Colorado State University Athletics
Friday, April 7
Laramie, Wyo
3:00 PM
Colorado State
2
vs
4
San Diego State
Rams Drop Battle of Ranked Teams
4/7/2023 8:10:00 PM | Women's Tennis
No. 53 Aztecs use singles to post win over No. 61 CSU
LARAMIE, Wyo. – Being uncomfortable is part of the territory.
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No matter how good somebody is at their area of expertise, some stretches are going to be rough. Being able to work through those periods and come out the other end is a trait of successful people, and for Colorado State's women's tennis team, nobody is better at seeing their way through the dark than Zara Lennon.
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She wasn't the lone Ram on Friday afternoon at the Wyoming Tennis Complex. In the six singles spots, Colorado State dropped the first set in five of them with the No. 53 Aztecs winning a Mountain West battle of ranked teams, 4-2. The No. 61 Rams fell to 12-5, 2-3 in conference play.
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"We're down in all the first sets. It was a really slow start," CSU coach Mai-Ly Tran said, her team set to play UNLV on Saturday at 3 p.m. "San Diego State came out way more aggressive. We weren't willing to work the points and stop the bleeding, and it took a set and a half to play our tennis, which is really hard to come back from.
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"Give credit to San Diego State; they played well, but we can't give any freebies away against a really good team, and we need to take advantage of opportunities. I think we did a great job of getting the doubles point, which would have been crucial today. It's just unfortunate we didn't take advantage of the opportunity today. We need to respond better, especially to a loss and learn from this loss."
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The Rams had to fight for the doubles point, with two of the three slots needing a tiebreak. After the No. 3 tandem of Sarka Richterova and Viktoryia Zhadzinskaya worked to a crisp 6-3 in the third spot, SDSU won at No. 2, 7-6 (6). Then Colorado State's top duo of Radka Buzkova and Emily Dush won their tiebreak 7-3 after losing the first three points.
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The Aztecs responded by winning the first four singles sets at the four-court facility, which as Tran noted, hasn't been uncommon. It hasn't been for Lennon, either.
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Lennon didn't look sharp in the first set, dropping it 6-1 to the Aztecs' Dariya Detkovskaya in their No. 2 singles match. Having already faced off against each other in doubles play. When a first set goes south that fast, the walk from the baseline to the bench on the court is rather introspective.
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The only issue is she wasn't exactly sure where to look.
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"Honestly, losing the first set when you're not feeling great is difficult, because in the second set you're like, I need to get back in here and fight," she said. "Honestly, I wasn't sure what was feeling good and what wasn't. Then Coach told me, 'hey, I know you're not feeling great, but if you're going to do it, you have to do it for your teammates.' That really helped me zoom out and see a bigger picture than the level I was playing in the first set."
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Lennon entered the day having played seven three-setters this season, posting a 5-0 record in the process. Now, in five such consecutive scenarios, she's dropped the first set. And for the fifth consecutive outing, she came back firing. She slugged her way to a 6-4 win in the second set, then flipped the script from the first set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before wrapping it up with a 6-2 decision.
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Even still, she wasn't feeling great, but she found a way to push past the internal struggle she felt at times.
Â
"I wasn't feeling my shots. I didn't feel very confident on some of my shots," she said. "I just knew my game plan. I was really focused on more than not what I was feeling, but focusing on where I was going to put the ball and what was my game plan going into the point, where I was going to serve – stuff like that. I was more shot by shot than, oh, that doesn't feel really good. It was just fighting for every ball."
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San Diego State would win in straight sets at No. 1 and again at No. 3 to push out to a 2-1 lead. Lennon's victory tied the match back up, and in the process, Richterova came back to win the second set at No. 4 before eventually falling 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
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The only Ram to win a first set was Zhadzinskaya, the last Ram at the court at No. 5, but just after she dropped the second set, the Aztecs secured the win with in straight sets at No. 6.
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Lennon sees what her coach does, too. As a team, the Rams haven't been quick out of the gates in singles play, a tactic the team knows needs to change in a conference where the majority of the duals have been tight.
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"I think we've been starting a little bit slow in the past couple of matches," Lennon said. "We know how to pick up the energy, but we should work on getting that energy from the start. We know on this team we like to fight. We know that if there's a slow start, we're going to fight for it."
Â
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No matter how good somebody is at their area of expertise, some stretches are going to be rough. Being able to work through those periods and come out the other end is a trait of successful people, and for Colorado State's women's tennis team, nobody is better at seeing their way through the dark than Zara Lennon.
Â
She wasn't the lone Ram on Friday afternoon at the Wyoming Tennis Complex. In the six singles spots, Colorado State dropped the first set in five of them with the No. 53 Aztecs winning a Mountain West battle of ranked teams, 4-2. The No. 61 Rams fell to 12-5, 2-3 in conference play.
Â
"We're down in all the first sets. It was a really slow start," CSU coach Mai-Ly Tran said, her team set to play UNLV on Saturday at 3 p.m. "San Diego State came out way more aggressive. We weren't willing to work the points and stop the bleeding, and it took a set and a half to play our tennis, which is really hard to come back from.
Â
"Give credit to San Diego State; they played well, but we can't give any freebies away against a really good team, and we need to take advantage of opportunities. I think we did a great job of getting the doubles point, which would have been crucial today. It's just unfortunate we didn't take advantage of the opportunity today. We need to respond better, especially to a loss and learn from this loss."
Â
The Rams had to fight for the doubles point, with two of the three slots needing a tiebreak. After the No. 3 tandem of Sarka Richterova and Viktoryia Zhadzinskaya worked to a crisp 6-3 in the third spot, SDSU won at No. 2, 7-6 (6). Then Colorado State's top duo of Radka Buzkova and Emily Dush won their tiebreak 7-3 after losing the first three points.
Â
The Aztecs responded by winning the first four singles sets at the four-court facility, which as Tran noted, hasn't been uncommon. It hasn't been for Lennon, either.
Â
Lennon didn't look sharp in the first set, dropping it 6-1 to the Aztecs' Dariya Detkovskaya in their No. 2 singles match. Having already faced off against each other in doubles play. When a first set goes south that fast, the walk from the baseline to the bench on the court is rather introspective.
Â
The only issue is she wasn't exactly sure where to look.
Â
"Honestly, losing the first set when you're not feeling great is difficult, because in the second set you're like, I need to get back in here and fight," she said. "Honestly, I wasn't sure what was feeling good and what wasn't. Then Coach told me, 'hey, I know you're not feeling great, but if you're going to do it, you have to do it for your teammates.' That really helped me zoom out and see a bigger picture than the level I was playing in the first set."
Â
Lennon entered the day having played seven three-setters this season, posting a 5-0 record in the process. Now, in five such consecutive scenarios, she's dropped the first set. And for the fifth consecutive outing, she came back firing. She slugged her way to a 6-4 win in the second set, then flipped the script from the first set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before wrapping it up with a 6-2 decision.
Â
Even still, she wasn't feeling great, but she found a way to push past the internal struggle she felt at times.
Â
"I wasn't feeling my shots. I didn't feel very confident on some of my shots," she said. "I just knew my game plan. I was really focused on more than not what I was feeling, but focusing on where I was going to put the ball and what was my game plan going into the point, where I was going to serve – stuff like that. I was more shot by shot than, oh, that doesn't feel really good. It was just fighting for every ball."
Â
San Diego State would win in straight sets at No. 1 and again at No. 3 to push out to a 2-1 lead. Lennon's victory tied the match back up, and in the process, Richterova came back to win the second set at No. 4 before eventually falling 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
Â
The only Ram to win a first set was Zhadzinskaya, the last Ram at the court at No. 5, but just after she dropped the second set, the Aztecs secured the win with in straight sets at No. 6.
Â
Lennon sees what her coach does, too. As a team, the Rams haven't been quick out of the gates in singles play, a tactic the team knows needs to change in a conference where the majority of the duals have been tight.
Â
"I think we've been starting a little bit slow in the past couple of matches," Lennon said. "We know how to pick up the energy, but we should work on getting that energy from the start. We know on this team we like to fight. We know that if there's a slow start, we're going to fight for it."
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- STALWART -
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Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
Andjela Skrobonja / 0 [SDSU]
66
33
#2 Singles Match
123
Dariya Detkovskaya / 0 [SDSU]
642
166
#3 Singles Match
12
Tamara Arnold / 0 [SDSU]
66
21
#4 Singles Match
123
Alicia Melosch / 0 [SDSU]
656
374
#5 Singles Match
12
Rania Azziz / 0 [SDSU]
76
52
#6 Singles Match
123
Andreea Velcea / 0 [SDSU]
36UF
64UF
Order of Finish:
3,1,2,4,5
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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