GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will once again spend a chunk of their spring break in southern California as the Mavs will hope to post wins playing four matches in as many days, starting Sunday afternoon in Santa Barbara.
 
The Mavs, 5-8 overall, but still in search of their first Division II win, will begin the trip against Westmont before heading to La Mirada to face 25^th-ranked Biola on Monday afternoon.  They will then make the short jaunt to Azusa to take on Menlo in a neutral-site match-up on Tuesday morning before closing out the trip at Azusa Pacific on Wednesday afternoon.
 
The Maverick women will play the same four opponents.
 
Follow the Mavs
 
The duals with Westmont on Sunday and Biola on Monday are slated to be live streamed at the links above.  Live results from the dual at Biola can be found here.
 
Full recaps of each day's action will be posted on www.cmumavericks.com each evening.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks were in Lubbock, Texas last weekend, playing three fellow NCAA Division II South Central Regional opponents, two of which were ranked nationally.
 
The Mavs began the trip with a 5-2 setback to 35^th-ranked Cameron on Friday, Mar. 6.  They then dropped a 5-2 decision to St. Mary's on Saturday morning (Mar. 7) before ending the trip with a 7-0 defeat at the hands of No. 3 Lubbock Christian.
 
William Leschig led the Mavs during the trip, winning two of his three singles matches. 
 
He and Henry Scheck also went 2-1 in the No. 1 doubles flight.
 
Surging up the rankings
 
William Leschig and Henry Scheck surged up the ITA's weekly NCAA Division II National Doubles Rankings that were last updated on Wednesday.  The all-senior Maverick duo is now ranked 14^th in the country after sitting in the No. 32 spot the week before.
 
Leschig and Scheck defeated Cameron's Lukas Janousek and Noe Milliard by a 7-6 (7-5) score in last Friday's dual.  The Aggie pair had been ranked sixth at the time and moved up to the No. 4 spot despite the loss.
 
Leschig and Scheck also claimed a 6-4 win over St. Mary's top duo of Leonardo Fabbri and Louis Hein on Saturday morning before falling 6-4 to Lubbock Christian's Mattie Ghedin and Kelly Giese that afternoon.
 
Ghedin and Giese were ranked 33^rd nationally at the time and now sit 16^th.
 
Leschig and Scheck have a 13-7 overall record this year and are 8-5 in duals, playing all 13 times in the top flight.  They have a 7-3 record against Division II opponents, which fuel the computerized rankings.
 
They were Third Team All-Pacific West Conference honorees in doubles last year when the Mavs were a part of the conference.  They were 15-10 overall in doubles play last year.
 
Doubles Point Win
 
Thanks to Leschig and Scheck's win as well as the No. 3 doubles win from Luke Burriesci and Jamison Pfingston, the Mavericks were able to win the doubles point in last Friday's dual at Cameron.
 
That marked the first time in the last nine duals that the Mavs have won the doubles point.
 
Triple 87's
 
Three current Maverick seniors in Emil Hultman, William Leschig and Henry Scheck all have 87 career victories heading into the California trip, which will be an interesting sub-plot to follow as their careers are beginning to sunset to see which can come out on top and who might reach the century mark.
 
Hultman has 57 singles wins and 30 in doubles and leads this year's team with his 15-6 singles record.  Leschig has 42 singles victories and 45 wins in doubles.  Scheck, his doubles partner over the last two years, has 44 singles wins and 43 doubles victories.
 
Know Your Foes
 
Westmont (Sunday – 1 p.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Warriors carried a 6-5 team record into their Saturday home match against Hawai'i Pacific.  They started off then spring 3-0 and have since posted wins over Menlo, Chapman and Jessup.
 
They have been best in the middle of the singles lineup where, Driss Sedrati is 7-3 at No. 3 while Antonie De Cooman is 7-4 at No. 4.
 
Arjun Sivakumar has a 5-3 doubles record while Rafael Matias, his partner early on this spring, is 5-4.  Diego De Cooman, who has been playing with Matias as of late, is 5-4 as well.
 
Biola (Monday – 2 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Eagles have put together a solid 10-1 season and have won seven of their eight home duals.  Their only loss came to Division III Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by a 4-3 margin.
 
They are ranked 25^th as a team in the latest ITA NCAA Division II Team Rankings.
 
The Eagles also have the top-ranked doubles team in the country in Angel Guerrero Melgar and Alejandro Flores Monteverde.  They are 5-0 together this spring and won the ITA West Regional Championship before going 2-1 at the ITA Cup last fall.
 
Flores Monteverde and Keyon Gahvarehchi are both 7-0 in singles play this spring.  Guerrero Melgar is 4-1 in the top flight.
 
They do not have any currently nationally ranked singles players but had four of the top eight in the West Region at the end of the fall.  Guerrero Melgar was ranked second while Flores Monteverde was tabbed third.  Thiago Canessa was ranked fifth while Juan Vallejo was eighth.
 
Menlo (9:30 a.m. Pacific/10:30 a.m. Mountain @ Azusa Pacific)
 
The Menlo Oaks entered the weekend a 4-3 record and were due to play a scrimmage against Bakersfield College on Saturday before taking on Ventura College on Sunday and Hawai'i Pacific on Monday before facing the Mavs win what will be their fifth dual in as many days.
 
They defeated NCAA Division I Illinois State at home in Atherton, California by a 4-3 margin despite being swept in the doubles matches.  They did win four singles matches, puling out set tiebreakers in at No. 4 and No. 6 to clinch the dual and the Oaks' first ever win over a Division I foe.
 
The Oaks finished the fall with three regionally-ranked singles players in Daniel Espinosa Navarro, Robin McAlpine and Asger Emil Ildor, who were 15^th, 17^th and 18^th.
 
Ildor and Ian Ramrio Perez ranked ninth in doubles.
 
Azusa Pacific (Wednesday – 2 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Mountain)
 
The Cougars are 11-4 and will host Hawai'i Pacific on Tuesday before taking on the Mavs.
 
Joan Crespo, who is 11-1 in singles and Mathys Pinoit, who is 11-2, lead the team in singles this spring while Soeren Grandke is 10-3 in the top flight.  Grandke and Pinoit are also 10-1 as a doubles duo in the top flight.  They are ranked 13^th in the national doubles rankings, one spot ahead of CMU's Scheck and Leschig.
 
Grandke is ranked 15^th in the ITA's national singles rankings while Crespo is 67^th.

Series Histories
 
The Mavericks are 2-0 against Westmont and have beat the Warriors by 5-2 and 4-2 margins in the past two seasons.  Both of those matches have been in Santa Barbara.
 
The Mavs are 2-5 against Biola, which has won the last five matches in each of the last five seasons.   The Mavs beat the Eagles in 2018 and 2019.  All seven meetings have been played in La Mirada, California.
 
The Mavs beat Menlo by a 4-1 margin on Mar. 19 of last season, the only previous match against the Oaks.  That win was at a neutral site in Fresno.
 
The Mavs are 0-10 against Azusa Pacific.  They have played every spring since 2017, excluding 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted a scheduled match.  Nine of the ten previous matches have been in Azusa.  The Cougars also won a PacWest Tournament match on Apr. 22, 2021 in Surprise, Arizona.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will have a brief respite before continuing their season in Colorado Springs.  The Mavs will take on a pair of NCAA Division III opponents in the University of the Ozarks (Ark.) and Colorado College on Mar. 27 and 28, respectively.