Rams Set Foundation for Moving Forward

FORT COLLINS – Matches have been played, which was the most important part of the weekend.

Freshmen are now officially collegiate players. Others, returning from injury, have a better understanding of where their game stands. Transfers feel as if they are now part of their new team. In some instances, players were checking off multiple boxes.

Now, Colorado State's tennis team can move forward with a better sense of direction with three days of play at the Jon Messick Invitational it hosted this weekend at the CSU Tennis Complex.

"I think that's like the biggest thing with the new players is you just want to see them play. Obviously, you recruit them, but it's always nice to see them play in Rams gear," CSU coach Mai-Ly Tran said. "We're just in a discovery mode of what level they are at, what things they need to work on. Everybody has different perspective, and some freshmen with their first college tournament are battling nerves. I think that transfers and returners had an interesting perspective of knowing what the fall means in the grand scheme of things, and so I think Annika (Planinsek) and the other returners they had a great mindset or understanding the fall and managing their expectations."

The freshmen seemed to acclimate quite nicely, with a pair of them winning their draws, another placing third.

Stella Simpson-Morgan took top honors in Flight F, beating Air Force's Alba Martinez 2-6, 6-3, 10-7. Classmate Dylan Voeks captured Flight H with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ruby Young, and Anni Amalnathan took third in Flight I, beating Falcon Carissa Holguin 8-7 (6).

Sunday's final day had to wait out the morning rain, pushing the action to start about two and a half hours later than planned, forcing consolation matches into 8-game sets and third sets in the championship bracket to a race to 10 as some visiting teams were racing to make flights back home.

Simpson-Morgan admitted Friday she battles with her own confidence in singles, a trait Amalnathan said isn't her strong suit either, with the two comparing notes. Now, three matches into her career as a Ram, Amalnathan feels a bit more settled, especially since she wasn't sure what to expect.

She felt that way in practice.

"It's so different than juniors. Even the practices, just the intensity of everything," Amalnathan said. "If you can't compare even four to five hours of practice in juniors to even two hours of practice here. It's a different environment, and obviously that means we're practicing so much more intensely, the matches are so much more intense. And then it's also you have something to fight for on the court. And it's great to have that feeling, and it really picks you up to play with that, to get used to that. It gives me a different mentality in the matches."

She won her first match on Friday before stumbling on Saturday, giving her the chance to experience both sides of the coin. Fresh face or not, they're all competitive, so there will be a drive to succeed.

Having some pressure taken off prior helped settle the heartbeat.

"I think that initially the first thing you think is I'm going to be so nervous, it's my first college match, all of that. So obviously coming up the weekend I was super nervous, but the thing that they kept telling us at practice was it's your first match, we're just here to have fun, and all our upperclassmen told us that, gave us advice the day before, and said don't put pressure on yourself, you're here to have fun. Wins and losses will come; it's your first match.

"Genuinely that just made it so much easier to put everything I had out there. Because I think if I was stressed and worried about what everyone was thinking, I would be, 'oh God, what do I do, what do I do?' But it was just such a positive environment that I don't have to worry if I'm winning or losing. Coming back like that, I was down, but I felt my team's on my side. It's great to play with that' it's so much easier."

The bonding is an aspect Tran had her eye out for, too. Seven of the Rams are new, and while they've all be getting along well together, she wanted to see what kind of atmosphere they brought as a team.

No worries. If there was a Ram on the court, there were a few Rams on the side shouting out encouragement.

"It's fun watching the team chemistry very early on and the culture they're building and the support they have for each other," Tran said. "They were just having fun, and that was one of our goals is to not put too much on themselves and to enjoy this first tournament."

Returner Luana Avelar did so having missed all of last season with an injury, and a bit of a hiccup in the health department ended her day early on Saturday. She felt good enough the final day to play a one-set match against Olivia Halvorson of Utah State, winning 6-1.

Planinsek, the transfer, was in a similar boat. She was injured in her first match of the spring last year and missed the rest of the campaign for Ball State. She was hoping to find out where her game sat after so long away, realizing she was going to have to take the results as she went.

Being realistic helped curb her emotions when it came to results, putting up a fight in a pair of losses, advancing one day when her opponent defaulted.

"Coming here was just getting better every day. I was working more towards the progress and not as much of results," she said. "I need to focus on my game, and I need to get back into the swing of things just feeling my tennis and just feeling my best out there."

The competitor is still there, lurking inside. It has to be for a person who has manned the No. 1 spot at the college level. Even knowing she isn't 100 percent back, she still wanted nothing more than to win. Her win came in finding out she's getting closer to being all the way back.

"I think there's definitely things to work on. It definitely wasn't the best, and that's to be expected," she said. "You can't come back and just be 100%.

"I think just working every day, now it's over, going back to practice and just working on things that need to be better mentally, physically, just getting that ball, one more ball back. We have a tournament next weekend and that's all we can do. Just focus on the good things, taking good things out of the tournament and just fixing some stuff. I do feel good about coming out there and competing again. I think that was something that was really missing."

The second best part for the Rams is knowing they don't have to wait long as they attend the Bedford Cup at the Air Force Academy this coming weekend. As good as that feels, it doesn't top what mattered most to all of them.

As a team, they have a starting point.

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Anni Amalnathan

Luana Avelar

Stella Simpson-Morgan

Dylan Voeks