GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Winners of 14 straight matches, including ten during their spring break trip to Tennessee and Georgia, the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks will cap the regular season taking four of the nation's best teams at this weekend's Wildcat Spring Challenge at the University of Arizona's Bear Down Beach in Tucson.
The Mavericks, who have a 14-4 record, will take on South Carolina and Hawai'i on Friday before facing the host Wildcats and Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday. All four are receiving recognition in this week's
AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll with Hawai'i coming in ranked 14
th and South Carolina at No. 18. Arizona and Florida Gulf Coast are both in the receiving votes category of the national poll.
Live results of all four duals
can be found via this link.
Last Times Out
The Mavericks spent their spring break in the Southeastern United States playing ten matches in a span of just five days. They won all ten, recording 5-0 wins in nine of them and a 4-1 victory in the other.
They started the trip on Tuesday, Mar. 17
with a doubleheader sweep of NCAA Division I Tennessee Tech in Louisville, Tennessee.
They then moved to Franklin Springs, Georgia and to the campus of Emmanuel University for the rest of the week.
The Mavs won over Truett McConnnell and Erskine there on Wednesday, Mar. 18 before taking Thursday off of competition.
They then went 3-0 on both
Friday, Mar. 19 and
Saturday, Mar. 20 winning over NCAA Division III LaGrange College while beating Division II foes Carson Newman and Emmanuel on each of those last two days.
The two wins over Carson Newman marked the Eagles' only two losses of the campaign.
Record Looming
With her 10-0 week, Maverick fifth-year senior
Gracyn Spresser raised her career wins total to 68, which matched the CMU program record set by Sabrina Van DeList from 2021-24. With one more win this season, Spresser will break that mark.
The Johnson, Arkansas native has a 68-48 career record. She has been playing with
Ellie Ask in the No. 1 position for the past two seasons, going 16-14 last year before compiling a 15-3 overall record, including a 14-2 mark in the top flight.
Near Perfection
The Mavericks first through fourth pairs all went a perfect 10-0 during the trip to Tennessee and Georgia.
The No. 2 duo of
Ewelina Gacek and
Ania Swartzendruber is a perfect 14-0 in that flight. The Mavs' normal No. 3 pair of
Mikala Henderson and
Addie Ritterbush as well as the No. 4 duo of
Lauren Rohlwing and
Regan Rothley are also both 14-0 together and have played their last 12 matches in those spots.
Henderson and Ritterbush are 12-0 at No. 3 and 2-0 at No. 4. Rohlwing and Rothley have the same records in the opposite flight.
The Mavs' only match loss during the trip came at No. 5, where different combinations of Mavericks went 9-1 throughout the week.
Winning Streak Records
Maverick No. 1 pair
Ellie Ask and
Gracyn Spresser have won 15 straight matches and have a 15-3 overall record this spring. Their winning streak is the longest for any pair in CMU history.
The Mavs. 2, 3 and 4 pairs as highlighted in the last note have each won 14 straight.
The Mavs' 14-match team winning streak is the longest in program history.
Century Win
The Mavericks' 5-0 win over Central Wyoming on Mar. 7 was the program's 100
th all-time dual-win.
It was also the 100
th win for Maverick Head Coach
David Skaff, the only head coach in the program's history since the founding in 2016. Eighty eight of the Mavs' 111 wins, including the 5-0 win over Trinidad State later that day, have come in the last 4-plus seasons.
Home Perfection
With their four recent wins, the Maverick improved to a perfect 29-0 on home sand throughout their program's history.
Eleven of the Mavs' home wins have come over Trinidad State while six others have come over Central Wyoming, which has come to Grand Junction in each of the past two years on the same corresponding weekend.
Trinidad State has come in each of the past five years, on various March weekends.
Opponent Briefs
South Carolina (Friday – 10 a.m. MDT/9 a.m. Arizona Time)
The Gamecocks are 14-5 this season and ranked 18
th in the latest AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll.
They went 1-2 at last week's Big XII Preview with a win over then No. 11 Arizona State but losses to No. 7 TCU and then unranked Boise State in Fort Worth, Texas. They are members of the Big XII for the sport of beach volleyball.
They have winning records in all five flights and have made some minor adjustments to a mostly steady lineup.
Jolie Cranford and Peyton Yamagata have a 15-4 record in heart of the lineup while Rachel Hartmann and Brooke Balue are 12-7 in the top flight.
Amelia Taft and Morgan Downs are 10-2 and have won nine straight in the No. 5 position.
Hawai'i (Friday – 1:45 p.m. Mountain/12:45 p.m. Arizona Time)
The Rainbow Wahine are 11-10 on the season and had last weekend off after playing in Southern California for the previous two weekends. The BeachBows went 4-2 in the Big West Challenge from Mar. 20-22 in their last tournament.
Ranked 14
th in the country, they have played an incredibly challenging schedule, going 1-9 against fellow nationally-ranked squads. The win came over then No. 1 UCLA.
Izadora Stedile and Julia Lawrenz lead the squad with a 14-6 record, including a 12-5 mark in the top flight. They have won five straight matches.
Kiera Cornman and Emily Heintzelman are 8-2 together at No. 4 and 5 and have won their last four outings.
Arizona (Saturday- 11:15 a.m. Mountain/10:15 a.m. Arizona Time)
The Wildcats are 15-7 on the year and have posted a 7-1 record on home sand entering this weekend. They went 0-3 at last week's Big 12 Preview in Fort Worth, Texas.
Regan Holmer and Carlie Cisneros are the Wildcats' No. 1 duo and have recorded a 14-8 record.
Ashlyn Zilliken and Madeline Walker went 2-1 last week at No. 2 and are 16-6 this season.
Florida Gulf Coast (3 p.m. Mountain/2 p.m. Arizona Time)
The Eagles improved to 13-8 on the season after going 4-0 in their home tournament on Mar. 20-21. They won two of those matches by 5-0 scores over Sam Houston and Palm Beach State and beat FIU and Jacksonville by 4-1 scores.
Alexis Keeter and Ava Lilliquist have a winning 9-7 record in the top flight and are 9-8 overall.
Sydney Majick is 14-4 at No. 3 and has played mostly with Andrea Dietz, who has a 13-5 overall record, including a 12-5 mark at No. 3.
Series Histories
The Mavs only previous meeting with South Carolina was back in 2016, a match the Gamecocks won 5-0.
The Mavs played Hawai'i in 2022, falling 5-0 in a match played in Tucson.
The Mavs are 0-10 all-time against Arizona, including a Feb. 20 match earlier this season, which the Wildcats won 4-1.
Stormi Tadlock and
Mikala Henderson combined for a No. 5 win in that dual.
CMU has never played Florida Gulf Coast.
Up Next
The Mavericks will take next weekend off of competition before heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama for what they will hope be a successful weekend at the AVCA Small College Beach Championships, which will be played Apr. 17-19.
