GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 7-dual winning streak, including five wins over junior college opponents, the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team will be in California to take on NCAA Division I CSUN in a Wednesday doubleheader in Northridge. The duals will begin at 10 a.m. and Noon PDT (11 a.m./1 p.m. Mountain).
The Mavs, 11-3 overall, will also go on play four more weekend matches in Malibu and Los Angeles during the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway Invite) during their annual spring break trip.
CSUN will enter the doubleheader with a 9-6 record having gone 2-2 at last weekend's Long Beach State Tournament, where they beat Nebraska and Texas but fell to nationally-ranked Arizona State and the hosts.
Follow the Mavs
No live coverage is currently planned for Wednesday's dual although a complete will be posted regarding the doubleheader on
www.cmumavericks.com on Wednesday evening. For inside content, fans are also encouraged to follow the team on their Instragam account (
@cmu_beachvb).
Last Time Out
The Mavericks dominated visiting Trinidad State College over the weekend, winning three duals without dropping a set on Friday and Saturday morning. They then competed against the Trojans in a pairs tournament on Saturday, which saw the Mavs win all six first round head-to-head matches setting up all-Maverick quarterfinal, semifinal and championship rounds.
CMU No. 1 pair
Hahni Johnson and
Amanda Ollinger eventually won the tournament over CMU No. 3 pair
Savannah Spitzer and
Sabrina VanDeList in a 3-set, come from behind 17-21, 21-9, 15-10 win.
Throughout the weekend, the Mavericks won all 24 head-to-head matches and 42 sets with the Trojans.
Complete recaps and results of
Friday and
Saturday's competitions can be found by clicking those links.
Stellar at the top
The Mavericks have been especially good in the top two flights this season with
Hahni Johnson &
Amanda Ollinger posting a 17-1 record, including a 13-1 dual meet mark on Court 1 this season. They have won 11 straight matches, a new CMU record. Meanwhile,
Riley Daugherty and Seirra Hunt are 12-2 in duals meets this season, going 12-1 at No. 2. They are 14-3 overall and have won nine of their last ten after going down to CMU No. 3 pair
Savannah Spitzer and
Sabrina VanDeList in a 21-16 battle during the semifinal round of Saturday's pairs tournament.
Meanwhile, Spitzer and VanDeList are a perfect 5-0 in duals at No. 3 and 8-1 overall since joining forces. They had been playing with different partners earlier in the season.
Perfect at home
The Mavericks raised their all-time program record at home to 19-0 with their wins over Central Wyoming and Trinidad State College over the last two weekends. The Mavs went 5-0 in duals at home this season.
The Mavs are 6-0 at home against Trinidad State, winning two Mar. 16, 2023 duals by 5-0 scores after winning by the same margin on Mar. 11 and 12, 2022.
The Mavs have also defeated Utah four times and went 4-0 at home last season with a pair of wins over Texas A&M-Kingsville. They have also defeated Colorado Northwestern Community College twice. Their other two home wins came over Salt Lake Community College (2022) and Colorado College's club team (2018).
McKendree was slated to become just the third NCAA opponent to ever visit Grand Junction last weekend but was unable to make it due to travel logistics related to the recent snowstorm that hit Colorado's front range.
Record Chase
Sabrina VanDeList became CMU's all-time winingest beach player earlier this season on Feb. 27 and has now racked up 58 career wins. However, fellow senior
Hahni Johnson has been nipping at hear heals and racked up seven total wins last weekend. Johnson now has 54 as the only other Maverick player with 50 or more.
However, VanDeList's new partner
Savannah Spitzer could also join that 50 win club as soon as Wednesday and will enter the CSUN doubleheader with 48 career triumphs.
Johnson & Spitzer won 24 matches together last year to co-set the CMU single-season record, one more than VanDeList won in 2023 while playing with now graduated
Tye Wedhorn.
Record Streak
With their current 7-dual winning streak, the Mavs have matched their program record for consecutive wins. The Mavs also won seven straight from Apr. 7-Apr. 16 of last year closing out the regular season with two dual wins against Texas A&M-Kingsville before winning their first five matches at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships to reach the NCAA Division II title match for the second straight year, where they fell to Tampa as the winning streak came to a close.
All seven of those wins came against fellow NCAA Division II institutions.
This year's winning streak also started with a Mar. 1 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville and has included wins over NAIA Park Gilbert and five over NJCAA foes Central Wyoming and Trinidad State.
About the Matadors
CSUN will enter Wednesday's doubleheader with a 9-6 record. They went 2-2 last weekend defeating Nebraska and Texas by 3-2 scores last Friday before falling to No. 11 Arizona State and No. 7 Long Beach State by 5-0 scores on Saturday during the LBSU Tournament.
Their No. 1 pair Gabriela Griego and MayaMay Brown have a team-best 9-6 record and have won seven of their last ten matches.
They have also been strong at No. 5, winning five straight matches in that flight from Mar. 9-15 before falling to Arizona State and Long Beach State. Six different pairings have competed in that flight for the Matadors this season, four of which have involved Julia Bazylevcyh, who has a team-best 9-5 record individual that is just slight better than Griego and Brown's mark.
Lauren Eknoian and Tasha Mae are also both 8-7 individually and have a 7-7 record together on Court 2.
Series History
The Mavs traveled to Northridge every year since 2016, except during the 2020 COVID-shortened season, when they were also slated to. The Mavs are 2-6 against the Matadors in their travels but have won two of the last three matches, including a 3-2 decision last year. They split a Mar. 23, 2022 doubleheader after that Matadors had won the first five duals played between 2016-21.
Up Next
The Mavs will continue their annual spring break swing to southern California playing in two matches at Zuma Beach in Malibu against Concordia University Irvine and Pepperdine on Friday before heading down to Los Angeles to continue their PCH Invite at No. 10 LMU and AVCA poll vote-getter Tulane on Saturday.
