GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's tennis team will begin its fourth straight Pacific West Conference Championship Tournament appearance on Wednesday morning when the 12
th-seeded Mavericks take on the No. 5 seed Academy of Art University Urban Knights at the Surprise Tennis Center in Surprise, Arizona.
First serves in that and the other three first round matches are slated for 9 a.m. Arizona time (10 a.m. MDT).
Live results can be seen at the link above.
The Mavericks will come into the 12-team tournament with a 12-14 overall record but as winners of three of their last four matches.
The Urban Knights, ranked 45
th nationally in last week's ITA NCAA Division II rankings, hail from downtown San Francisco and are 10-5 overall. They have won their last three decisions, including two over No. 8 seed Dominican as well as a 4-3 upset road win at nationally-ranked Rollins in Winter Park, Florida on Mar. 29.
Tournament Format
The complete PacWest Tournament bracket can be seen at the link above.
The fifth through 12
th seeds will all play first round matches on Wednesday morning with the winners moving into the quarterfinal rounds to face the top four seeds, who receive all first round byes. Those quarterfinals will be played at 1 p.m. Arizona Time (2 p.m. MDT). The eight quarterfinalists will also play on Friday and Saturday at the same times in either championship or consolation bracket match-ups, which will eventually determine the first through eighth place finishers.
The four first round losers will play a single consolation match on Thursday evening at 5 p.m. Arizona time (6 p.m. MDT) to conclude their seasons.
The winner of the PacWest Tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Three other PacWest teams will be selected at-large based on the season-long regional rankings, scheduled to be released for the first time on Wednesday.
A win over Art U would send the Mavs into the quarterfinals, where they would face fourth-seeded Hawai'i Pacific. A loss would drop the Mavs into the consolation match, where they would play the loser of the first round match-up between Dominican and MSU Denver.
PacWest History
The Mavericks have now qualified for the PacWest Tournament in each of their four seasons as affiliate members of the conference but are still looking for their first tournament win having gone 0-2 in each of their three previous appearances.
CMU fell 4-2 to MSU Denver in the first round of last year's PacWest Tournament and were then defeated, 4-1 by Fresno Pacific in a consolation match.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks played three home matches over two days on Friday and Saturday, recording a 2-1 team mark. They swept CSU Pueblo 7-0 on Friday before winning a 5-2 Saturday morning dual over Colorado College. They then dropped a 4-3 decision to MSU Denver on Saturday afternoon to conclude the regular season.
All three of the Maverick doubles teams went 2-1 throughout the weekend. The Mavs were also especially strong in the bottom half of the singles lineup as
Julianna Campos,
Kristen Thomas and
Delia Maier all went 3-0 at No. 4, 5 and 6 singles.
Devyn Rodriguez was also 2-1 at No. 4 singles.
Complete recaps of both days of action can be seen below.
Streaking Senior
Maverick senior
Julianna Campos has won her last five singles decisions as she looks to end her career on a winning streak. The Grand Junction native has now moved above .500 on the season in singles play at 14-13 and is second on the team for singles wins trailing only
Devyn Rodriguez, her doubles partner. Rodriguez has an 18-14 singles record.
Surging Sophomores
Sophomore
Delia Maier has also been on a surge and has also won her last five No. 6 singles decisions to improve to 13-14 overall, including a 12-10 record in duals. Meanwhile, her fellow sophomore and doubles partner
Kristen Thomas has won four straight decisions at No. 5 singles and is now 11-17 overall.
Maier and Thomas have also won seven of their last ten matches at No. 3 doubles, improving to 13-10 overall, including a 12-9 dual meet mark.
Win No. 50
Maverick senior
Issy Coman won her 50
th career doubles match on Saturday as she and partner
Makenna Livingston defeated Colorado College's Kala Komanduri and Avery Hickman by a 6-1 margin. Coman is now 50-36 in doubles player during her career and is just the 16
th Maverick player to ever have reached that career milestone.
She is also the first Maverick since Kristen Kirby to have done so as Kirby wrapped up her Maverick career in 2020 with 55 career doubles wins.
Freshman Standout
As mentioned earlier, freshman
Devyn Rodriguez has compiled an 18-14 singles record this season to lead the Mavericks. Her 18 singles wins are the most for any Maverick in six seasons since Kristen Kirby went 20-10 during the 2017-18 campaign. Her 18 wins already put her tied for 20
th in CMU history for the most in a single season.
Know Your Foe
The Urban Knights are 10-5 on the season and have won their last three matches, sweeping a pair of matches over San Francisco Bay area rival Dominican on Apr. 7 and Apr. 12 after capping a trip through Florida with a 4-3 win over No. 39 Rollins on Mar. 29.
They have been especially good in doubles and in the top two spots of the singles lineup. Amelija Supulniece, ranked 48
th in the ITA's national singles rankings, is 10-3 at No. 1 singles this spring while Jessica Plazas is 13-1, including a 11-1 record at No. 2. She has won eight straight matches.
Viktoria Leth has also won three straight decisions at No. 4 singles and has split time between that and the No. 5 role.
Supulniece and Erica Hellbe are 7-3 at No. 1 doubles while Plazas and Estelle Najean are 10-3 at No. 2. Leth and Paulina Alvarez have gone 9-2 as a pair at No. 3 singles and have won their last five decisions.
Series History
The Mavericks are 1-5 all-time against the Urban Knights, having played them in neutral sites in all six previous occasions. The first four of those meetings came every early spring from 2010-13 in St. George, Utah.
The two teams then renewed the rivalry in the first round of the 2021 PacWest Tournament, a match Art U won, 4-1. The Urban Knights then won a 6-1 decision on Mar. 18 during the 2023 regular season in Fresno, California.
CMU's only win in the rivalry came on Feb. 27, 2010 by a 7-2 score.
