GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— 2022 All-Americans
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer went 5-1 throughout the day while avenging their only loss in the final as they won a pairs tournament while becoming the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball single-season wins co-record holders on Saturday here at the CMU Beach Courts.
The Mavericks advanced five of their seven pairs to the 8-team championship bracket and had three of the four semifinalists in Saturday's 13-pair tournament between the Mavericks and visiting Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
The Mavericks had swept a dual doubleheader against the Javelinas on Friday.
Johnson and Spitzer, who play in the No. 2 spot of the Maverick lineup in duals, are now 19-8 on the season as they zoomed past the former single-season record of 16, which was co-held by four current Mavericks. CMU No. 4 duo
Sabrina VanDeList and
Tye Wedhorn also now have 19 wins this season after going 4-1 and advancing to the semifinals on Saturday. VanDeList and Wedhorn were the former co-record holders as well.
All of the pairs played single-set matches throughout the day. They were divided into three pools and played a series of round-robin matches. The top two teams in each pool plus two additional pairs advanced to the single-elimination championship bracket. The remaining five teams played in a similar consolation bracket.
Johnson and Spitzer were one of three duos that went 3-1 in the 5-team Pool B before defeating Kingsville's Grace Gettys and Caitlin Wilson in the quarterfinal round. They then got past CMU No. 1 pair
Macie Lachemann and
Holly Schmidt in a tight 21-18 semifinal match-up.
Johnson and Spitzer then won the final over the Javelinas' Rylie Anderson and Madelyn Wallace by a 21-14 score after the Kingsville duo won a 15-10 decision in pool play action. Those two teams had also split their two full-length matches during the duals on Friday.
Lachemann and Schmidt went 4-1 throughout the day and have also co-set the single-seasons wins record. They are now 19-13 and swept through Pool A and were the top seed in the championship bracket. They then won a tight 21-19 decision over CMU No. 5 duo
Savannah Ott and
Hailey Peters in the quarterfinals before Johnson and Spitzer ended their day in the semifinals.
Elsewhere, VanDeList and
Tye Wedhorn won Pool C with a 3-0 record before advancing to the champions bracket semifinals with a 21-8 win over Kingsville's No. 1 duo of Rylan Pollard and Adrienne VanBrunt. VanDeList and Wedhorn also defeated the same Javelina pair by a 21-11 margin during pool play and are also now 19-7 on the season.
CMU No. 3 duo
Jada Hall and
Gracyn Spresser also qualified for the championship bracket but were downed 29-27 in a marathon quarterfinal against Anderson and Wallace, who they defeated during Pool B play by a 15-12 margin.
Both the Mavericks and Javelinas will head to Florida next week for the AVCA Small College Beach Championships at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares. The Mavericks are the defending NCAA Division II Champions. The Javelinas won the 2018 title and were the runners-up in both 2019 and 2021 before taking sixth last year.
