DENVER – Potentially one of MSU Denver's biggest men's tennis duals of the season is set for Saturday.
Fresno Pacific (Calif.) is at the Assembly Athletic Complex for a 2 p.m. matchup that could have implications for the Pacific West Conference Tournament.
MSU Denver is an affiliate member of the PacWest for both men's and women's tennis, but the league doesn't make a set schedule and a committee picks and seeds the eight men teams that play in the season-ending league tournament.
Since the majority of PacWest teams are located in California, outliers MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa have few opportunities to play league duals at home.
"We kind of have to go to them," MSU Denver coach
Josh Graetz said. "So to have one come to Colorado is huge for us. I do think think we have an advantage in playing at our facility at altitude, and we have our home fans. There's just a lot of comfort in playing at home."
It's part of a full weekend of tennis for the Roadrunners' programs. Both the men and women will play an exhibition dual with high-caliber opponent Seward County Community College (Kan.) on Sunday at 11 a.m. before dipping back into regular-season Division II play with non-conference duals against Western New Mexico on Monday at 1 p.m.
The MSU Denver men are 4-1 in dual play and moved into the national rankings this week at No. 49. The Roadrunners' women are 4-4.
Both teams went 3-1 in a four-day trip through Missouri and Kansas last week.
"It was a really positive trip," Graetz said. "All four of the teams we played have gotten better since the last time we played them, and I'm pleased with how we completed. We were pretty close to winning all eight if a couple of matches had gone our way – but we could have lost a couple if we hadn't been ready to play. It really helped us moving into this weekend."
Fresno Pacific recently restored its program after an eight-season hiatus. The Sunbirds are 3-5 this season and are 0-4 against PacWest teams heading into a Friday dual at Colorado Mesa.
Seward County is one of the best teams on the non-Division I portion of the Roadrunners' schedule.
"It's one of the top junior college programs in the country, probably a top-15 Division II program, maybe even top 10," Graetz said. "They are tough to play against. We'll learn a lot about ourselves on Sunday."
The Western New Mexico men are 6-2, including a 4-3 win over Colorado Mesa, while the Mustangs' women are 5-3, including a 6-1 loss to Mesa.
"When I was a player (from 2013-18) and Western New Mexico was in the RMAC (the league no longer sponsors tennis), that was a dominant team and they used to beat up on us," Graetz said.
The Roadrunners will try to turn the table in those series, and have a number of players performing at a high level.
For the women,
Monica Guarin was 3-0 at No. 6 singles during the recent road trip, and
Lilly Stienemeier was 3-1 at No. 4. For the men,
David Kijak (No. 4) and
Alejandro Jimenez (No. 6) both went 3-1.
"For the women, our doubles teams are playing really, really solid," Graetz said. "And the men are playing well in doubles, too."
