Rams Sweep Home Weekend

There are plenty of ways for a coach to deliver a compliment. One is just straight-up telling a player.

Another is to deliver a message indirectly, the way Colorado State women's tennis coach Mai-Ly Tran did to Luana Avelar.

Before Saturday's match with Utah State, Tran was reading out the lineup. Avelar heard her name called for doubles. That had never happened before in the sophomore's career. Then Tran read off the singles lineup. Avelar expected to hear her name called. But when she skipped over in her normal No. 4 position, her mind raced. Then she heard her name called for No. 3.

While she didn't pick up a win on Saturday, she more than delivered for her team Sunday in a 4-2 win over Boise State, giving the Rams (7-6 overall, 2-1 conference) a sweep of their home Mountain West debut.

Avelar was stunned at the news, but calm on the court all weekend.

"I was not expecting that," she said. "That didn't come with a, 'hey, you might play, just be ready.' It was just when coach was telling us the lineup, she started with doubles and I was, 'wait? What?' And then she went to singles six up. She said six, five and up, and I was so happy.

"It meant a lot to be. I think I had a lot of factors which could have pushed me down and made me nervous in a bad way, but I tried to manage all of the nervousness and tried to make it a positive for me. I used all my energy in the tennis match, and I think it paid off. My match didn't finish (Saturday), but I was able to put up a fight. Today I finished it. I was just glad I was able to finish it with a 'W', both singles and doubles."

She paired with Sarka Richterova both days, and the two delivered the clinching doubles win at No. 3 6-3. The two practiced together for the first time on Thursday, and while Richterova was able to read the tea leaves she had a new partner, Avelar was still stunned.

For Tran, the decisions weren't all that hard as Avelar had done a lot to force her hand. She's been improving, but she's also been more competitive on the court, in a win or a loss. She's always played with passion, but she's recently started to allow the positive voice inside her head to drown out the chatter of the negative one.

Something Tran also noticed.

"I think that's one of her biggest qualities is she competes extremely well, and I've seen that potential as soon as she stepped on this team. You need some of the experience to kind of prepare you, and I wanted to give her the time and I felt she was ready," Trans said. "At this moment she's been playing really well. She hasn't necessarily been winning every single match, but it's the way she carries herself on the court and how she's been competing, and I thought she was ready for the moment. Today is really cool, and I'm proud of the way she embraced the opportunity.

"I think last year she competed well, but there were still so many moment of fear and doubt. She's matured a lot, and it's showing in the way she's playing these days. It's a really big step for her this weekend."

Avelar battled her way through a three-set match with Joana Baptista, winning 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. She shrugged off the inconsistency of her second set and came back for the third renewed.

The weekend was one which raised her confidence two-fold, especially since she didn't see it all coming.

"I think there are so many ways to look at a situation. I'm trying to be open minded and just choose the best path. It's definitely a reward. I feel I've been putting in a lot of work, and it means a lot to me to move up. It's nice knowing she trusts me and is confident enough to put me in that spot, but most of all, I feel like I'm doing a good job of just trusting myself."

Her win gave the Rams a 3-0 lead in the match as Radka Buzkova also won a pair. She teamed with Viktoryia Zhadzinskaya to win 6-3 at the No. 1 spot, then cruised at No. 2 singles in a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Lorelyz Murraffo.

She's had plenty of impressive performances in her Colorado State career, but this one came as the result of one of the rare days when it felt as easy on the court as it looked from the crowd.

"That's good that it kind of felt the same way for the audience as it did for me, because I was feeling good today. I had a little bit of a slower start, but then I was really able to swing through my shots and it was feeling good," she said. "It's good when you get on that kind of a roll and everything is working. It's a good day.

"It's weird sometimes. Tennis is so mental. You can be playing amazing, but you still find the smallest thing that's not going your way. In my head I was thinking about different things, but I was enjoying today. It wasn't too interesting. There were no comebacks. I was up the whole match, so it was fun."

While her resume is stellar as one of the winningest players in program history, the season has been very much a slow build for the graduate student. She battled an injury in the fall, basically working her way back into form during the early spring duals.

Now, she looks closer to hear peak.

"It takes some time for me to start playing and be in the best shape. I feel like I was finally able to find that form," she said. "I'm playing well and feeling confident right now. I just want to bring that to conference play and the conference tournament."

The lengthiest match of the day came as no surprise as it was a matchup of two All-Mountain West performers from a season ago. Boise State's Pauline Ernstberger rallied to defeat Zara Lennon in three sets, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 at No. 1. That put Boise State on the board, then the Broncos followed with a win at No. 4

All the while, Buzkova's doubles partner was working her way toward the clincher. Zhadzinskaya won 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 6 position, trailing 3-2 in the second set only to close it out strong and eliminate any tension which may have been building.

It was an important weekend in Tran's eyes, as the two wins came against quality teams, allowing the Rams to gain a bit of momentum before hitting the road again to face Nevada, then taking on University of the Pacific in a recently scheduled nonconference date to make up for two the Rams lost earlier in the month.

"We knew kind of our expectations with these teams. Utah State, it could have gone either way, but we were able to start out stronger in both of the matches this weekend instead of playing from behind," Tran said. "Boise State I knew was going to be a really good team. I expected us to be here all day, all night. I think the home advantage really helped us, but also the confidence we've built, and the girls are kind of hitting their stride."

An outright compliment. Nothing subtle in the messaging.

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- STALWART

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Players Mentioned

Luana Avelar

Radka Buzkova

Zara Lennon

Sarka Richterova

Viktoryia Zhadzinskaya