The Colorado Buffaloes tennis team steamrolled its in-state rival Colorado State Rams 6-1 in a duel on Sunday. The team started hot in doubles play and kept it going for the rest of the afternoon, keeping CU undefeated this season.
This season’s story has been the standout doubles team of Ema Bubalo and Anya Nelson, and Sunday was no exception. The No. 21-ranked duo in the nation put together a strong performance against CSU’s top doubles team, winning 6-1.
In their first match, Lera Alexin and Mia Stanojevic dropped the first game before quickly hitting their stride and winning 6-2.
“We took some strides again in doubles,” coach Anthony Pham said. “We still have room to grow, but we are proud of the improvement each week."
Stanojevic moved quickly in singles play to improve CU’s lead to 2-0. The No. 2 singles match of the day was the first to finish thanks to two different five-game winning streaks from Stanojevic, propelling her to a 6-2, 6-1 win.
Next to finish was the No. 5 singles match, featuring CU’s Pia Rebec and CSU’s Mariya Dobreva. The Rams’ only win came in this matchup, where Dobreva won both sets despite a late surge from Rebec, 6-1, 6-4.
Betina Tokac captured a hard-earned win at the No. 3 singles spot. She forced a tiebreaker in the first set before making another comeback in the second set to win 7-5, 6-4.
Not long after, Bubalo won the No. 4 match 7-5, 6-4. She also had two comebacks, winning both sets' last three games.
The only Buff to go three sets was Aya El Sayed in her No. 1 singles match. She was confidently in control for the first and last set but couldn’t win the second. Her final scores were 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Alexin was the last Buff to finish in the No. 6 singles spot. The match was won 6-1, 6-0. Not the score you would expect from the afternoon’s longest match, but every point was a battle for the freshman.
The Buffs will look to improve to 4-0 this Saturday against their first out-of-state opponent, the IU Indianapolis Jaguars.
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