GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After finishing in the top three of the NCAA Division II bracket at each of the last three AVCA Small College Beach Championships, the Colorado Mesa University beach volleyball squad will begin a new season and new phase of their program's history this week, playing six matches in a span of 72 hours over four days in Arizona.
The Mavericks will begin the 2025 campaign on Thursday with a doubleheader at Benedictine University at Mesa at Gene Autry Park before heading into Phoenix to play in Saturday and Sunday's Grand Canyon University Tournament at the Lopes' Beach Volleyball Stadium.
On Saturday, they will face two of the top four teams in the latest NAIA Preseason Coaches' Top 10 Rating in Ottawa University of Arizona and Arizona Christian before facing NCAA Division I Saint Mary's (Calif.) in their last of three duals for the day. The Mavs will then wrap up the weekend with another Sunday morning match-up against Saint Mary's.
Follow the Mavs
Both matches of Thursday's doubleheader at Benedictine Mesa will be streamed by the Redhawks and
can be accessed here. Those matches will begin at 10 a.m. & Noon.
Live statistics for each of the Mavs' four match-ups at the GCU Tournament can be a
ccessed through this link.
Daily recaps will also be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com.
For inside content, fans are also encouraged to follow the team on their Instragam account (
@cmu_beachvb).
A look back
The Mavericks finished the 2024 season with an 18-12 team record, their second highest win total in the 9-year history of the program and were just one shy of the program record of 19 wins, set in 2023.
The Mavs also went 4-2 at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, defeating Saint Leo to claim third place. CMU had been seeded third as well.
Along the way, the Mavs picked up three wins over NCAA Division I institutions in San Francisco, CSU Bakersfield and CSUN and went a strong 7-4 against fellow Division II foes, including their national tournament success.
The 2024 season also included program records on an individual basis as the No. 1 duo of
Hahni Johnson and
Amanda Ollinger went 30-2 overall, including a 26-2 dual meet mark, to set a new single-season record for wins and winning percentage.
Sabrina VanDeList also ended her career wins leader as the Mavs' all-time win 68 career victories, edging Johnson by one.
Savannah Spitzer also finished her career with 58 career wins, the third highest total in program history after she and VanDeList went 18-6 together, mostly on Courts 3 and 5.
A new era
After losing the aforementioned program legends to graduation, the 2025 season will begin a new era for the CMU Beach Volleyball Program, which has proven to be one of the best in Division II with their 2022 AVCA Small College Championship title, a 2023 runner-up finish and last year's third place finish.
The Mavs do return four regular starters but will only have one player returning from the Mavs' top three pairs from last year's squad in redshirt junior
Riley Daugherty, who went 16-15 overall and 14-14 in duals last year, playing on Court 2 with
Sierra Hunt, who has decided to forgo a fifth year of beach volleyball eligibility.
Former Irvine Valley College transfer
Barett Nolan will also return for her senior season with the Mavs after claiming 18 wins, the most of any returning player, a year ago. In 2024, Nolan played with now redshirt junior
Gracyn Spresser, who will be returning for her third season with the Mavericks as one of the most experienced Mavs in 2025. Spresser went 15-21 overall last year but formed a more successful partnership with Nolan in the second half of the campaign in 2024, going 12-9 with her, including a 10-6 dual record at No. 4.
Taylor Scherff also returns to the starting lineup after going 10-19 a year ago, including an 8-13 dual meet record in the No. 3-5 spots of the lineup with
Savannah Ott, who has also graduated.
Transfer Destination
CMU and the Maverick program have become a transfer destination, attracting players from around the country to study at CMU and play the Mavs. Some of those have been indoor players at other schools that did not sponsor beach volleyball as a sport while others have just been looking for a new opportunity to play for the strong CMU program, the only NCAA and 4-year college beach volleyball program in the state of Colorado.
Eleven members of the Mavs' 20-woman roster this year have spent times at other institutions, from literal corner-to-corner of the continental United States. Four of those 11 transfers are new or returning to the program this semester with the addition of
Coco Barnett,
Emerson Deferme and
Jada Whitall as well as the return of
Riley Daugherty, who played for both the Mavs' indoor and beach teams in 2023-24 before going to Oklahoma Christian for indoor volleyball last fall.
Barnett, native of Madison, Wisconsin, has spent the past 1 ½ years at Seattle Pacific, where she played two indoor seasons for the Falcons.
Deferme, a native of Aurora, Colorado, spent her first semester of college at Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, playing indoor volleyball for the Sharks this past fall.
Whitall, who originally hails from Oxford, Michigan, played beach volleyball for Catawba (N.C.) College last spring and then transferred to Lee University in Tennessee, where she was an indoor player in the fall of 2024.
Phoenix Slager, a sophomore from Frankfort, Illinois, is also new to the CMU program this year after transferring from Erskine College in South Carolina. Slager was with the Mavs in the fall semester.
Former transfers
Lucy Kaufman (UT Martin),
Barett Nolan (Irvine Valley),
Jessica Passi (Saint Leo),
Gracyn Spresser (Missouri State),
Ania Swartzendruber (Arizona) and
Stormi Tadlock (Drury) are all former transfers who will be in their second or third seasons with the Mavs.
Program Youngsters
The Mavericks also have six true freshman, including Deferme, on their 2025 roster. Those freshman hail from four different states in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio.
The Coloradans are
Ava Blanco (Castle Pines),
Lauren Rohlwing (Parker) and Deferme.
Brooke Hartman hails from Saint Joseph, Michigan while
Ellie Ask is from Kasson, Minnesota.
Bella Friess is from Columbus, Ohio.
Planned Pairs
Maverick Head Coach
David Skaff has announced the following probable lineup for this weekend. He is fairly confident in the actual pairings but noted that there will likely be some experimentation in the pair order throughout the weekend.
- Riley Daugherty/Lizzy Hood
- Ellie Ask/Gracyn Spresser
- Barett Nolan/Ania Swartzendruber
- Jessica Passi/Taylor Scherff
- Izzy Burns/Lucy Kaufman
Fall Action
Ellie Ask and
Barett Nolan represented the Mavericks in the fall, playing at the AVCA Beach National Championships in Huntsville, Alabama. The Maverick duo was one of just two non-Division I programs in the 64-pair field as CMU was granted a spot for the third annual event thanks to the Mavs' national tournament finish in the spring.
Ask & Nolan finished 63rd in the event, going 0-5 against pairs from Florida Atlantic, Stetson, FIU, North Florida and UT Martin throughout the 3-day event from Nov. 15-17.
Coaching Staff
David Skaff, the only head coach in the Mavs' beach volleyball history, returns for his tenth season in charge of the Maverick program. He is in his 18
th year overall as a CMU Coach, having served as a long-time assistant coach for the Mavs' indoor program before going full time to the beach program, starting in 2023.
Skaff has led the Mavericks to three straight top-3 finishes at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, including a 2022 title. His teams have combined for 76 wins in the previous nine seasons, 53 of which have come in the last three years alone.
The program has also received the AVCA Team Academic Award seven times, including each of the last six.
Ara "Bob" Norwood also returns for her third season as the Mavs' assistant coach after a standout indoor and beach playing career with the Mavs.
About the Opponents
The Mavericks will play four different opponents on the opening weekend of the season. Here's a brief look of each opponent:
Benedictine University Mesa (Thursday, 10 a.m. & Noon)
The Redhawks have been busy in February, having already played six matches, including four Golden States Athletic Conference matches. They have posted a 2-4 record, winning their last two by 5-0 and 4-1 scores over Life Pacific and Hope International last Thursday (Feb. 13). Hope International was ranked ninth in the NAIA Preseason Ratings.
No. 1 pair Taylor Erickson and Kylie Bartel won both of their matches on that day. Bartel has been a Cal-Pac All-Conference Team pick in 2023 and 2024.
Last year's Redhawk squad finished 4-11, losing their last six, including all three matches at the NAIA West Coast Qualifier.
Ottawa University of Arizona (Saturday – 8 a.m.)
The OUAZ Spirit begin the 2025 season ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Preseason Ratings after taking second at last year's NAIA Invitational. They are off to a 3-0 start this season and have held on to that top spot in the first regular season edition, which was released Wednesday morning thanks to GSAC wins over Life Pacific, No. 9 Hope International and The Master's on Feb. 12-13 in Mesa. They dropped just one point in those three matches, beating The Master's, now ranked third in the NAIA ratings, 4-1 after winning 5-0 in the other two match-ups.
The Spirit went 23-10 in 2024 and had the NAIA Pair of the Year in Diana Enriquez and Summer Hanks after leading the Spirit to the final at the national tournament. The No. 1 duo were also named as AVCA All-Americans.
Meanwhile, Court two pair Mattea Wilson and Olivia Andersh were named as first team all-Americans by the AVCA while No. 3 pair Grace Hughes and Amanda Carlson were named to the second team unit.
All six of those players are on the 2025 Spirit roster.
Arizona Christian (Saturday – 10 a.m.)
The Firestorm were ranked second in the NAIA Preseason Ratings and have gotten out to a 5-1 start so far. They are now ranked fourth in the first regular season edition of the NAIA Ratings.
Their only loss has come to now third-ranked The Master's last Wednesday. They also hold wins over Benedictine Mesa and Hope International, who are just outside of the NAIA's top 10.
Last year's Firestorm squad went 18-14 as a team, going 4-1 at the NAIA Invitational, where they reached the semifinals before falling to Vanguard.
Four Sandy Birds were named to the NAIA All-America team with Amaya Brown and Emily Katzer earning one of the eight spots on the first team unit. Misty McCall and Mia Scheepens were second team selections.
Brown, who graduated, and Katzer, now a sophomore, went 23-9 last season, including a perfect 8-0 postseason record. The played in the No. 5 spot last year.
Saint Mary's (Saturday – 2 p.m. & Sunday – 8 a.m.)
The Gaels will begin their season this weekend at the GCU Tournament and will have played Arizona on Saturday morning.
Last year's Gael squad went 19-16 overall and saw their season come to a close in the West Coast Conference Semifinals to Pepperdine.
Angelina Bour (22-13), who returns for her sophomore season, was second on last year's squad in terms of total wins, just one behind fifth-year playing partner Hawley Harrer, the daughter of Gael Head Coach Janice Harrer, starting her third year in charge of the program.
2-time AVP Tour MVP and Olympian Taylor Crabb is now the Gaels' assistant coach.
Series Histories
The Mavs are 2-0 all-time against Benedictine Mesa, having claimed wins over the Redhawks in 2017 and 2019.
The Mavs beat the OUAZ Spirit by a 5-0 margin on Feb. 27 of last season in Scottsdale, the only previous match-up between the teams.
The Mavs will play Arizona Christian and Saint Mary's for the first time in program history on Saturday.
Up Next
The Mavericks will play four more matches next weekend, heading to Kingsville, Texas for Texas A&M-Kingsville's Javelina Beach Showdown next Friday and Saturday. According to the updated tournament schedule, the Mavs will play the hosts and first-year NAIA squad Wayland Baptist on Friday, Feb. 28 before taking on NCAA Division I UTEP and Tarleton State.
