in the other three singles matches that were left unfinished.
 
Against CC in Saturday's 8-1 team win, the Mavericks won all but one match although the teams split a pair of 3-set singles affairs.  The Mavs also claimed a pair of tie-breaker set wins in the other four singles matches after winning one of the doubles match via tie-breaker.
 
Know Your Foes
 
Hawai'i Hilo (Friday, Apr. 7 – 10 a.m. – Denver)
 
The Vulcans will enter Friday's dual with a 3-8 overall record but have played the toughest PacWest schedule, going 2-6 against fellow conference members.  They are coming off a 6-1 home win over Division III Cal Lutheran last Friday after going 1-5 with five straight losses during their Mar. 12-21 swing through California in their only other previous trip to the mainland.  However, they did defeat Midwestern State (Texas), ranked 15^th in the country at the time, by a 4-1 score on that trip.
 
Luca Matheiowetz is 2-4 at the No. 1 spot of the singles lineup and is 3-5 overall, just behind Filippo DiPerna, who is 4-7 at the No. 1 and 2 spots.  Agustin Gentile has a 4-1 mark at No. 4 and 5 singles but was not in the lineup against the Mavs on Mar. 20.
 
Coby Pearce leads the team with a 4-7 doubles record, including a 3-4 mark with DiPerna at No. 2 doubles.
 
Colorado College (Saturday, Apr. 8 – 10 a.m. - Grand Junction)
 
The Tigers are now 4-7 on the season after having fallen to the Mavericks and at MSU Denver last weekend.
 
They are ranked 15^th in the latest set of the ITA's NCAA Division III West Regional rankings, released on Mar. 27.
 
Andrew Kaelin is ranked 25^th individually and has a team-best 8-2 dual meet record in singles thus far.  He defeated CMU's Jandre Van Wyk at No. 5 on Saturday and MSU Denver's Stephen Kossifas at No. 4 on Sunday.  Jack Delafield is 4-2.
 
August Knox and Nick Bishop are 4-3 together in doubles.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks' win earlier this season over Hilo was their first in three previous meetings between the programs.  The Vulcans had claimed a 7-0 decision in Fresno, California last year (Mar. 22) after winning 9-0 way back on Mar. 29, 2007 in Grand Junction.
 
The Mavs have enjoyed much more success against the CC Tigers, winning each of the last 19 matches to take a commanding 26-4 series lead.  CC's last win in the rivalry came in 2009.
 
In 2021-22, the Mavs played three times in three different places.  The Mavericks won 7-0 in the fall of 2021 in Pueblo before winning 7-2 on Apr. 2 in Colorado Springs.  They then won 6-1 at home just eight days later.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will find out if they will be selected for their second PacWest Championship in three years earlier in the week before closing out the regular season on Senior Day against MSU Denver next Saturday (Apr. 15) at 2 p.m., a match that will factor in the final seeding call that evening.