GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After reaching the championship match of the NCAA Division II bracket at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships in each of the last two years and winning the 2022 title, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will get their 2024 beach volleyball campaign this weekend when they will make their third annual trip to the Cactus Classic, hosted by the University of Arizona.
The Friday and Saturday tournament at the Wildcats' Bear Down Beach in Tucson will feature six teams, who are scheduled to play four matches each. The Mavs will not face Arizona, but will take on four other NCAA Division I foes in UTEP and Boise State on Friday and San Francisco and CSU Bakersfield on Saturday.
The Mavs will then remain in Arizona and will the Ottawa University of Arizona Spirit at 10 a.m. at Scottsdale Ranch Park before participating in the following weekend's Arizona State Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe.
Follow the Mavs
The Mavs will play UTEP at 10 a.m. on Friday and Boise State, receiving votes in the AVCA's Collegiate Beach Preseason Poll, two hours later at noon. On Saturday, the Mavs will take on San Francisco at 9 a.m. and CSU Bakersfield at 11 a.m.
Live results can be accessed at throughout this weekend's Cactus Classic here and daily recaps will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com. For inside content, fans are also encouraged to follow the team on their Instragam account (
@cmu_beachvb).
A Look Back to a Record-Setting 2023
The 2023 season was a very successful one for the Mavs, who ended up second at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships in Tavares, Florida. The Mavs went 5-1 at that tournament, falling only to champion Tampa in the tournament final, and capped their overall season with a 19-8 overall record, the best in program history.
The 19 wins were three more than in 2022, when the Mavs won the NCAA Division II title at the AVCA event, capping a 16-10 season.
They also picked up three over NCAA Division I institutions and were 8-1 against fellow Division II institutions in 2023.
Four different Maverick pairs each won 20 or more matches as all eight players went well above the previous school record for single-season wins of 16.
Hahni Johnson and
Savannah Spitzer led the group, setting a new Maverick record for wins, going 24-8 last year, mostly on Court 2. They were also named as AVCA Small College Beach Championship All-Americans in 2022 after leading the Mavs to their national title, while playing in the No. 1 position that year.
Meanwhile,
Sabrina VanDeList and now graduated
Tye Wedhorn went 23-8 while playing mostly on Court 4 last season.
Gracyn Spresser, who also returns for 2024, and departed partner
Jada Hall went 22-10 and played mostly on Court 3 last year.
The Mavs will have to replace fifth-year seniors
Macie Lachemann and
Holly Schmidt, who went 21-15 while playing mostly in the top flight last year.
Career Record on the Horizon
Maverick senior
Sabrina VanDeList will likely set the new CMU record for career wins and could do so as early as this weekend. An AVCA Honorable Mention All-American and 4-time First Team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference setter in indoor volleyball, she has already accumulated 46 wins in her first three beach seasons and will enter 2024 just two wins shy of
Holly Schmidt's record of 48, set last year.
VanDeList is tied with 2-year partner
Tye Wedhorn, and
Macie Lachemann for second on the career wins list.
Savannah Spitzer and
Hahni Johnson could also end 2024 at or near the career wins record and both enter their final years of beach eligibility with 37 wins, tied for fifth most along with
Jada Hall.
Savannah Ott, who decided late to return for a fifth season thanks to the COVID blanked waiver, also sits in the Mavs' current top 10 list for career wins with 26. She is tied for ninth on that list.
Gracyn Spresser is 11
th on that list with 22 wins after just one season as a Maverick.
The current Maverick record book for career and single-season wins can be found at those links.
Breaking Down the roster
The Mavs have a large 20-woman roster, which includes nine returning players and 11 newcomers, including four who joined the program in January after the semester break.
The Maverick squad has representation from 12 different states, including Colorado, which is the home for seven Mavericks including five of the returning players. There are also two Mavs from both Iowa and Missouri, and one each from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, Washington.
In terms of eligibility the Mavericks have three freshman and other redshirt freshman who all have four years of eligibility remaining. They also have four redshirt sophomores, four true juniors, two redshirt juniors, and six others who will be in their final year of eligibility in 2024.
Graduate Path
The Mavericks welcomed three graduate transfers to the program for this season, including two at the semester break.
Cedar Bellows graduated from Regis University way back in 2016 after playing indoor volleyball for the Rangers. A 2011 high school graduate from Joes, Colorado, Bellows earned honorable mention All-RMAC honors in her final season at Regis and is also on the U.S. Team Handball and Beach Handball National teams with aspirations of representing the country in the 2028 Olympic Games.
The Mavs also welcomed in another older player in
Amanda Ollinger, who graduated from Iowa in 2020, where she played four season of high-level NCAA Division I basketball for the Hawkeyes. Ollinger, like Bellows, is pursuing a master's in business administration and will split her time in the classroom, the corporate world, where she works part time as a software engineer, and on the sand. Ollinger was a decorated volleyball and basketball player at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa before heading off to the Hawkeye hoops program.
Meanwhile,
Lucy Kaufman is also a graduate transfer that like Ollinger, joined the Maverick program at the semester break. She will have two years of eligibility remaining after playing three seasons while missing another due to injury at UT-Martin. Kaufman also served as a graduate assistant coach for the Skyhawks' indoor team last fall before deciding to resume her beach playing career with the Mavs.
Mid-Year additions
The Mavs added four new players to the roster at the semester break in the aforementioned
Amanda Ollinger and
Lucy Kaufman, who is one of several players in the mix for time on Courts 5 and 6, as well as
Stormi Tadlock and
Ania Swartzendruber. Tadlock has played indoor volleyball for three seasons at NCAA Division II Drury University in Springfield, Missouri and will have three seasons of beach eligibility with the Mavs. Swartzendruber was a redshirt on Arizona's indoor volleyball team this past fall and will still have four seasons of beach eligibility at CMU.
Probable Lineup
Maverick Head Coach
David Skaff and assistant coach
Ara Norwood have put together this probable lineup for the opening weekend of the season. Skaff is fairly confident in the top four flights being consistent, but noted that the intra-squad battles for the No. 5 and exhibition court spots have been tight and could be fluid, especially over the weekend of the season.
- Hahni Johnson/Amanda Ollinger
- Gracyn Spresser/Savannah Spitzer
- Riley Daugherty/Sierra Hunt
- Cedar Bellows/Sabrina VanDeList
- Barret Nolan/Savannah Ott
Beach Boss
David Skaff in his 17
th year as a member of the Colorado Mesa University coaching staff and in his ninth as the only head coach in the history of the Mavs' beach volleyball program, which begin in 2016. Starting as an undergraduate coach at Colorado Mesa University in 2007, he was elevated to a full-time assistant for the indoor program in 2011, a role he held through 2022.
For this academic year, Skaff's duties were shifted entirely to the beach program to allow him to focus on the beach game, although he still shares an office with head indoor coach Dave Fleming. Several of Skaff's beach players are also stars on the Maverick indoor team.
Skaff also led the Mavs to the 2022 NCAA Division II title at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships and a runner-up finish last year.
During his time on the indoor coaching staff, Skaff has helped guide the Mavericks' indoor team to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, two Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament titles, two RMAC Regular Season crowns and two RMAC West Division titles.
In 2016, Skaff was one of just three NCAA Division II Coaches to receive the American Volleyball Coaches Association Thirty Under 30 Award, which honors up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport.
He and his wife Michelle were married in July, 2020, and just celebrated the birth of twin daughters on Jan. 1, 2023.
Ara Norwood, the former winningest player in Maverick history, is back for her second year as Skaff's assistant.
About the Opponents
UTEP (Friday – 10 a.m.)
The Miners are beginning their second year of their beach program after going 4-19 last year.
They are members of Conference USA and like the Mavs, begin their spring season this weekend.
They did play at the Arizona Fall Classic in Tucson in October and were led by Sophia Sheppard and Katie Call, who went 3-1. Both are newcomers to the Miner program.
Madison Hill led last year's squad with a 7-16 record.
Boise State (Friday – Noon)
The Broncos had a strong 25-10 campaign in 2023 and advanced to the Southland Conference Championship match a year ago.
Marlayna Bullington and Lily Patock went 3-5 at the AVCA National Pairs Championship in the fall.
The Broncos had five different players win 20 or more matches last spring, including Patock who posted a 21-12 overall record, including a 17-4 record at No. 3.
They are receiving a vote in the AVCA Preseason National Poll.
San Francisco (Saturday – 9 a.m.)
The Dons went 3-26 a year ago, going 2-2 at the WCC Championships to cap the year. Their wins at the conference tournament came over Pacific and Portland. The Dons also defeated the Pacific Tigers during the regular season.
CSU Bakersfield (Saturday – 11 a.m.)
The Roadrunners are coming off a 16-10 season, ended with two losses in the Big West Championship. The 16 team wins were a new school-record.
They will enter 2024 with a new head coach in Andy Fulenwider.
Now sophomore Isabella Almeida returns after earning First Team All-Big West years last year with then fifth-year senior Hayley McCluskey at No. 3.
OUAZ (Tuesday – 10 a.m.)
The Spirit, who hail from the NAIA, are off to a 8-0 start and will play two more matches before facing the Mavs. Four of their seven wins have come via 5-0 sweeps. They are ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Beach Volleyball Coaches' Top 10 Rating, released Wednesday and claimed a Wednesday win over No. 3 and in-state rival Arizona Christian on Wednesday.
Series Histories
The Mavs are a combined 3-5 against their four opponents this weekend.
They posted two wins over UTEP in 2023, the Miners' inaugural season. Those 5-0 and 4-1 victories were both in Tucson on neutral sand like this Friday's match-up will be.
The Mavs are 0-5 all-time against Boise State and played the Bronchos twice last season. BSU won those duals played in Tucson and Long Beach, California by 4-1 and 3-2 margins.
Saturday's match against the University of San Francisco will be the first match-up between the Mavs and Dons.
The Mavs have previously played Cal State Bakersfield one time in 2019. CMU won that dual on Mar. 23 of that year in Long Beach, 3-2.
CMU has never previously played OUAZ.
Up Next
The Mavericks will remain in Arizona to play next Friday and Saturday (Mar. 1-2) at the Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe. The Mavs will play 18
th-ranked and host Arizona State to begin that tournament and will also face Division II rival Texas A&M-Kingsville and NAIA Park University-Gilbert during that tournament.
