GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team will play their most important matches of the season when they begin a 4-day, 5-match swing through California.  All five matches will be against fellow Pacific West Conference foes and will have a large role on the Mavs' qualification and seeding hopes for next month's PacWest Championships.
 
CMU begins the stretch on Monday afternoon at Cal State LA.  They will then take on Hawai'i Hilo in a neutral-site match-up in Azusa before heading up to Santa Barbara to face PacWest newcomer Westmont on Wednesday.
 
The Mavs will then wrap up the trip on Thursday on Fresno, playing both Fresno Pacific and Domincan.
 
CMU will enter the week with a 7-8 overall record, including a 4-6 mark against NCAA Division II opponents.  However, the Mavs will be looking for their first wins over PacWest opponents after falling to Azusa Pacific and Biola on their first trip to California on Feb. 29 and Mar. 1.
 
Follow the Mavs
 
There will not be any live coverage of the matches, but daily recaps and scored will be posted on www.cmumavericks.com each evening fans can follow the Maverick Tennis Instagram page (@CMUTennis) for an inside look at the team.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks last played on Mar. 9, when they made the trip to St. George, Utah to face Division I Utah Tech.
 
The Trailblazers won every match although the Mavericks were able to win sets at both No. 2 and 5 singles before dropping match tie-breakers in those matches played by Devyn Rodriguez and Julianna Campos.
 
To read the full recap of the dual, please click here.
 
So Cal Girl
 
Maverick junior Makenna Livingston will return home to southern California this weekend.  She hails from Huntington Beach and was a 2021 graduate of Marina High School.  Livingston made CMU history last season earning Third Team All-PacWest honors last season as the first Maverick to do so.  She has been playing mostly in the NO. 2 spot of the Mavs' singles lineup this year, going 7-9 overall, including a 5-7 dual meet mark this spring.  She is 4-6 at No. 2 and has a 1-1 record in spot starts in the top flight.
 
She also has a team-best 8-8 doubles record, going 6-6 with her normal partner Issy Coman and 2-2 with Delia Maier when Coman has been injured.  She and Coman are 6-6 overall and 4-5 in duals at the top flight.
 
Why It Matters 
 
Although there are no official PacWest standings nor official conference matches, the head-to-head matchups between conference members have a heavy influence on the selection and seeding process for the Apr. 17-20 PacWest Championships.
 
Twelve of the 15 women's teams will be selected by a conference committee, which is scheduled to have its' first rankings call this week.  The Mavs have qualified in each of their three previous years as affiliate members of the league but are still in search of their first tournament win.
 
With the five matches against conference foes this week, the Mavericks have a chance to put together a strong resume for selection and seeding purposes.  They are currently 0-2 against conference opponents having dropped Feb. 29 and Mar. 1 decisions to Azusa Pacific and Biola, who have a combined 23-6 overall record as of Monday.
 
This week's opponents are a combined 18-35 and the Mavs can not afford many more losses.
 
CMU will have three other PacWest matches in April, playing Stanislaus State at home on Apr. 1 before facing MSU Denver in a home-and-away series on consecutive weekends.
 
Career Wins Battle
 
The Mavericks' two seniors will battle in the final weeks of their careers in terms of career wins.  Julianna Campos currently has the edge over Issy Coman in this statistical category, 77-75. 
 
Campos has 40 career singles wins to rank 17^th in program history.  She is also 37-33 in doubles throughout her career.
 
Meanwhile, Coman has racked up 43 doubles wins throughout her career, posting a winning record in three of her four seasons, including a 7-6 mark this year.  She is also 32-42 having played exclusively in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles flights of her career.  Coman is ranked 17^th in CMU history for career doubles wins.
 
Know Your Foes
 
Cal State LA (Monday – 3 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Golden Eagles are 1-8 this season and have lost eight straight since opening the spring season with a 4-3 win at Westmont on Feb. 2.  They last played on Friday, falling 7-0 to Point Loma and are still looking for their first home win at the Cal State LA Tennis Complex.
 
Sakura Kurokawa has the team's best singles record at 3-4.  She is the No. 3 singles player.
 
Sarah Olmos and Hideka Takamura have split starts in the top two flights and each have a No. 2 singles win.  Olmos is 4-9 overall, having gone 3-1 during the ITA Championships in the fall before posting a 1-8 dual record this spring.
 
The Golden Eagles have won just two of their 23 total doubles matches this spring.
 
Hawai'i Hilo (Tuesday – 10 a.m. Mountain)
 
The Vulcans are currently 5-2 and will play at Biola on Monday before facing the Mavs on Tuesday morning at Azusa Pacific's Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.  All of their matches thus far have come against PacWest foes.
 
Those matches are the start of an 8-day, 6-match trip to California after having been on the island of Oah'u for their previous four, where they went 3-1, falling only to 16^th-ranked Hawai'i Pacific on Mar. 4.
 
The Vulcans have been particularly strong in the lower thirds of their singles lineup, going 6-1 at the No. 3, 4 and 5 positions while four different players have combined for a perfect 7-0 record in the sixth flight.  McKenna Mountain is also a respectable 3-4 overall, with a 2-0 mark at No. 2 and a 1-4 mark in the top flight.
 
Satoho Toriumi and Hikari Osaki are both 5-1 while Hana Hofmanova is 4-0 when getting the No. 6 nod.
 
Their doubles lineup has been more consistent.  Julia Barden and Lehua Jordan are 5-2 in the third flight while Osaki and Toriumi are 3-2 as a pair, including a 2-0 mark in the top flight.
 
Westmont (Wednesday – Noon or 1 p.m.)
 
Wednesday's match at the Warriors' Abbott Tennis Courts is currently scheduled for Noon PDT (1 p.m. Mountain) although discussions have been had to move it up an hour. 
 
The Warriors are in their first season in the PacWest during a 4-year transition process to the NCAA Division after leaving the NAIA.
 
They are 1-11 so far this season and will host MSU Denver on Tuesday before taking on the Mavs.  They have lost eight straight match-ups since claiming their first win over Division III Whitter on Feb. 23.  They have an 0-8 mark against PacWest foes.
 
Francesca Aguirre has been in the No. 1 spot of the lineup throughout the season, going 1-10.  Justie Spitzer has the top overall record at 3-4, having split time between the No. 4, 5 and 6 spots of the lineup this spring.
 
They have two total doubles wins this season with Liska Knight and Sophia Ostovany having claimed one at No. 2 doubles while Sabrina Salva and Arden Samuels are 1-1.
 
Fresno Pacific (Thursday – 10 a.m. Mountain)
 
The Sunbirds are currently 3-10 overall and 1-7 against PacWest foes. They have won two of their last three claiming wins over Westmont (Mar. 9) and UT Permian Basin last Thursday (Mar. 14) before falling to 45^th-ranked CUI on Saturday (Mar. 16) by a tight 4-3 score.  The Sunbirds will play MSU Denver on Wednesday before facing the Mavs.
 
Nayuma Subba has won four straight matches and is 5-4 in the top flight this spring.  Yume Ueoku is also a solid 5-5, including a 5-3 record at No. 2.  She has also won five straight decisions.
 
However, the No. 3-6 spots have been a bit of a struggle for the Sunbirds, who are just a combined 10-26 in those spots.
 
Subba and Ueoku are also an impressive 8-2 at No. 1 doubles and have won eight straight decisions.  They are ranked 11^th in the country, according to the ITA.  However, the rest of the team is a combined 4-18 in doubles play this spring.
 
Dominican (Thursday – 2:30 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Penguins are enjoying a strong 8-4 season and have won three straight over the weekend against Westmont, Stanislaus State and UC Santa Cruz.  They are 6-3 against PacWest opponents heading into Thursday's neutral-site encounter with the Mavs at Fresno Pacific's Haak Tennis Complex.
 
The Penguins have been nearly unbeatable at the top of the lineup as Audrey Rafols has posted a 9-2 mark at No. 1 while Gina Dudley is a perfect 10-0 this spring, winning nine times at No. 2. 
 
Six different Penguins have also combined for a 10-2 mark at No. 5 while they are a combined 14-9 at the No. 5 and 6 spots.
 
Dudley and Rafols are 6-4 as a doubles par in the top flight while Carolina Guerrero and Deepalakshmi Vanaraja are 8-2 as a pair, including a 7-2 mark at No. 2.  The Penguins have won 22 of 33 matches this spring in doubles and have won the doubles point in all eight of their team victories but are 0-4 when they have not.
 
Series Histories
 
Monday's match-up with Cal State LA will be the first between the programs since 1995, when Cal State LA won a 9-0 decision.
 
The Mavs are 0-3 all-time against Hawai'i Hilo.  All three previous matches have been in neutral settings as Tuesday's will.  The Vulcans won a 4-3 decision last season on Apr. 7 in Denver and were 4-2 winners in 2021.  The previous meeting was way back in 2008.
 
The Mavs are 1-1 all-time against Westmont but have not played the Warriors since 2011, when they won a 5-4 decision in Palm Desert, California.  The Warriors had won 6-3 in 2001 in Phoenix, Arizona.
 
CMU is 0-4 against Fresno Pacific with all four match-ups coming over the last two seasons.  The Mavs have dropped 4-1 (2023) and 7-0 (2022) regular season meetings in Fresno and have also been knocked down in PacWest Tournament clashes in the last two years.
 
The Mavs are 2-1 against the Dominican Penguins.  All three of those match-ups have come in neutral settings over the past three seasons.  CMU won last season, 4-3 on Mar. 20 in Fresno after the Penguins had won a 4-3 decision on Mar. 22, 2022.  CMU also won a 2021 indoor match in Englewood, Colorado.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will return home for the rest of the regular season, playing their final seven matches in the state of Colorado.  The first of those will come on Monday, Apr. 1, when the Mavs host Stanislaus State in another PacWest match-up.