GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will play their first duals and open up the spring portion of their season, traveling to Pocatello, Idaho to play NCAA Division I Idaho State in a Saturday doubleheader inside the Bengals' Reed Gym.
The matches are slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Live results can be found at the links above, although the afternoon results may be delayed due to other Idaho State athletic events.
A complete recap of the Mavericks' efforts will be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com on Saturday evening.
Twenty-first year Maverick head coach
Dan MacDonald's women's squad will also take on the Bengals in a doubleheader on Super Bowl Sunday.
Fall Recap
The Maverick men did not play in any team matches during their fall season but did compete in three individual weekend tournaments during the month of September.
The month was quite successful for the Mavericks, who combined for a 33-28 overall singles record and a 15-10 record in doubles.
Seniors
Henry Scheck and
William Leschig went 5-2 as a doubles pair and reached the quarterfinals of the ITA West Regional Championships in California.
Emil Hultman went 7-1 to lead the Mavs in singles during the fall.
Regional Rankings
The Mavericks ended the fall with two singles players and a doubles included in the ITA West Regional Rankings.
Henry Scheck and
William Leschig, who will team up on Saturday, are ranked fifth in the doubles rankings.
Emil Hultman and
Henry Scheck are ranked 19
th and 20
th in the regional singles rankings.
Probable Lineup
Here is a look at the projected lineup for Saturday's duals, as announced by Head Coach
Dan MacDonald. Each players and doubles duo's fall season record is included.
Singles
1.
Henry Scheck (3-5)
2.
Diogo Manzano (3-5)
3.
William Leschig (4-4)
4.
Emil Hultman (7-1)
5.
Gavin Hutter (4-4)
6.
Jamison Pfingston (1-1)
Alternates/Exhibitions:
Luke Burriesci (5-5) &
Andrew Lock (0-0)
Doubles
1. Leschig/Scheck (5-2)
2. Hultman/Manzano (3-5)
3. Burriesci/Pfingston (
Did not team up in the fall; Burriesci was 2-3 while Pfingston was 4-2 with other partner)
Alternates/Exhibition: Hutter/Lock (
Did not team up in the fall; Hutter was 2-3 with another partner; Lock did not play in the fall)
Know Your Foe
Idaho State began its NCAA Division I spring schedule last week with three matches in a span of four days. The Bengals went 1-2 claiming a 7-0 neutral site win over Division III Whitworth University last Saturday before falling 4-3 to Montana State on Sunday in Bozeman, Montana.
The Bengals also dropped a 6-1 decision to Utah last Thursday.
The Bengals were picked to finish third in the Big Sky Conference's Preseason Coaches' Poll with 35 points behind Montana and Northern Arizona but ahead of Idaho, Montana State, Weber State, Sacramento State and Portland State.
Last year's Bengal squad went 12-11 overall and posted a strong 6-2 Big Sky record to earn the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
They then dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 3 seed Montana, which ended their season.
The Bengals had five all-conference players.
Victor Sklenka and Valentino De Pellegrin also ended the season ranked fifth in the ITA Mountain Doubles rankings while De Pellegrin was ranked 15
th in the singles rankings.
De Pellegrin, a native of Argentina, is back for his senior campaign and won his lone match at No. 1 singles so far this spring. Hayden Ciguenza is off to a 2-1 single start with a pair of victories at No. 4.
Tyler Dalos and Quentin Lamothe are off to a 2-1 start at No. 3 doubles.
Series History
The Division I Bengals have dominated the all-time series with the Division II Mavs, winning all seven previous matches, the last six of which have been played in Pocatello and during the month of February.
The Mavs and Bengals have met in five of the past seven years and played a doubleheader on Feb. 1 of last year. The Bengals won both of those and five of the previous six duals, 7-0.
The only other previous meeting was 24 years ago on Mar. 18, 2002 in Phoenix, which the Bengals also won.
Senior Laden Squad
The Mavericks have six seniors
on their 10-man roster this spring. That list includes a pair of fifth-year redshirt seniors in
Jamison Pfingston and
Shawn Springer and four other fourth year seniors in
Emil Hultman (Sweden),
William Leschig (Germany),
Diogo Manzano (Brazil) and
Henry Scheck (California), who hail from four different countries, including the United States.
Leschig, Manzano and Scheck are all products of the Weil Tennis Preparatory program in California.
Mr. Independents & South Central Path
After playing as associate members of the PacWest Conference in recent years, the Mavericks will be without a conference home in 2026.
Although the Mavs attended the ITA's West Regional Championships in the fall, the Mavs will play as an independent and will be fighting for a NCAA Tournament berth out of the South Central Region against six Lone Star Conference squads.
CMU is a member of the South Central Region in many of their other sports and by default are included in that region without any tennis conference affiliation.
The PacWest was and continues to be the only tennis conference in the West Region.
Four of the seven teams in the South Central Region will receive a NCAA Tournament bid through the regional ranking process.
Mixed Schedule
The Mavs will play a mixed schedule of team matches this spring, including 11 against South Central and West Region foes. They also have two other matches scheduled against Midwest Region foes next week in Northwest Missouri State and Nebraska-Kearney. The Valentine's Day dual at Nebraska-Kearney will also count as an "in-region" match under the NCAA's Division II contiguous state policies for regional rankings All seven of their matches against PacWest foes in trips to California and Hawai'i later this spring will also count on the Mavs' "in-region" record under those same policies.
The Mavs are also slated to face four Lone Star Conference foes, all of which will have massively important impacts on the NCAA selection process. Three of those matches will come in two days during their trip to Lubbock, Texas on Mar. 6-7. The Mavs will also take on Western New Mexico in two weeks during their Phoenix Duals trip on Feb. 20-21.
CMU also has matches scheduled against a host of NCAA Division I, Division III and NAIA opponents. The results of those affairs will go on CMU"s overall record but will have no impact on the NCAA Tournament selection process, which only factors results against other NCAA Division II opponents.
The complete Maverick schedule can be seen here:
https://cmumavericks.com/sports/mens-tennis/schedule
The schedule is quite heavy at the start with the Mavs slated to play 13 matches over the next five weekends, with ten of those coming in the four weeks of the month of February alone.
The Mavs will then make the aforementioned regional trip to Lubbock, Texas to begin the month of March before taking an extended Spring Break trip to southern California for four matches between Mar. 15-18. They will then play twice in Colorado Springs on Mar. 27 and 28 before wrapping up the regular season with three matches in Honolulu, Hawai'i from Apr. 4-6.
They will then await the NCAA Tournament selections, which will not be made until May 4 in advance of the tournament, which begins on May 11 or 12 in each of the nation's eight rounds.
Lone Home Day
The Maverick men are slated to have just two home matches this spring. Both will be later this month during a Saturday, February 28 doubleheader against Division III Colorado College at the Elliott Tennis Center.
That day's doubleheader is slated for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. with fan appreciation festivities.
A tennis alumni gathering is also planned in conjunction with the weekend matches, which will also feature a Friday afternoon (Feb. 27) and Saturday afternoon women's match against Utah Tech and Colorado College, respectively.
Up Next
The Mavericks will head to Kearney, Nebraska for three matches inside the Ernest Grundy Tennis Center. They are slated to face NAIA Hastings College and NCAA Division II Northwest Missouri State University on Friday, February 13 before playing the host Nebraska-Kearney Lopers next Saturday (Feb. 14).
