GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball team will look to return to winning ways in their final weekend of the regular season when they make the relatively short trip to Salt Lake City for the Utah Beach Classic on Friday and Saturday.
The Mavs, 12-8 overall, will look to snap a 5-match slide when they place four matches at Ute Beach on the campus of the University of Utah.
The Mavs, who had won their previous eight matches to set a new program record for consecutive wins, will take on NCAA Division II rivals Concordia University Irvine and Texas A&M-Kingsville, playing the CUI Golden Eagles twice at the beginning and end of the weekend (Friday, 1 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m.) They will also take on the host Utes on Friday at 3 p.m. before opening up Saturday's play with a 9 a.m. match-up against the Javelinas.
Live Coverage
No live coverage is currently planned by Utah. However, 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
As a team, the Mavericks struggled last weekend during the PCH Invite in Malibu and Los Angeles, California. The Mavs dropped all four matches against CUI, Pepperdine, LMU and Tulane by 4-1 margins.
However, the Maverick No. 1 duo of
Hahni Johnson &
Amanda Ollinger won all of four of their Court 1 matches to give the Mavs their team points in each dual.
Complete recaps both days of action last weekend can be seen here.
On Record Pace
The aforementioned No. 1 duo of Johnson & Ollinger has posted a stellar 22-2 overall record this season and are already just two wins shy of matching the Mavericks' single-season record for total wins, that Johnson set alongside former partner
Savannah Spitzer last year. They could match the record as early as Friday and could break it on Saturday.
Johnson and Spitzer went 24-8 in 2023.
Johnson now also has 57 career wins, just three shy of the current CMU record held by fellow senior
Sabrina VanDeList, who has 60. VanDeList has been playing with Spitzer as of late. Spitzer ranks third on the CMU all-time wins chart with 50.
National Ranking
Johnson and Ollinger also sit fourth in the Top NCAA Pairs rankings for the No. 1 position according to the
CBVB (collegebeachvb.com) website. They hold a 14-2 record in duals against other countable opponents this spring and trail only No. 1 pairs from USC, TCU and FIU (Florida International) with their mark.
About the Opponents
CUI (Friday – 1 p.m.)
The Golden Eagles went 3-1 last weekend, including a win over the Mavericks last Friday in Malibu, California to raise their record to 16-7. They also claimed 5-0 home wins over Hope International and Vanguard on Saturday after playing the Mavs and falling to Pepperdine and have won three straight.
They also won 11 straight matches between Mar. 8-16.
Utah (Friday - 3 p.m.)
The Utes will also enter the weekend with a 12-8 overall record and have won their last two and six of their last seven match-ups, going 3-1 at Arizona's tournament last weekend in Tucson. They were able to defeat Missouri State (4-1), Santa Clara (3-2) and UTEP (4-1) but fell 5-0 to the host Wildcats.
The Utes have picked up some big production from their heart of their lineup as of late, going 6-1 in the second flight, 4-3 at No. 3 and 5-2 at No. 4 during their successful run over the last seven matches.
They have used the same lineup in every match this year.
Rylee Johnson and Bella Vezzani are a team-best 13-7 at No. 2 while Langley Griffin and Katie McAlister sport a 11-9 record in the top flight, despite dropping their last three. They had won four straight before that.
Texas A&M-Kingsville (Saturday - 9 a.m.)
The Javelinas will enter the weekend with a 12-5 record and are coming off a pair of Mar. 22 wins over Tarleton State after going 2-2 on the previous weekend at the ULM (Louisiana Monroe) Bayou Bash. They have won four of their last six and eight of their last 11.
Repeat Match-Ups
The battles with CUI and TAMUK this weekend will be repeat match-ups of earlier encounters this season.
The Mavs claimed a 3-2 win over TAMUK back on Mar. 1 (
BOX SCORE) during the Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe, Arizona but were downed 4-1 by CUI last Friday (
BOX SCORE) in what was the third match-up of the teams in what will be a span of just nine days.
The Mavs had knocked off both teams during their 2023 AVCA Small College Beach Championship second place run.
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 2-6 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 before taking last weekend's victory on the Pacific Coast last week. CMU's other win over the Golden Eagles came on Mar. 21, 2017 in Long Beach, California.
After dropping their first three all-time meetings with Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Mavericks have defeated the Javelinas five straight times, including earlier this year and three times in 2023.
The Mavs also won four straight over Utah and lead the all time series with the Utes, 4-1. All four of those victories have come at home in 2021 and 2022. However, Utah has won the only match-up in Salt Lake City, taking a 3-2 decision on Apr. 13, 2019. Three of the five match-ups have been decided by 3-2 margins.
Up Next
The Mavs will take next weekend off before heading to Florida for the AVCA Small College Beach Championships in Tavares, which will be played Apr. 12-14. The Mavs won the Division II title in 2022 and took second last year. They finished fourth in their debut appearance in 2019 and tied for fifth in 2021. The 2020 event was canceled due to COVID-19 ramifications.
