GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa women's tennis starts off its spring season with a trip to Idaho, as the Mavericks will take on Division I Idaho State on Saturday and NAIA opponent College of Idaho on Sunday, with both matches taking place indoors on Idaho State's campus in Pocatello.

The Mavs enter the spring with two nationally ranked doubles teams and one nationally ranked singles player in their women's lineup. They will begin the spring season at a frenetic pace, as Saturday's match with Idaho State kicks off a stretch of six nonconference dual matches in eight days for the CMU women.

Colorado Mesa plays several dual matches over the month of February before playing against PacWest opposition for the first time in March. The Mavericks were recently picked 12^th in the conference's preseason poll.

Fall Recap
The Mavericks compiled a 2-1 record in the fall season, dropping a 6-1 decision to Lubbock Christian but rebounding for a 6-1 win over Fort Hays State and a 7-0 sweep of CSU Pueblo.

Maverick freshman Devyn Rodriguez got off to a torrid start in her singles career, winning her match in all three duals. Playing on the No. 3 singles court, Rodriguez battled to a 7-5, 7-6 (10-8) win over Lubbock Christian's Jacquemin Axelle for CMU's only point of the day against the Chaps. Rodriguez then rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Fort Hays's Fiorella Mendez before defeating CSU Pueblo's Margot Aebischer 6-3, 6-3.

The Maverick women also competed at the ITA West Regional Championships in Fresno, California on September 21 and 22. Rodriguez advanced to the consolation quarterfinals in women's singles and, along with partner Julianna Campos, advanced to the main draw quarterfinals in doubles.

Fresh off that run, Rodriguez and Campos will enter the spring as the eighth-ranked doubles team in the West Region. Campos, a senior from Grand Junction, and Rodriguez, a freshman from Chandler, Arizona, went 5-2 overall as a doubles tandem in the fall. CMU's veteran doubles partnership of senior Issy Coman and junior Makenna Livingston is currently ranked No. 10 in the region after reaching the round of 16 at the ITA's.

Coman, an Auckland, New Zealand native, holds down the No. 1 court for the Mavericks in singles and went 5-3 in the fall. She will enter the spring ranked No. 19 in the region for singles play. During fall duals, Coman went 2-1 with the loss coming via an 11-9 match tiebreak against Lubbock Christian.

PacWest Poll
The PacWest Conference, of which CMU is an affiliate member for men's and women's tennis, released its preseason polls on Thursday, and the Mavericks were picked 12^th out of 15 schools.

Azusa Pacific is the 2024 favorite to win the conference, according to the league's head coaches. The Cougars won the PacWest title in 2021 and 2022, but finished second last year to Hawaii Pacific, who came second in this year's poll. MSU Denver, the other Colorado affiliate member of the PacWest, was picked ninth.

The goal is to be one of the 12 teams to reach the PacWest Conference Tournament in Surprise, Arizona this April. The Mavericks have qualified for the conference tournament in all three seasons that they have been a member of the PacWest Conference, but are still searching for their first team tournament win.

There are no official PacWest regular season matches, although member teams are encouraged to play each other throughout the spring to help sort out the seeding and qualification for the PacWest championships.

Here are the full poll results:

1. Azusa Pacific (12 first place votes) – 220 points
2. Hawai'i Pacific (3) – 200
3. Point Loma – 197
4. Concordia – 172
5. Academy of Art – 144
6. Hawai'i Hilo – 136
7. Fresno Pacific – 126
8. Biola – 123
9. MSU Denver – 106
10. Stanislaus State – 105
11. Dominican – 93
12. Colorado Mesa – 72
13. Cal State LA – 52
14. Westmont – 36
15. Chaminade – 16

Probable Lineup
The Mavericks trotted out the same singles lineup for all three fall duals and should have a mostly similar look this weekend, according to 19^th-year head coach Dan McDonald. Here's the projected Maverick lineup:

Singles (Fall Season Record)

1. Issy Coman (5-3, 2-1 duals)
2. Makenna Livingston (4-3, 2-1 duals)
3. Devyn Rodriguez (7-3, 3-0 duals)
4. Delia Maier (3-5, 2-1 duals)
5. Julianna Campos (4-4, 2-1 duals)
6. Kristen Thomas (2-4, 1-2 duals)

Doubles (Fall Season Record)

1. Coman/Livingston (3-2, 1-1 duals as a duo)
2. Rodriguez/Campos (5-2, 2-1 duals as a duo)
3. Maier/Thomas (2-2, 1-1 duals as a duo)

The projected singles lineup is a slight change from the lineup for all three fall duals, which had Campos on the No. 4 court and Maier on the No. 5 court. The three doubles partnerships seem mostly set in stone, although Coman partnered with Thomas and Maier partnered with Livingston during the CSU Pueblo dual. Audrey O'Rear and Jane Steur could also potentially see action, either in singles or as a doubles pairing.

Scouting the Opposition
The Idaho State Bengals will also be kicking off their spring season by hosting the matches inside Reed Gym. The Bengals, who compete in the Big Sky Conference, went 1-3 in the fall against Division I competition. Idaho State notched a 5-2 win over Utah State before losses to Utah (7-0), Boise State (4-3) and Washington State (5-2).

The College of Idaho Yotes (pronounced like the end of coyotes) are an NAIA school located in Caldwell, Idaho. The Yotes went 1-1 in the fall, losing to fellow Idaho NAIA school Lewis-Clark State 6-1 before defeating Whitworth, a Division III school in Spokane, Washington, by a 5-4 score (Division III uses a nine-point scoring system where all three doubles results each count as a point).  

The Yotes were active earlier this week against a pair of NAIA schools in Arizona, beating OUAZ 4-3 on Tuesday and losing to Arizona Christian 7-0 on Wednesday.

Spring Schedule
The Mavs have a busy couple of weeks ahead of them as they get back into the grind of competition for the PacWest season. After these two matches in Idaho, CMU will be in Nebraska to take on William Jewell on Thursday, host Nebraska-Kearney and Rockhurst on Friday and then No. 17-ranked Northwest Missouri State on Saturday morning.

The Mavericks will be in Arizona the following weekend. CMU is scheduled to face Western New Mexico and Arizona Christian on Friday, February 16, both from Arizona Christian's campus in Glendale. The Mavs will travel to Surprise, Arizona on Saturday, February 17 to take on OUAZ (Ottawa University of Arizona).

After the frenetic pace of the next two weeks, the Mavs will have nearly two weeks between matches before they face PacWest opponents for the first time against Biola on Friday, March 1 and Azusa Pacific (who is receiving votes in the national poll) on Saturday, March 2.

Colorado Mesa is scheduled to have home matches on April 1 against PacWest foe Stanislaus State, April 12 against CSU Pueblo (who is a Division II independent in tennis) and a doubleheader on April 13 against Colorado College and MSU Denver, the latter of which will be a key PacWest showdown.