GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team will continue its spring break trip in southern California participating in this weekend's PCH Invite.
The Mavericks, 12-4 overall, are coming off a Wednesday doubleheader split at CSUN in Northridge and will head to Malibu and Zuma Beach for two matches against NCAA Division II rival Concordia University Irvine and host Pepperdine. Those matches will be played at Noon & 2 p.m. local time (1 & 3 p.m. Mountain) after CUI and the Waves play each other at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. Mountain).
The scene will then change to Loyola Marymount University's Beach Volleyball courts for Saturday, where the Mavs will take on the nation's tenth-ranked and host Lions and Tulane, receiving votes in the latest AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll. CMU will play LUM at 10 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. Mountain) before facing the Green Wave at Noon PDT (1 p.m. Mountain).
Live Coverage
Live results of Friday's duals against CUI and Pepperdine can be accessed through the link above.
Possible live coverage options of Saturday's duals have not yet been finalized, but will be posted on the
CMU schedule page if LMU is able to provide.
For inside content, fans are also encouraged to follow the team on their Instragam account (
@cmu_beachvb).
Daily recaps will also be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com each evening.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks split a pair of 4-1 decisions on Wednesday in a doubleheader against CSUN. The Mavericks won the first dual and set a new program-record for consecutive team wins (8) before the Matadors were able to turn the table in the afternoon.
Both match-ups were quite competitive as the Mavs pulled out four sets by three points or less in the morning dual before dropping two 3-set matches and three other sets by three or less points in the afternoon encounter.
The Mavericks' No. 3 pair of
Savannah Spitzer and
Sabrina VanDeList won both of their matches on Wednesday.
A complete recap of the day can be found here.
Nationals Re-Match
Friday's dual with CUI will be a re-match of last year's AVCA Small College Beach Championships NCAA Division II semifinal, which the Mavs won 3-0 while advancing to their second straight national tournament final and should be a good indicator of where the teams stand with this year's national tournament looming just three weeks away.
CMU, the 2022 NCAA Division II Champions, took second to Tampa at last year's event while the Golden Eagles bounced back to claim third place.
Friday's match-up will also be the first of three against the Golden Eagles in the coming weeks. The teams are also slated to play twice in Salt Lake City during the Utah Beach Classic next weekend.
The two teams have had three common opponents, who they each played a combined four times. CUI is 4-0 against those teams having defeated CSUN twice as well as Cal State Bakersfield and San Francisco.
The Mavericks are 1-1 against CSUN after Wednesday's doubleheader and have victories over each of the other two teams as well.
Record Streak
The win in Wednesday's first dual was the Mavs' eighth straight team victory, a new program record. The streak was then ended in the second dual against the Matadors.
CMU's previous record of seven straight wins came from Apr. 7-Apr. 16 of last year, when they closed 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 that winning streak came to a close.
This year's winning streak also started with a Mar. 1 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville and included wins over NAIA Park Gilbert and five over NJCAA foes Central Wyoming and Trinidad State.
About the Opponents
CUI (Friday – 1 p.m. MST)
The Golden Eagles have put together a solid 13-6 season thus far, winning 11 straight matches between Mar. 8-16 before falling to Hawai'i and USC on Tuesday in Los Angeles. CUI is 4-6 against NCAA Division I institutions and has also three wins over Cal State LA and two over The Master's. They have also defeated three other California NAIA opponents in Saint Katherine, Vanguard and Westcliff and another NAIA win over Arizona Christian.
Pepperdine (Friday - 3 p.m. MST)
The Waves have gone 7-7 thus far this season and have not won more than two nor lost more than two in a row. They split their last two outings at the Beach Challenge, hosted by Long Beach State last Friday, getting a 5-0 win over Nebraska before falling 4-1 to Arizona State.
Their No. 1 pair of Kate Clermont and McKenna Thomas is 9-4 on the season while the No. 2 duo of Kristine Briede and Madison Oriskovich are 7-4 in that flight and 9-5 overall.
They are also a combined 8-6 in the fifth flight as Emi Erickson has gone 4-3 with both Maya McNabney and Aubrey Roberts.
Clermont has the best individual record, going 10-4 including one match with partner Chase Curry, who has also played two exhibition matches.
LMU (Saturday – 11 a.m. MST)
The Lions sit tenth in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll and sport an 9-8 overall record against a brutal schedule, which has seen them play 15 matches against nationally-ranked foes.
They went 2-2 at last weekend's East Meets West Invitational in Manhattan Beach, where they were able to record 4-1 wins over then No. 15 Georgia State and No. 17 Grand Canyon last Friday before falling by 3-2 margins to No. 8 LSU and No. 4 Florida State on Saturday.
Anna Pelloia and Jacinda Ramirez were named as the West Coast Conference Pair of the Week for the second time this season on Monday. They went 4-0 dropping just one set in last weekend's tournament.
Tulane (Saturday – 1 p.m. MST)
The Green Wave have compiled a 13-5 record playing closer to home in Louisiana and Texas before making their first and only trip to California for this weekend's matches and a pair against CSUN and CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday (Mar. 27).
They went 3-1 last weekend during the Sugar Beach Bash with wins over South Carolina, Houston Christian and Stephen F. Austin before falling, 3-2 against Boise State.
They have been receiving votes in all five editions of the AVCA National Poll but have not yet cracked the Top 20.
Series Histories
The Mavs have never previously played Tulane and are a combined 2-11 all-time against their other three weekend opponents.
CMU is 2-5 against CUI, including last year's national championship semifinal win. The Golden Eagles had won the previous four match-ups in California in 2017, 2018 (neutral), 2021 and 2022. CMU's other win over the Golden Eagles came on Mar. 21, 2017 in Long Beach, California.
The Mavs have played Pepperdine twice before, falling 5-0 in both 2017 and 2021 in neutral-site encounters in Northridge, California and Tucson, Arizona, respectively.
The Mavs are 0-4 against LMU but have not faced the Lions since 2019.
Up Next
The Mavs return to the Mountain Time Zone to play in next week's Utah Beach Classic in Salt Lake City. They will begin and end that weekend with the match-ups against CUI and will also play the host Utah Utes and Texas A&M-Kingsville in what will be their final tune-up prior to the Apr. 12-14 AVCA Small College Beach Championship in Tavares, Florida.
