Hundreds of new students every semester walk past the newly minted tennis courts on the northern most point of campus. The courts are part of the $6 million Saunders Fieldhouse facelift, and another perfect example of where the campus and Mesa State’s future is heading. It’s an addition that fits almost effortlessly with the rest of MSC’s new look on campus.
It’s also a needed change in a tennis town like Grand Junction. Grand Junction was a finalist for tennis town USA last year.
The Mavs play on Elliott Tennis Courts. The Elliott family is spearheaded by the one and only Lena Elliott. She has been deeply involved in the Grand Junction community ever since she first arrived in the Grand Valley in 1957.
Not only does Elliot and her family volunteer for the development of Mesa State, they support numerous projects in the Grand Valley, ranging from fundraising for St. Mary’s hospital to the United Way. Elliot takes tremendous pride in her involvement with the college and has seen Mesa State go from a two-year program to a four-year college to now taking the dramatic leap of a university.
“I first got involved with the college when it was two-year program,” Elliot said. “I was on the community college board for nine years. When the governor called me to be on the Mesa board, I said, ‘You bet.’ It was an honor to have an opportunity to start off Mesa in an aggressive way, maintain it and now we are the envy of the state of Colorado.”
Elliot and her husband of 49 years, Carter, have 11 children. All are college grads. Eight of them are in the education field. Lena and Carter were named to the Colorado Tennis Hall of Fame in January. The tradition of the Elliott family and Mesa State College is currently being carried on by their grandson, Niko Carrizo. Carrizo played four years for the Mavericks men’s tennis team. While finishing his degree from Mesa State, he is currently lending his hand as as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s teams.
“I think it’s an honor to be a part of such a legacy,” Carrizo said. “It’s a great amount of responsibility but my family is awesome and its great to be a part of our families tradition. Its easy to walk out to the courts, look at the name and try to follow in their footsteps both on the court and off of it.”
Like many other people at Mesa State and in the community, he is excited about the new addition.
“We’ve got a great thing going here at Mesa in the tennis program. The new additions are awesome and they’ll be a great tool in recruiting for the program,” Carrizo said. “I wish we could have gotten those new courts a couple years ago.”

chughes@mesastate.edu