GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After an impressive start to the fall season last weekend, the Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will continue tournament play this Friday and Saturday competing at the Washburn Invitational in Topeka, Kansas.
Action at the Kossover Tennis Center will begin a 9 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. Mountain) on both days and will begin with doubles action before singles play.
Follow the Mavs
Results and the draws for the tournament throughout the weekend can be found throughout the tournament
at this link.
Who's playing
The Mavericks and Coach
Dan MacDonald will take the same eight men that played in last week's Colorado College Invitational. The complete list of Maverick players and planned doubles pairings can be found below, along with each's record at last week's tournament.
Men's Singles Entries (Last Week's Record)
Luke Burriesci (1-2)
Emil Hultman (3-0)
Gavin Hutter (3-0)
William Leschig (1-1)
Diogo Manzano (2-1)
Romain Payan (2-1)
Jamison Pfingston (0-0)
Henry Scheck (2-1)
Men's Doubles Pairings (Last Week's Record)
Burriesci/Hutter (2-0)
Hultman/Manzano (1-1)
Leschig/Scheck (2-0)
Manzano/Hultman (1-1)
The Opponents
The tournament will include players from six NCAA Division II squads as well as Pratt and Seward Community College. The Division II list includes the Mavs, the host Ichabods as well Missouri Western State, Northwest Missouri State, Rockhurst and Southwest Baptist.
Washburn and Rockhurst qualified for last season's NCAA Tournament as Washburn advanced all the way to the national championship match, before falling 4-2 to Valdosta State. The Ichabods ended the year ranked fifth in the ITA's NCAA Division II team rankings. Rockhurst was 36
th in those rankings while the Mavs were ranked 43
rd, five spots ahead of Northwest Missouri State.
Pratt was ranked fourth in the ITA's final NJCAA rankings of 2024-25 while Seward was ranked seventh at the junior college level and took eighth in the team standings at the national championships. Pratt finished 21st.
Format
Players are slated to play one doubles match followed by two singles matches on Friday. On Saturday, they will play one doubles match followed by one singles match.
The main draw for singles will feature two sets with a 10-point match tiebreaker if the sets are split. Backdraw and third place matches will be a "fast 4" format with tiebreakers at 3-all and a 10-point match tiebreaker for the third set.
Doubles matches will be played in an 8-game pro set format with a tiebreaker at 7-all.
Last Time Out
The Mavericks had a solid start to the season at last weekend's Colorado College Invitational.
Emil Hultman went 3-0 and won the "A" singles draw. Newcomer
Gavin Hutter also went 3-0 to advance to the unplayed final of the "B" singles draw as inclement weather thwarted the end of the tournament on Sunday.
Romain Payan, who made the semifinals of the "A" draw,
Diogo Manzano and
Henry Scheck all went 2-1 as well as the Mavericks went a combined 14-6 in singles play.
Scheck and partner
William Leschig and the duo of
Luke Burriesci and
Gavin Hutter both went 2-0 in doubles as the Mavs were 7-2 as a squad. Scheck and Leschig had advanced to the finals while Burriesci and Hunter won their two matches on Saturday but were unable to play their semifinal on Sunday.
Full recaps of both days of action can be found below.
Looking to join the 50 Club
Maverick senior
Diogo Manzano will look to become the fourth current Maverick man to join the 50-career win club. Manzano won three matches last week, going 2-1 in doubles and 1-1 in singles, and will enter this weekend with 30 career singles victories, 16 doubles wins and 46 in total.
Fellow seniors
Henry Scheck (70),
Emil Hultman (68),
William Leschig (66) have already surpassed that 50 win milestone.
Split Squads
Although the Maverick men's and women's tennis teams travel together for a majority of their matches, they will be split this weekend as the Maverick women are heading to Pueblo, Colorado for this weekend's Pueblo Duals, where they will play their first three team matches of the season on Friday and Saturday.
Up Next
The Maverick squads will be off from competitive play next week before wrapping up the fall schedule at the ITA West Regional Championships, which will be hosted by Biola in La Mirada, California from Sept. 25-27.
