GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of six straight matches, the Colorado Mesa University Maverick beach volleyball team will take a 10-2 record into a pair of mid-week tri-duals in southern California.
 
Making their annual Spring Break trip to the area, the Mavs will take on NCAA Division I opponents FIU and CSUN on Tuesday in Northridge before squaring off with fellow Division II foes Cal State LA and Concordia University Irvine at Great Park in Irvine on Wednesday.
 
Follow the Mavs
 
Recaps and results from both of the Mavs' tri-duals will be posted on cmumavericks.com on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

For inside content, fans are also encouraged to follow the team on their Instragam account (@cmu_beachvb).
 
Neither host school is planning on any live coverage. 
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavs extended their 2025 season and all-time home court winning streaks, dominating Central Wyoming College in a Mar. 8 doubleheader at the CMU Beach Courts.
 
The Mavericks won both duals 5-0.  They won all 20 sets and held the Rustlers to single digit point totals in 14 of them.
 
The Mavs are now 21-0 all-time on home sand.
 
For a complete recap and results of the doubleheader, please click here.
 
Best Ever Start
 
The Mavs 10-2 team record is their best 10-match start in program history.  Last year's squad, which finished 18-12, went 9-3 in the first ten matches.  The 2023 team that recorded a school-record 19 wins, started out 7-5.  The 2022 team also started 7-5 before winning the AVCA Small College Beach Championship Division II title.
 
Perfect at home

After sweeping the aforementioned doubleheader over Central Wyoming, the Mavericks are now a perfect 21-0 in home duals, a run they hope to continue later this year on Mar. 28 and 29 when they will host Emmanuel (Ga.) and Trinidad State in a pair of tri-duals.
 
Four of those 21 wins have come over Central Wyoming in doubleheaders during each of the past two years.
 
The Mavs are 7-0 at home against Trinidad State, defeating the Trojans three times last season as part of a 5-0 home season.
 
The Mavs have also defeated Utah four times and went 4-0 at home in 2023 with a pair of wins over Texas A&M-Kingsville and two over Trinidad State.  They have also defeated Colorado Northwestern Community College twice.  Their other two home wins came over Salt Lake Community College (2022) and Colorado College's club team (2018).
 
Perfect at 2 and atop the nation
 
The Mavs. No. 2 pair of Riley Daugherty and Lizzy Hood continued their hot start last week, going 2-0 against Central Wyoming. They now have a 12-0 record, which is the best for any pair in the country according to CollegeBeachVB.com.
 
Daugherty and Hood have won ten of their matches in straight sets and have pulled out a pair of 3-set matches so far this season.
 
Quick to Ten
 
The Mavs' No. 3 pair of Barett Nolan and Ania Swartzendruber has also reached the double-figure win total in the first three weeks of the season.  They are 10-2 this year.
 
No. 4 pair Jessica Passi and Taylor Scherff are just one win away from double figures and will enter Tuesday's tri-dual and the match with FIU with a 9-3 record.
 
Streaking 1's
 
The Maverick No. 1 pair of Ellie Ask and Gracyn Spresser is now 8-4 on the season.  The duo has won six straight matches.
 
Coaching Staff
 
David Skaff, the only head coach in the Mavs' beach volleyball history, is in 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 86 wins, 63 of which have come in the last three years and the start of this year 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.

Know Your Foes
 
FIU (Tuesday – Noon PDT/1 p.m. Mountain – Northridge, Calif.)
 
The Florida International University Panthers dropped to 8-9 on the season after going 0-4 against incredibly tough competition on Friday and Saturday at the East Meets West Invitational in Manhattan Beach, California.
 
Ranked 19^th in last week's AVCA Poll (Mar. 8), the Panthers played the No. 1 (UCLA), No. 2 (LMU), No. 7 (Cal) and No. 18 (Hawai'i) teams over the weekend, managing to pick up a Court 1 win against Hawaii and a Court 3 win over Cal.
 
They have been ranked amongst the nation's top 20 in each of the four AVCA polls this season, reaching as high as No. 14 in the Week No. 2 (Mar. 4) listing.
 
The pair of Kiki Drozd and Brianna Luoma  entered the East Meets West Invitational with a team-best 9-4 record and claimed the No. 3 win over Cal to become the first Panther pair to reach double figures for wins.
 
It should be noted, that FIU's online schedule does not list Tuesday's tri-dual.  However, the Mavericks and CSUN are both planning to face the Panthers.
 
CSUN (Tuesday – 2 p.m. PDT/3 p.m. Mountain – Northridge, Calif.)
 
The Matadors swept UTEP and Moorhead State at the Malibu Invite on Saturday and improved to 7-7 on the year.  They have won three straight, four of their last five and six of their last eight.
 
They are 5-3 on home sand heading into Tuesday's tri-dual.
 
They have won on Court 5 in each of the seven duals and have gone 6-1 on Court 4 in that stretch.
 
Third-year head coach Ari Homayun has used 17 different combinations in the early portion of the season but has worked into a more consistent lineup as of late, using the same five pairs in each of the last five matches with only minor modifications in the ordering.
 
Hanna Heflin and Tia Mendiola co-lead the team with 10-4 records but have not played together.
 
Cal State LA (Wednesday- 11 a.m. PDT/Noon Mountain – Irvine, Calif.)
 
The Golden Eagles are 2-6 on the season but have not played since Mar. 1, when they fell to Vanguard and Hope International in Huntington Beach.  Only two of their eight matches thus far have come against NCAA opposition in Vanguard, which is making the transition from the NAIA ranks, and Division I CSUN.
 
Last year's Golden Eagle squad finished 2-10.
 
CUI (Wednesday – 1 p.m. PDT/2 p.m. Mountain- Irvine, Calif.)
 
The Golden Eagles will play their first home match of the season against Cal State LA on Wednesday morning before facing the Mavericks in the afternoon to wrap up the tri-dual.
 
They are now 12-7 on the season after posting a strong record at the Long Beach State Tournament over the weekend.  They defeated Tarleton State, Boise State and San Francisco and lost to Long Beach State in that weekend.
 
Ten of their wins have come against NCAA Division I opposition.
 
Three of their seven losses have come to teams ranked amongst the top six of the AVCA poll at the time.
 
The Golden Eagles themselves have been receiving votes but just outside the top 20 in the last two polls as the only non-Division I institution to been receiving ranking recognition from some of the voters.
 
The Golden Eagles went 24-12 last year and took second at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, one place above the Mavs.  They were 10-0 at home last year and have won 13 straight matches in Irvine dating back to 2023.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs have never played FIU but have a long-standing rivalry with CSUN, having met the Matadors every spring since 2016 except for the COVID canceled 2020 season, when they were also scheduled to play.
 
The teams split a pair of 4-1 matches on Mar. 20 of last season after the Mavericks defeated the Matadors and the first of two matches in 2022.  However, CSUN has a 7-3 lead in the all-time series thanks to wins in the first five matches between 2016-21.
 
The Mavs have won their only previous match against Cal State LA, claiming a 4-1 win over the Golden Eagles on Mar. 26, 2022 in Irvine, where they play again this Wednesday.
 
The Mavs are 3-7 all-time against the CUI Golden Eagles and went 1-2 against them last year in neutral-site meetings during regular season tournaments hosted by Pepperdine and Utah.  The Mavs also defeated CUI in the semifinals of the 2023 AVCA Small College Beach Championships en route to a second place finish before taking third behind the second place Golden Eagles at the 2024 national tournament.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavs will use Thursday as a travel day as they head to Tucson, Arizona to wrap up their Spring Break trip at the Arizona Invitational on Friday and Saturday.  They will play UTEP for the second time this season to open that tournament and will then take on Arizona and Central Arkansas as well.