DENVER – The 35^th-ranked MSU Denver men's tennis team will play the Pacific West Conference's No. 3 seed, while the Roadrunners' women's team is hoping that the No. 3 time is the charm against Colorado Mesa.
 
MSU Denver opens play at the Pacific West Conference Tournament in Surprise, Ariz., with the ninth-seeded women facing eighth-seeded Mesa for the third time in 19 days on Wednesday at 10 a.m. MDT (9 a.m. in Arizona).
 
The Roadrunners have dropped a pair of 4-3 decisions to the Mavericks, losing 4-3 at home on April 1 in which five of the six singles matches went to three sets, and again last Saturday when the Roadrunners (13-7) had one player out of the lineup and another was forced to retire.
 
"For the women, it starts with the doubles point," MSU Denver coach Josh Graetz said. "The last couple of times we've played, we just haven't executed in doubles. Mesa has a strong doubles team, too, but if we get the doubles point I feel confident that we can get three wins in singles."
 
With a win, the Roadrunners would advance into the main bracket to play top-seeded and 19^th-ranked Hawaii Pacific, and would get a total of three more matches. A loss would put MSU Denver in a Thursday consolation match.
 
The sixth-seeded MSU Denver men face Azusa Pacific (Calif.) in a 2 p.m. MDT (1 p.m. in Arizona) match on Thursday. APU beat MSU Denver 4-0 in the first round of last year's PacWest Tournament.
 
"It's the same team as last year, but they've got some new guys and we've got some new guys," Graetz said. "They're well-coached and they fight hard, but our guys should go in confident. It should be a good match.
 
"We're excited to play new teams, and we haven't had the opportunity to play them this season. We're excited to go show who we are. We expect it to be a tough battle."
 
If the Roadrunners (14-3) don't capture the automatic berth to the NCAA Division II West Region Tournament as the PacWest Tournament champions, they will likely need to win the first-round matchup at least one other dual to have a chance to advance to the four-team regional.
 
The West Region and the PacWest are comprised of the same teams, and MSU Denver was ranked sixth in last week's NCAA region rankings.
 
The predicament is a result of MSU Denver being unable to schedule the other five teams – half the region – in the PacWest's top six. That affects several factors considered by the NCAA regional ranking committee of one PacWest administrator and one PacWest coach, including head-to-head results, opponent winning percentage and regional opponent winning percentage.
 
So, despite having the most Division II wins (12) and sharing the best Division II winning percentage (.800) in the region, MSU Denver is currently on the outside looking in.
 
"It all starts with Azusa," Graetz said. "If we can win that match, we can put ourselves in a good position moving forward to the rest of the tournament. That's where our focus is."