Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Omaha
Recap: Rams rope Mavericks to cap weekend
3/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Samuel Feldman
CSU Athletics Communications
OMAHA, Neb. – For the first time since 2013, the Colorado State tennis team snagged consecutive road victories, beating Omaha, 5-2, on Sunday morning. Coupled with CSU’s win over Creighton on Saturday, the Rams (6-8) have surpassed the team’s win total for the entire 2015-16 season.
“We got a slow start in doubles,” CSU head coach Jarod Camerota said. “We are going to have to work at that, but overall we played well. In singles, we played pretty good and we need to continue to play both patient and higher-percentage tennis. It’s definitely a confidence builder to play well in a weekend and get two wins, and we are going to need to continue to persevere and play smart because there are not any free points in the conference matches we will have next week.”
The doubles point was highly contested throughout the contest, with Omaha winning at the No. 1 spot before the Rams (Riley Reeves and Celine Voss) took the win at No. 2. Coming down to the No. 3 matchup, CSU’s Sandra Keta and Madison Porter defeated Omaha, 6-2, to give the Rams an early 1-0 lead in the match. The duo improved to 3-1 on the spring season while playing together.
CSU battled in every singles matchup, with two matches needing a third set and both CSU losses needing extra games.
Freshman Alyssa Grijalva (No. 3) – who clinched the comeback win on Saturday – claimed the first singles win for the Rams to give them an early 2-0 advantage. She defeated her opponent 6-1, 6-2. Porter was also victorious (No. 6), giving CSU a 3-1 lead. The 6-2, 6-2 win was her fifth of the year.
The Mavericks inched closer with a win at No. 1, forcing the Rams to win one of the final two matches to win the overall competition. CSU did both, with Voss (No. 4) clinching the match with a comeback win. After dropping the initial set, 6-4, she won the second by the same score before finalizing the comeback with a 6-2 win in Set 3. Keta’s match (No. 5) also took three sets, including a first-set tiebreaker that was decided at 22-20. Her third set was played entirely as a tiebreaker, winning 10-7.
At No. 1, sophomore Emily Kolbow lost in a close match that required a first-set tiebreaker (7-6 (4), 7-5). At No. 2, Reeves took the first set to 12 games (losing 7-5) before being unable to get anything going in the second (6-0).
Next up, CSU begins Mountain West action at Boise State (Friday) and Utah State (Sunday).
Colorado State 5, Omaha 2
Doubles
No. 1: Michelle Lo / Janelle Wilson (OMAHA) def. Alyssa Grijalva / Emily Kolbow (CSU) – 6-0
No. 2: Riley Reeves / Celine Voss (CSU) def. Rylee Tucker/Emily Behling (OMAHA) – 6-3
No. 3: Sandra Keta / Madison Porter (CSU) def. Kylie Boyer/Kenzie Hill (OMAHA) – 6-2
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles
No. 1: Michelle Lo (OMAHA) def. Emily Kolbow (CSU) – 7-6 (4), 7-5
No. 2: Janelle Wilson (OMAHA) def. Riley Reeves (CSU) – 7-5, 6-0
No. 3: Alyssa Grijalva (CSU) def. Kylie Boyer (OMAHA) – 6-1, 6-2
No. 4: Celine Voss (CSU) def. Emily Behling (OMAHA) – 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
No. 5: Sandra Keta (CSU) def. Rylee Tucker (OMAHA) – 7-6 (20), 4-6, 10-7
No. 6: Madison Porter (CSU) def. Kenzie Hill (OMAHA) – 6-1, 6-2
Order of finish: 3, 2, 6, 1, 4, 5
