acastro@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

The CMU Women’s tennis team had a long weekend of play as they traveled to St. George for the Dixie State Duals where they beat Dixie State and Holy Names University 8-1 and lost 0-9 to Academy of Art.

“Academy is a top 25 team, while we were in St. George they beat Webber State, a D1 team, and I felt we played great versus Academy,” said head coach Dan MacDonald. “Some of the scores don’t reflect how well we played.”

The Mavs were home on Sunday and were tested once again with a tough team as they faced off against Cameron University, losing 1-9.

“We competed really hard,” Dan MacDonald said. “They’re a tough team and it’ll get us ready for conference play. Scores can be deceiving.”

The Mavs fell last Sunday, with only one victory for the women in No. 2 doubles team Skyler Nelson and Kristyn Wykert. Wykert lost her No. 3 doubles match 1-6, 0-6.

“I came out tentative,” Wykert said. “With every deuce I try to just focus on it point by point. It’s tough when you come out on the bottom. This weekend (at Dixie Duals) we had two really good days of tennis and it was a good bonding time for us as a team.”

With five matches in six days, the Mavs focused on preparing for last weekend’s matches with both strength and conditioning and by their previous road matches.

“Dan Linscuam the strength and conditioning coach has been working with both teams, so physically we were well prepared,” MacDonald said. “And last weekend in Phoenix we played four matches in two days to help us prepare.”

Preparedness was exactly what the Mavs needed when sophomore Rachel McLaughlin went up for her No. 4 singles match. McLaughlin battled and rallied her opponent, going to deuce multiple times before losing in the second set tiebreak 2-6, 6-7 (7-5).

“She was running me a lot,” McLaughlin said. “I wasn’t going to give up a point unless it was a clear winner. It really helped when my teammates cheered me on, team support is huge for me.”

The Mavs are putting Sunday’s loss behind them as they take on Dallas Baptist at the Elliott at the Elliott Tennis Center before taking a 12 day break before their travels to UNC, Nebraska-Kearney and Augustana.

“Our goals this season are to win the RMAC regular season title,” MacDonald said. “This year we host the RMAC Tournament April 19-20. So that will be a great weekend of tennis if we win that. We hope to go on On to regionals and then hopefully nationals. On a personal note we would love to upset Western New Mexico. They haven’t lost a conference match in 3 years so they are the team to beat.”