DENVER – Just to be clear, the MSU Denver women's tennis program is part of the Pacific West Conference, not NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference.
But the Division II Roadrunners will take on their third Mountain West opponent in 12 days in a 1 p.m. dual Thursday, when New Mexico comes to the Regency Athletic Complex.
MSU Denver previously played an exhibition against Air Force (a 5-2 defeat) and its season opener against Colorado State (a 7-0 loss).
Despite chilly temperatures expected Thursday, the dual is still expected to be played.
"When a program wants to come play us here at home, we're not going to say no, especially a program of New Mexico's stature," MSU Denver coach
Josh Graetz said. "We're excited to play. Obviously we want to compete whenever we can."
The forecast is constantly shifting, and there was some snow on the courts Wednesday, but as of Wednesday afternoon the expectation was for sun and 32 degrees at match time.
"Traditionally, anything above 32 degrees we can play at," Graetz said. "Being at altitude in Denver, it does feel warmer than sea level might. And I think once the players warm up … hopefully the sun is out, because that's a game-changer. Hopefully there isn't a lot of wind.
"It sounds like it will be playable, and I've told the girls that it will be the same for both teams. We'll both be going through the same challenges."
Against Air Force, the Roadrunners got the doubles point with victories by
Helena Steenberg and
Gala Castello at No. 1 and
Isabel Heras and
Marie Cool at No. 3, and also picked up a win from
Brooklyn Ross at No. 1 singles.
Though they were unable to break through against Colorado State, continued competition against strong opponents (the Roadrunners also lost to Colorado 7-0 in an exhibition) is helping the team improve.
"We didn't execute as well I as would have liked against CSU, but I think we learned from that match," Graetz said. "And I think we learned that we probably don't need to do as much as we think. Sometimes we try to play above our level, when the level we do have is enough. The girls sometimes think they have to play at this unreal level, but that's not the case."
New Mexico was 3-7 last season before the remainder of the season was canceled due to COVID-19. The Lobos have had to replace their top three singles players.
"It's a little bit of an unknown, but it should be a similar level to what we've seen with the other Division I programs," Graetz said. "And we've competed well against all of them. We've executed better in some matches than we have in others. We just need to go out there with the mentality that we're going to win, execute and compete."
