%20(1).png&type=webp)
Colorado State University Athletics
Colorado State
Colorado
Rams Fall at Home to Colorado
2/25/2024 3:42:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Team learning to manage ups and downs of a match and a day
A 16-match home winning streak lost, but plenty of lessons to be learned.
ÂIn some ways, the 4-1 team scoreline in favor of Colorado wasn't as lopsided as the day actually was. Some individual sets, sure, but as a collective, the Colorado State tennis team was confident in its fight and its mentality moving forward.
ÂThe Rams won the doubles point with relative ease, but faced some tough stretches of play on the path. The Rams' No. 2 doubles, which consisted of Zara Lennon and Sarah Weekley, were down three sets to one at one point, but won the next five sets to win their match.
Â"I think we were really composed and we weren't really worried about the score," Weekley said. "We just played our game. It took us a while to warm up and get into the groove of things, but we played good and we played our game."
ÂThe No. 1 doubles of Radka Buzkova and Viktoria Zhadzinskaya also won 6-3 to clinch the doubles point for the Rams. The ebbs and flows at times went against them as well, squandering a 3-0 lead, which the Buffaloes brought back to 3-3.Â
ÂWith the win, Buzkova moved solely into sixth place of CSU's all-time career doubles wins leaderboard with 57.Â
ÂWhat coach Mai-Ly Tran liked most about the doubles was the battle the Rams put up, a sort of mentality which trickled into basically every singles match.
Â"I liked that they fought. We did a great job of getting the doubles point," Tran said. "CU came out strong in the singles and got good early leads, so that was hard, we had to fight back in some of those matches. But there was heart and there was fight in this match, which was expected. Everyone was excited to play CU, they've been on a streak of playing well, so I'm honestly proud of how they fought."
ÂMany of the singles matches were battles. Three matchups went to a tie-break in their respective first sets, just one of which the Rams won.Â
ÂLennon and Sarka Richterova both lost their tie breaks and would go on to lose their singles matches at Nos. 1 and 5. Neither one went away easily, particularly Richterova, thanks to the way she's able to ground herself and stay focused on the present.Â
Â"There are techniques that you have and rituals, like how many times you bounce the ball before a serve and stuff like that," Richterova said. "And also you strive to be a goldfish and forget everything like mistakes and focus on the now. Just forgive and forget."
ÂWeekley found her own solution to her singles struggles. She lost her first set 6-1, then followed with a 7-5 victory to push it to a third set, which was abandoned after the Buffaloes scored their fourth team point to clinch the win.
ÂUnlike Richterova, Weekley's strategy didn't exactly involve forgiving or forgetting.
Â"I think in the first set, I was sort of playing (her opponent's) game," Weekley said. "So then for the second and third set, I was a bit mad about losing like that and was able to start playing aggressively and use that anger towards hitting strong balls and aggressive balls."
ÂDuring a match like this one, Tran also noted the importance of having a short term memory at times, "forgetting the points behind us" and being present.Â
ÂEven more important moving forward is to manage the uncontrollable swings of a tennis match, whether doubles or singles, for her players to be able to put themselves in the best position possible to win.
ÂThough CSU's 16-match win streak at home is snapped, it will have a chance to start building a new one next Saturday, March 2 at 12:30 p.m. when Grand Canyon visits Fort Collins.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
2,4,1,5
Players Mentioned
