Colorado State University Athletics
Season preview: CSU tennis begins spring season at home
1/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
WEEKLY RELEASE #5 (PDF) / ROSTER / SCHEDULE / FALL STATISTICS / RECORD BOOK
Colorado State vs. Seattle
Friday, Jan. 22 / 5 p.m. / Fort Collins, Colo. / Fort Collins Country Club
Live Video / Live Stats
Promotion: Free pizza
Colorado State vs. Grand Canyon
Saturday, Jan. 23 / 5 p.m. / Fort Collins, Colo. / Fort Collins Country Club
Live Video / Live Stats
Promotion: Free pizza
CSU HOSTS PAIR OF MATCHES TO OPEN SPRING SEASON
Colorado State opens its spring 2016 tennis season this weekend, hosting Seattle and Grand Canyon in a pair of dual matches. Action begins at 5 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at the Fort Collins Country Club. Admission is free, and prior to Saturday's match pizza will be provided while supplies lasts. Additionally, both matches can be streamed for free through the Mountain West Network.
"I think they're excited. We'll have four practices before the first match, so we're trying to get that competitive mode right away, but they're excited and have good attitudes," head coach Jon Messick said. "The practices we've had so far have been strong, so I think they have some confidence."
Scouting Seattle:
- Opened the spring season with back-to-back losses at No. 56 Washington (7-0) and at home to Eastern Washington (4-3).
- Adam Reeb is in his first season as head coach of both the men's and women's teams.
- Sophomore Michelle Lui was named the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year last spring, and this fall earned WAC Female Tennis Player of the Month honors in September.
- Lui and junior Kelli Woodman earned 2015 All-WAC second-team honors. Woodman, a native of Denver, Colo., graduated from Cherry Creek High School.
- Has three players who have earned singles victories so far this spring - Barbara Carey, Madison Maloney and Kelli Woodman.
- Has one senior, captain Kristen James.
- Went 6-19 in 2015, but did advance to the WAC semifinals with a victory over Chicago State. The win was the program's first postseason victory at the Division I level.
Scouting Grand Canyon:
- Enters the weekend 1-1, falling 4-3 at UC Irvine before earning a 7-0 sweep over UC Riverside.
- Head coach Gregory Prudhomme is in his ninth season leading the program, guiding the Antelopes to a winning record in both 2014 and 2015, their first two seasons at the Division I level.
- Went 11-6 in 2015, winning its final nine dual matches.
- Of the eight players on its roster, six hail from outside the United States.
- Return four of its six student-athletes from last season - all of which had a winning record. Tatum Prudhomme went 11-6 from the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
TALKING EXPECTATIONS
CSU is coming off one of its best seasons in recent memory, winning eight matches in the spring, the most since 2011. The biggest win came in April over No. 54 New Mexico. It was the Rams' first victory over a ranked team in at least 11 years, and afterward, Messick called it the biggest win of his lengthy coaching career. In addition to the total number of wins, CSU also returns the majority of its production, meaning they believe they're in position to move up in the Mountain West standings.
"We have some team goals - some quantifiable, some not," Messick said. "We would like to improve our standing in the conference for sure."
More than goals, however, Messick stated that he wants his team playing at its best come conference season.
"The main thing is that as the season progresses we understand what our best lineup is, and we make adjustments to our lineup to put players in the right position for them to be successful," he continued. "We want to have a lineup that we're comfortable with by the time conference play begins, especially the conference tournament."
FALL RECAP
CSU played in four tournaments throughout the fall season, gaining valuable experience regarding the strengths of the team. The main takeaway was the team's strong doubles play.
"Our doubles was really strong in the fall, so we're really looking forward to having some strong doubles play," Messick said. "That's what we're anticipating and expecting, and that'll go a long way as the season progresses."
The tandem of Aina Hernandez Soler and Madison Porter earned six doubles victories during the fall season, while Maddie Buxton and Laia Hernandez Soler won five matches. Messick was also pleased with the play of freshman Emily Kolbow, who had a team-most four singles victories.
BULK RETURNING
Jon Messick enters his 27th season as head coach at Colorado State, and returns the bulk of last year's production, including six letterwinners. In total, CSU returns a lineup which won 59 singles matches last year (28 during the spring season), with four individuals winning at least 10.
Additionally, CSU welcomed two newcomers to its roster. Emily Kolbow is a four-star recruit from Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland, Wis. The four-time conference champion finished in the top three at the WIAA Division I Wisconsin state championships three times during her high-school career. Caroline Henderson comes to CSU with two years of eligibility after spending the beginning of her career at Kansas. She posted three singles victories and two doubles wins as a freshman, before earning two more singles victories during the fall of her sophomore season.
"We're returning six players, and four of them are seniors," Messick said. "We do have experience, and with adding Caroline Henderson, she has good college experience, as well."
HELPING HAND
For the first time in school history, CSU has a full-time assistant coach. Jarod Camerota brings more than a decade of top-level experience as a coach and recruiter, including last season at Northern Arizona. He also has spent time as an assistant at Northwestern, and as a head coach - either men's, women's or both - at Georgia State, Jacksonville and Mars Hill College.
THE BIG STAGE COMES TO FORT COLLINS
For the second time in six seasons, CSU will host the Mountain West Women's Tennis Championship, April 28-May 1. The four-day event will feature all nine conference teams, including the semifinals on April 30 and the championship on May 1. The Championships will be played at the University Tennis Complex, a $2-million-dollar facility built in 2011 that features 12 post-tensioned concrete courts (eight of which are lighted), in addition to large viewing areas, restrooms, a team room and storage area.
"We're excited to host the Mountain West Championships once again," Messick said. "It's a huge advantage to be in the comfort of our homes and on our home courts and not having to travel. We're comfortable playing here and we have a good fan base that gives us an advantage."
BUILDING TOWARD THE FUTURE
CSU signed one of its best recruiting classes in school history in November, inking four players - Solene Crawley, Alyssa Grijalva, Sandra Keta and Riley Reeves - to National Letters of Intent. All four are four-star recruits by TennisRecruiting.net.
"I'm really excited about this class," Messick said. "If they work hard and continue to get better during their four years at CSU, they could be our best recruiting class and help us challenge for a Mountain West title."
Messick said the things that drew him to these players were that they are great competitors, have a passion for tennis, wanted to be Rams and most importantly are great people. Additionally, all four are from CSU's main recruiting areas of California, Texas and the upper Midwest.
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CLASSROOM
Five of CSU's seven returnees were recognized during the offseason as Spring 2015 Academic All-Mountain West recipients - Maddie Buxton, Mollie Cooper, Aina Hernandez Soler, Laia Hernandez Soler and Madison Porter. Buxton and Porter were also named Scholar-Athletes by the MW and Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
What's more, the entire team was recognized by the ITA for holding a cumulative grade-point average above a 3.20. It marked the sixth year in a row that Messick's team has been named an ITA All-Academic Team.
LOOKING AHEAD
CSU will remain in Fort Collins for its next two competitions (Feb. 5 vs. CSU-Pueblo and Feb. 6 vs. Metro State) before traveling to Lincoln, Neb., the following weekend for a pair of matches.
