AZUSA, Calif.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks saw their 5-match winning streak come to an end in a hard-fought women's tennis match against No. 18 Azusa Pacific University Cougars on Thursday afternoon here at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.
The Cougars are now 11-2 and have won three straight.
The Mavs fell to 11-9 as they wrapped up an overall very successful 5-2 journey throughout California against fellow Pacific West Conference foes, a stretch that should qualify them for next month's Pac West Championship tournament, which is less than a month away.
The Cougars were able to win every match in Thursday's dual although many of them came via tight decisions.
The hosts won 3-set decisions at No. 2, 3 and 5 singles and claimed a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 1 singles from Julia Jordan to clinch the dual. That win came over Maverick senior
Makenna Livingston, a Huntington Beach native, who played her final collegiate match in her home state.
The Cougars started the dual by taking the doubles point with 6-2 and 6-0 decisions in the first and third flights. They also led the unfinished No. 2 doubles match, 5-2. They then received comfortable wins at No. 6 and 4 singles to go up 3-0 in the team battle setting up Jordan for the clincher.
However, the Mavericks were battling hard on the other four courts.
At No. 2,
Devyn Rodriguez won the first set over No. 60 Stina Larsson by a 6-2 margin before the Cougar freshman from Norway rallied to win the second and third sets by 6-4 and 6-2 margins to take that match.
At No. 3 singles, APU's Katherine Nguyen won the first set, 6-3 before CMU's
Jade Brilhante forced a match tie-breaker, with a 6-4 win. Nguyen then won an extended tie-breaker, 10-8.
The No. 5 singles match was even tighter as Tina Moser won the first set via a tie-breaker, 7-1 over
Catalina Ballon Marin. The Mavs' Chilean freshman then won the second set, 6-4 before Moser was able to prevail 10-3 in the third set tie-breaker.
After playing on each of the last six days and twice on Wednesday, the Maverick have earned some time off. They will return home to Colorado and will be off until Apr. 4 and 5, when they will play their only three home matches of the entire season, beginning with another PacWest clash against MSU Denver.
They will also host CSU Pueblo and NCAA Division III Colorado College on the following day before wrapping up the regular season playing the same three teams on the road between Apr. 11-13.
The PacWest Tournament, which will include 12 of the 17 PacWest women's teams, will begin on Apr. 16 in Surprise, Arizona.
