Colorado State University Athletics
Friday, January 24
Boulder, Colo.
2 PM MT
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Colorado
Doubles Teams Shine in Dual Loss to Colorado
1/24/2020 7:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Revamped pairings paying off in spring
BOULDER, Colo. – So far, they have been better together.
Since reconfiguring his doubles teams midway through the fall season – and being forced to do a bit more due to injuries heading into the spring -- Colorado State women's tennis team has reaped the benefits of the new tandems. In the first two duals, the top two duos have both won to earn the Rams a crucial starting point.
Head coach Jarod Camerota is confident the singles results will start to follow, giving the program plenty of optimism moving forward. On Friday at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center, the team was swept in singles play by Colorado, dropping the dual 4-1.
"We've done a good job at doubles, and we need to get three-doubles going," he said. "I think the thing is we have to carry that belief into our singles. We're good, whether we have six, eight or 10 players. We're a good team, and the players need to all realize we can play with anyone.
"As soon as they all understand that, I think we'll really take off. We have the opportunity to still have a great season, and it's up to them to really just battle and believe they're good, because as coaches, we know they are."
After the first two tournaments, Camerota flipped his top two pairings, moving Stella Cliffe and Emily Luetschwager together, with Alyssa Grijalva and Priscilla Palermo joining forces.
Prior, with their old partners, the groups both had 1-2 marks. When the discussion first came up, Cliffe was all about the change.
"We basically asked to play together, because we thought we've never tried this before and we thought it could work out well because we both play good doubles," she said. "We thought we should try something different. We didn't play amazing at the start, but now we know each other's strengths and weaknesses, we know exactly what formations we want to do, and it works way better."
Still, it took time. Being good is one things, being strong together requires work.
As both explained, they had to learn the strengths of the other. Then they had to find a way to combine them. As a comfort level started to develop, it allowed them to expand.
"Right away when you first start playing with someone new, it's like figuring out what they like to do, figuring out what shots you can hit to set up their favorite shots," Luetschwager said. "Once you start grooving that and figuring them out, you stop thinking about it as much. It becomes part of you and you're just ready to keep playing."
Friday, the Rams' No. 1 team needed all the grit they could muster in a 6-4 victory over Colorado's Sara Nayar and Monica Malinen, Buffs who had beaten them at the ITA Mountain Regionals, 8-4, in the final match of the fall.
The proceedings were a slugfest, as it was for Grijalva and Palermo, and both needed to win as Colorado walked off the court with the first win. At the time, both teams sat in 3-all matches, with the Rams' No. 2s winning 6-3.
Pulling it out by getting a break to set up an advantage was further proof they belong together.
"I think it means a lot, especially for our whole doubles lineup," Luetschwager said. "Winning that doubles point is just going to set you up for the match on a positive note. To beat some people who we lost too pretty bad in the fall, it means our doubles practice is working, and we just have to keep working on that and focusing on those double strategies to keep that going through the spring and going into Mountain West play."
Cliffe and Luetschwager moved their record to 8-3 on the season, with Grijalva and Palermo one better at 9-2. Injuries led to Emma Corwin and Anastasiia Kotsyuba together, and while still working through their own strategies as the others previously did, Camerota is confident they'll progress, too.
Now, if they'll only carry those positive vibes into their solo acts. The key swings they make together were not there in singles play, at least not consistently enough. Cliffe was the only one to take a set before falling to Malinen 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
"It was just big points. Big points, we've got to play better," he said. "That's where the belief comes in is in the big points."
The Rams, now 0-2 in duals, will continue their nine-match road swing to start the spring by picking up a pair of matches in Texas, first at SMU (Feb. 1; 10:30 a.m. MT), then with Texas Arlington the following day (10 a.m. MT).
Since reconfiguring his doubles teams midway through the fall season – and being forced to do a bit more due to injuries heading into the spring -- Colorado State women's tennis team has reaped the benefits of the new tandems. In the first two duals, the top two duos have both won to earn the Rams a crucial starting point.
Head coach Jarod Camerota is confident the singles results will start to follow, giving the program plenty of optimism moving forward. On Friday at the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center, the team was swept in singles play by Colorado, dropping the dual 4-1.
"We've done a good job at doubles, and we need to get three-doubles going," he said. "I think the thing is we have to carry that belief into our singles. We're good, whether we have six, eight or 10 players. We're a good team, and the players need to all realize we can play with anyone.
"As soon as they all understand that, I think we'll really take off. We have the opportunity to still have a great season, and it's up to them to really just battle and believe they're good, because as coaches, we know they are."
After the first two tournaments, Camerota flipped his top two pairings, moving Stella Cliffe and Emily Luetschwager together, with Alyssa Grijalva and Priscilla Palermo joining forces.
Prior, with their old partners, the groups both had 1-2 marks. When the discussion first came up, Cliffe was all about the change.
"We basically asked to play together, because we thought we've never tried this before and we thought it could work out well because we both play good doubles," she said. "We thought we should try something different. We didn't play amazing at the start, but now we know each other's strengths and weaknesses, we know exactly what formations we want to do, and it works way better."
Still, it took time. Being good is one things, being strong together requires work.
As both explained, they had to learn the strengths of the other. Then they had to find a way to combine them. As a comfort level started to develop, it allowed them to expand.
"Right away when you first start playing with someone new, it's like figuring out what they like to do, figuring out what shots you can hit to set up their favorite shots," Luetschwager said. "Once you start grooving that and figuring them out, you stop thinking about it as much. It becomes part of you and you're just ready to keep playing."
Friday, the Rams' No. 1 team needed all the grit they could muster in a 6-4 victory over Colorado's Sara Nayar and Monica Malinen, Buffs who had beaten them at the ITA Mountain Regionals, 8-4, in the final match of the fall.
The proceedings were a slugfest, as it was for Grijalva and Palermo, and both needed to win as Colorado walked off the court with the first win. At the time, both teams sat in 3-all matches, with the Rams' No. 2s winning 6-3.
Pulling it out by getting a break to set up an advantage was further proof they belong together.
"I think it means a lot, especially for our whole doubles lineup," Luetschwager said. "Winning that doubles point is just going to set you up for the match on a positive note. To beat some people who we lost too pretty bad in the fall, it means our doubles practice is working, and we just have to keep working on that and focusing on those double strategies to keep that going through the spring and going into Mountain West play."
Cliffe and Luetschwager moved their record to 8-3 on the season, with Grijalva and Palermo one better at 9-2. Injuries led to Emma Corwin and Anastasiia Kotsyuba together, and while still working through their own strategies as the others previously did, Camerota is confident they'll progress, too.
Now, if they'll only carry those positive vibes into their solo acts. The key swings they make together were not there in singles play, at least not consistently enough. Cliffe was the only one to take a set before falling to Malinen 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
"It was just big points. Big points, we've got to play better," he said. "That's where the belief comes in is in the big points."
The Rams, now 0-2 in duals, will continue their nine-match road swing to start the spring by picking up a pair of matches in Texas, first at SMU (Feb. 1; 10:30 a.m. MT), then with Texas Arlington the following day (10 a.m. MT).
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2,1
#1 Singles Match
123
623
Monica Malinen / 0 [CU]
166
#2 Singles Match
12
35
Antonia Balzert / 0 [CU]
67
#3 Singles Match
12
34
Maria Campos / 0 [CU]
66
#4 Singles Match
12
32
Sophia Derivan / 0 [CU]
66
#5 Singles Match
12
32
Morgan Forster / 0 [CU]
66
#6 Singles Match
12
51
Tallulah Farrow / 0 [CU]
76
Order of Finish:
3,2,1,4,5
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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