The Colorado Buffaloes women’s tennis team secured two victories on Sunday, defeating both Minnesota and St. Thomas with identical 4-1 scores during away matches in Minneapolis.
Colorado started strong by winning the doubles point in each match and continued their momentum into singles play, where they accumulated six total wins. Head coach Anthony Pham expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance, stating, “Extremely proud of the way our team competed today overall. We played with great energy and showed a ton of poise against a very good Minnesota team.”
The win over Minnesota marked the Gophers’ first loss of the season. Aya El Sayed contributed by earning a victory at the No. 1 singles spot against a ranked opponent. Against St. Thomas, Colorado achieved straight-set singles wins in every completed match, and each unfinished match was led by a Buffalo player who needed only one more game to finish.
Pham highlighted the team’s adaptability: “We showed great maturity in being able to turn around get the job done against St Thomas in some challenging conditions,” he said. “Playing a double header on the road at two different facilities is never an easy task and our team stepped up and met the challenge today. We took some positive steps today, and we look forward to a getting back to Boulder to prepare for another weekend of challenging matches on the road.”
In doubles action versus Minnesota, Lera Alexin and Rixt van der Werff won 6-1 over Liepert and Schmitz. El Sayed and Pia Rebec secured the doubles point at the top spot with a 6-4 victory over Ante and Pinto.
During singles play, Minnesota’s Jeselle Ante defeated van der Werff at No. 2 (6-2, 6-3), narrowing Colorado’s lead to 2-1. El Sayed responded by overcoming No. 117 Aiva Schmitz in three sets (2-6, 6-3, 6-3). Alexin clinched the match for Colorado with another three-set win over Anlin Xie (6-2, 3-6, 6-3).
Against St. Thomas, Willow Gretsch and Heidi Crncan began doubles with a 6-1 win at No. 3 over Yarwood and Stichle; Brotman and Nelson captured another point at No. 2 with a 6-2 result over Olson and Forsberg.
Heidi Crncan delivered Colorado’s first singles win at No. 5 with a perfect scoreline (6-0, 6-0) against Vander Stichle. Although El Sayed lost her top singles match to Korseth (7-5, 6-1), van der Werff secured another point for Colorado by beating Lindahl (6-2, 7-5). Alexin finished off St. Thomas with a straight-set win over Olson (6-2, 6-4).
Looking ahead, Colorado will travel for another set of three matches next weekend starting Friday in Las Vegas against UNLV before facing Gonzaga and Utah Tech on Saturday.
Colorado now leads Minnesota in their all-time series record at six wins to one. The victory over St. Thomas was their first meeting between the programs.
El Sayed reached her career milestone of ninety combined singles and doubles wins during these matches while van der Werff recorded her fifteenth career singles victory along with her twentieth career doubles win for Colorado. Alexin was undefeated in singles play throughout the weekend.
