AZUSA, Calif.— The Colorado Mesa University men's and tennis teams both dropped matches to their Azusa Pacific University counterparts on Thursday afternoon here at the Cougars' Munson and Bavougian Tennis Complex.
APU's squads, both of whom are in the "receiving votes" category of the ITA NCAA Division II National Rankings, won the duals by 7-0 scores.
APU's men, last year's Pacific West Conference Champions, improved to 7-0 on the season while stopping the Mavericks' 2-match winning streak as CMU fell to 5-6. APU's women, who reached the PacWest Tournament title match and the Round of the 16 at the NCAA Tournament in 2023, are now 6-1 this year and have won five straight matches. The Mav women slipped to 7-6 as their 3-match winning streak was snapped.
The Maverick women did pick up one doubles victory as
Kristen Thomas and
Delia Maier got by Hannah Mulbarger and Katherine Nguyen by a 7-5 margin in the No. 3 flight. However, the Cougars had won the earlier first and second flight matches to claim the doubles point.
APU, which had four regionally-ranked and two nationally-ranked players in their singles lineup, then swept the singles matches in straight sets although Mulbarger needed a 7-4 second-set tiebreaker to defeat CMU senior
Julianna Campos, who put up a valiant effort in the No. 6 match-up, the last to be decided.
The Maverick men were unable to win any matches but did battle through some tight ones. In doubles,
Diogo Manzano and
Henry Scheck went to a tie-breaker at No. 3 doubles, before succumbing 7-6 (7-2) to Soeren Grandke and Constantin Barth.
Manzano also dropped a marathon second-set tie-breaker to Cole Rassner at No. 3 singles, dropping that tie-breaker, 14-12 and the match 6-2, 7-6.
Elsewhere, CMU senior
Jorge Abreu won the second set in his No. 6 singles match against Albertus du Plessis, who managed a 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7) overall win.
The Mavericks will try to rebound quickly on Friday when they play in nearby La Mirada against another PacWest foe in the Biola University Eagles. Those matches are slated for an 11 a.m. PST (Noon Mountain) start.
