IRVINE, Calif. – The PacWest has added Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver’s men’s and women’s tennis programs as affiliate members of the PacWest for the 2020-21 season, extending the size of the conference to 16 women’s teams and 10 men’s teams.
 
The two former members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference will be eligible to qualify for the annual PacWest Tennis Championships, starting next season. The decision to add the schools was approved unanimously at the PacWest Executive Board Winter meeting.
 
"We're thrilled to bring in the outstanding tennis programs at Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver into the PacWest,” Commissioner Bob Hogue said. “Their affiliation with us strengthens our already strong tennis championships and makes our conference even more competitive than it already is."
 
Both schools will now compete in the West Region for men’s and women’s tennis with the top-4 teams from the region advancing to the NCAA postseason.
 
MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa join a rich tradition of success in tennis at the PacWest. The conference has produced 10 national champions. The most recent was Hawai`i Pacific, whose men’s team won the title with a 5-3 win over Saint Leo in the final in Denver, Colorado. This past season two men’s teams from the PacWest reached the national semifinals, while two women’s teams reached the quarterfinals.
 
Colorado Mesa is a public university in Grand Junction, Colorado with an undergraduate enrollment of 8,500. The Mavericks have 27 varsity sports. MSU Denver is located in Denver, Colorado where it is a public university with an undergraduate enrollment of 19,000 students. The Roadrunners have 16 varsity sports.
 
The addition of the two schools marks a few milestones for the PacWest. They are the first two Colorado schools to ever compete in the PacWest, meaning the conference has now had members of affiliates in 11 different states. MSU Denver is now the furthest east school to have ever competed in the PacWest. Also, the 16 members in women’s tennis equals the most to have competed in any PacWest sport in the conference’s history.
 
The PacWest’s inception was in 1992 as a conference that combined the men’s athletics from the Great Northwest Conference and the women’s athletics from the Continental Divide Conference. For six years, MSU Denver was a member of the CDC, but 2020-21 will be the first year that the Roadrunners compete in the PacWest.