Colorado State University Athletics
Tennis Preview: Rams to participate in second annual Wildcat Invitational
10/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
THIS WEEK
Colorado State will make the trip south for the second annual Wildcat Invitational, hosted by the University of Arizona. The Wildcats will be hosting Northern Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado State, Mississippi State, Texas State, Marquette, UTEP and UTSA in a multiple bracket event, featuring both singles and doubles. The Wildcat Invitational runs from Friday, Oct. 3 through Sunday, Oct. 5.
LAST TIME OUT
The Rams will be bringing momentum with them to Arizona, coming off a strong performance in the Air Force Invitational last week. In the annual tournament held in Colorado Springs, Colo., CSU had seven participants finish the event with winning records.
“Overall, we played really well throughout the tournament and I think that really showed,” Head Coach Messick said. “We had seven girls finish with winning singles records. Natalie (Heffron) competed today in a close singles final at the No.1 level, and we also had Aina and Mollie compete for the doubles final in the bravo bracket.”
Senior Natalie Heffron played her best tennis of the fall, earning a spot in the finals of the No. 1 singles bracket and narrowly losing to her opponent from Wyoming.
WHAT MESSICK WANTS TO SEE
“It is going to be a tougher tournament than we had last weekend, so we shuffled the lineup a little bit to see where we are at,” Head Coach Jon Messick said. “It is going to be a final test before regionals. We are really looking forward to see how everyone reacts to tougher competition.”
FROM 2013 TO 2014
Colorado State finished its 2013 campaign with a 3-13 record, but had several outstanding individual performances. The young team gained a lot of much-needed experience over the 16 spring tournament last year.
The Rams return, six letterwinners who combined for 15 of their 17 singles victories from dual matches last season, and five of their nine doubles victories. Head Coach Jon Messick also brings in experience by the way of three transfers, including a set of twins from Marquette.
“I’m hoping we’ll have a lot more depth this year than we had last year,” Messick said. “We got kind of thin last year with injuries. The way practices have been going so far, I think we’re going to be a lot deeper team lower in the lineup than we’ve been for a long time, and hopefully that’ll transfer to winning some matches.”
The Marquette twins, Aina and Laia Hernandez, who are from Barcelona, Spain, combined for 67 overall victories in their two seasons for the Golden Eagles. The other transfer is Madison Porter, who spent her freshman season at New Mexico. In Albuquerque, Porter posted a 5-3 singles record, competing at the No. 6 position. In fall doubles action, Porter recorded a 5-1 record.
“We have a couple Spaniards and they’re high energy,” Messick said referring to the Hernandez twins. “People will enjoy watching them. We have new faces overall. Rebecca Costa from Florida, has a different style of play than people are used to seeing. She’s a really strong player in terms of her racket skills.”