GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Riding a 4-match winning streak, the Colorado Mesa University men's tennis team will face its most important and most challenging weekend of the season— at least to this point—when the Mavericks travel to Lubbock, Texas for a trio of matches against fellow NCAA Division II South Central Region foes.
 
All three matches will be played at Lubbock Christian University's Penny Gullo Tennis Center.
 
The Mavericks, 5-5 overall, will open the weekend on Friday at 9 a.m. CST (8 a.m.) when they will face No. 35 Cameron in a neutral-court match-up.
 
They will then play another neutral site encounter against St. Mary's on Saturday morning at the same time before wrapping up the weekend with a Saturday afternoon match at 2:30 p.m. CST (1:30 p.m.) against the host Chaps, ranked third nationally.

Live results for each match can be found through this portal.
 
Last Time Out 
 
The Mavericks played their only home matches of the entire season last Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader against NCAA Division III Colorado College by 4-3 and 5-2 scores.
 
In between the matches, the Mavericks recognized their six seniors during the Senior Day doubleheader.  The Mavs also held an alumni weekend in conjunction with the matches, welcoming back former players from six different decades.
 
In the competition, seniors Emil Hultman, William Leschig and Henry Scheck all went 2-0 in singles play.

In the morning 4-3 win, the Mavericks squandered late leads in two of the three doubles matches and dropped the doubles point, but rallied back to win in each of the top four singles flights as Diogo Manzano clinched the dual with a thrilling 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (4-7), 1-0 (10-2) win over Sam Dilworth at No. 2 singles.
 
Scheck and Hultman also won 3-set matches at No. 1 and 3 singles while Leschig breezed to a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles.
 
The Mavs also came from behind in the nightcap after dropping the doubles point.  They won five of the six singles matches as freshman Gavin Hutter provided the clinching win at No. 5 singles before Luke Burriesci won at No. 6.
 
Winning Streak

The Mavs have recorded wins in each of their last four duals while evening their overall record at 5-5 this spring. 
 
The current winning streak is the Mavs' longest since the start of the 2023 spring campaign, when they went 4-0.

The Mavs' last 5-match winning streak came in 2017.
 
Home Streak
 
The Mavs' two wins over Colorado College were also their fourth and fifth straight home wins over the past two seasons, a streak that will continue into 2026-27 as the Mavs are not slated to play at home for the rest of the season.
 
Ranked Duo
 
The Mavericks duo of Henry Schek and William Leschig were 32^nd in the first set of the ITA's NCAA Division II National Doubles Rankings that were released on Wednesday.  The seniors are 5-2 against Division II opposition this season and lead the Mavs with a 10-6 overall record, including a 6-4 record in duals while playing in the No. 1 flight.
 
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 Trouble
 
Although Scheck and Leschig have fared well, the Mavericks have struggled to pull out the doubles point in their recent duals.  They have dropped the doubles point and have fallen behind 1-0 in their last six duals.
 
Streaking Emil
 
Fellow senior Emil Hultman has won his last five straight singles matches overall and has raised his complete seasonal record to 14-4. 

Hultman has also won six straight matches when playing in his normal No. 3 singles spot, a part of the lineup that has seen the Mavericks win in eight straight duals.
 
The Swede now has 56 career singles wins to rank seventh in program history and has a solid chance of ending up ranked as high as second in CMU history.  Jordan Chomko currently sits second with 65 wins, seven behind Jordan Lyden, who won 72 in his 2011-15 career.
 
Hultman's 56-32 career record and .636 winning percentage is second only to Lyden's .655 mark.
 
Lyden also holds the single-season record of 22 singles wins, set in 2013-14, a year the former Maverick great won the ITA Regional Championship as the only Maverick to have ever won a regional singles title.
 
Needing D2 Wins
 
Although the Mavericks are 5-5 overall, they are still in search of their first win over an NCAA Division II opponent after going 0-3 thus far.
 
If the Mavs hope to qualify for the NCAA Tournament they are going to need wins as only those matches count for selection purposes.  This weekend's trip also holds additional importance as all three matches will come against fellow teams from the South Central Region and head-to-head results are one of the primary selection criteria.
 
Four teams from the region, made up nine squads from the Lone Star Conference and the Mavs, will be chosen.  CMU is 0-1 against fellow squads from the region thus far having played Western New Mexico two weeks ago.
 
Know Your Foes
 
Cameron
 
The Aggies are currently 3-2 but are coming of a 1-2 weekend in Tyler, Texas, where they beat Auburn University Montgomery, 4-1 before falling 5-2 to West Florida and 4-1 to West Alabama.
 
They are currently ranked 35^th as a team in the ITA's NCAA Division II rankings behind No. 2 West Florida and No. 31 West Alabama.
 
Lukas Jonusek is 3-2 at No. 1 singles this spring while Noe Milliard is 2-3 at No. 2.  Santiago Ledesma is 3-1 with starts at both No. 3 and 4.
 
Janousek is currently ranked fourth in the nation and has a 14-3 overall record during this academic year after representing the Aggies at the ITA Cup, where he went 2-1.  Milliard also is in the national rankings in the No. 75 spot and joined the Czechian at the ITA Cup.
 
They are ranked sixth nationally in doubles as  doubles partnership and ended the fall ranked second in the ITA's South Central Region Rankings.
 
Janousek was ranked second in singles while Milliard was 12^th in the regional singles rankings.  Ledesma was also inside the top 20 in the No. 18 spot.
 
The Aggies have fared well in doubles, going a combined 10-4 so far this spring.   They won the doubles point in their first four duals before dropping it in Sunday's 4-1 match to West Alabama.
 
Ledesma and Abubakari Yakubu-Lea are 4-1 at No. 2 while Janousek and Millard have a  3-1 record in the top flight.  Tom Debonne and Zoheir Fardoun are also 3-1 at No. 3 doubles.
 
St. Mary's

The Rattlers have posted a 7-1 record as a team this spring and have a combined 38-10 singles and 17-7 doubles record during those eight duals.

Lucas Castillo Sanchez is a perfect 7-0 near the top of the Rattler lineup going 2-0 in the top flight at 5-0 at No. 2.  He sits 40^th nationally in the ITA's NCAA Division II Singles Rankings. 
 
Nikita Gavrilonoks is also 7-0 in the No. 3-5 flights while Fabian Rosales as a perfect 4-0 in his No. 6 singles starts.
 
Leonardo Fabbri is 3-3 in the top flight.
 
Twelve different partnerships have been fielded in doubles, but Castillo Sanchez and Victor Velter have regularly played together, going 4-1, including a 2-0 mark in the top flight.  Gavrilonoks and Florian Smaltho have also gone 3-1.
 
Lubbock Christian
 
The Chaps have an 8-3 record and have won five straight matches since taking sixth at the IT Division II National Men's Team Indoor Championships.  They play at Division I New Mexico on Friday.
 
They are ranked third in this week's ITA NCAA Division II Rankings and are coming off a 25-3 season where they advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
 
One of those three losses came at the hands of the Mavs in the fall of 2024.
 
Kelly Giese has a 20-5 overall record, including his 9-1 record in duals at the top flight.  He is ranked second nationally and advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Cup in the fall.
 
The Chaps, who are just in their fourth year with a program, have five nationally-ranked singles players with Andres De Leos Rios Kolejewska sitting 13^th, Pablo Segura 17^th, Mattia Ghedin 54^th and Marco Seccia 70^th.
 
De Los Rios is 19-9 while Segura is 16-8.
 
Ghedin and Giese are 33^rd in the doubles rankings and are 7-3 in duals this spring in the top flight.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavericks are 1-6 all-time against the Cameron Aggies, who they will play for the first time in exactly six years on Friday.  CMU's only win over the Aggies came on Mar. 24, 2014 by a 5-4 margin in their home of Lawton, Oklahoma.  The Aggies have won the last four meetings.

The Mavs are 0-4 all-time against the St. Mary's Rattlers.  All four matches have been on neutral courts.  The last was on Sept. 16, 2022 in Pueblo, Colorado, a dual the Rattlers, won 6-1.
 
The Mavs are 1-2 against Lubbock Christian but won the last match-up in the fall of 2024 (Sept. 13).  The Mavs won that match 4-3 and have played in each of the past three academic years, with all three meetings having come during the Pueblo Duals in September.
 
The Mavs have never played the Chaps in Texas.
 
Up Next
 
The Mavericks will resume what has become an annual tradition of spending Spring Break in California.  They will play four matches against Pacific West Conference foes in as many days between Sunday, Mar. 15 and Wednesday, Mar. 18 playing at Westmont, No. 22 Biola and Azusa Pacific while matching up with Menlo at Azusa Pacific's Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.