TAVARES, Fla. – Colorado Mesa got off to the start it needed to at the AVCA Small College Beach Volleyball Championships, sweeping a pair of pool-play matches to set up a chance to get in the Champions Bracket of the tournament tomorrow.

The Mavericks, who are the tournament's overall No. 3 seed and the top seed in Pool C, defeated No. 11-seed Eckerd and No. 14 seed Emmanuel (Ga.), each by 3-0 scores. The dual was played to clinch, meaning two matches in each match went unfinished, but on both occasions, CMU was well ahead in both unfinished matches as well.

The victories mean that CMU is 2-0 in Pool C alongside No. 6 seed Palm Beach Atlantic, who the Mavs will play at 9:15 a.m. (MT) Saturday morning. The result of the match against PBA will determine whether CMU is the winner or second-place team in its pool.

Based on that result, the Mavericks will play either No. 4 seed Saint Leo or No. 5 seed Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday afternoon in the Challenge Round Match. Saint Leo and Kingsville are both 2-0 in Pool D and are also playing one another Saturday morning. The Mavericks will match up against the team with the opposite result as their match – meaning if CMU wins against Palm Beach Atlantic, they will face the loser of Saint Leo/Kingsville and if CMU loses, they will face the winner of that matchup.

The Challenge Round Match will determine whether Colorado Mesa enters the four-team Champions bracket, which would keep them eligible for the overall title. If CMU loses the Challenge Round Match, they will enter the Silver bracket and be playing for 5^th-8^th place on Sunday.

Colorado Mesa's No. 3 duo of Savannah Ott and Taylor Scherff and the No. 5 duo of Savannah Spitzer and Sabrina VanDeList each completed victories in both of CMU's duals on Friday. With the two wins, VanDeList once again moved ahead of teammate Hahni Johnson (who recorded one win on Friday with one unfinished match) for the most wins in beach program history with 65.

Against Eckerd, Ott and Scherff cruised to a 21-16, 21-11 win while Spitzer and VanDeList only dropped two more points in the second set, securing a 21-16, 21-13 victory. The Maverick No. 1 duo of Hahni Johnson and Amanda Ollinger took care of Eckerd's No. 1 duo by a 21-13, 21-15 margin.

Colorado Mesa's No. 2 duo in Riley Daugherty and Sierra Hunt were ahead 24-22, 18-13 in their match while on court four, Barrett Nolan and Gracyn Spresser were ahead 21-18, 19-12 when play was called.

Against Emmanuel, courts three through five got it done by finishing their matches prior to the top two duos. In all three of Colorado Mesa's completed wins over Emmanuel, the Mavs held their opponents to 20 points or less across two full sets. Ott and Scherff won 21-8, 21-10 on court three, Nolan and Spresser won 21-11, 21-9 on court four while Spitzer and VanDeList won 21-10, 21-10 on court five.

Daugherty and Hunt were only a point away from finishing the match themselves on court two, but play was called with the Mavs up 21-17, 20-12. On court one, Johnson and Ollinger were ahead 21-16, 15-13 but the match went unfinished.

Friday's beach action also saw three additional Maverick duos compete in the AVCA Pairs Challenge, a competition for players outside a school's top five pairs that are not competing in the team championships. Competitors were divided into pools and played two matches to determine a winner.

Kristine Garcia and Lizzy Hood were crowned the winners of Pool 3, defeating the Saint Leo duo of Caitlyn Kemer and Daria Kowalik 21-19, 21-15 before triumphing over Kassidy Mercado and Addison Williams of Tusculum 21-6, 21-15.

Sofia Kolbe and Ania Swartzendruber also went 2-0 to win Pool 4, getting pushed to a third set in their second match but running away with it in the deciding frame. Kolbe and Swartzendruber defeated Kendall Jeffers and Jade Kaye Wilson of Mary Hardin-Baylor 21-13, 21-8 before beating Olivia Highstreet and Alex Omaszta of Concordia University Irvine by a 21-11, 11-21, 15-1 score.

The third Maverick duo of Cedar Bellows and Lucy Kaufman competed in Pool 2 and finished as the pool runners-up. Bellows and Kaufman knocked off Paige Bussom and Bennett McCombs of Carson-Newman 21-13, 21-8 but suffered a tight three-set loss to Ashley Brin and Brooke Green of Tampa, 18-21, 21-18, 15-12.