The Colorado Buffaloes got their fall slate rolling Friday at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, and the first day brought a little bit of everything at Nicolet Tennis Center in Glendale, Wis.
Four Buffs - Lera Alexin, Ema Bubalo, Heidi Crncan and Louise Ternstroem - all finished 1-1 in singles, while Alexin and Bubalo picked up a doubles win over Illinois. On the other side of the draw, Crncan and Ternstroem dropped a tight doubles match to Wisconsin.
“Overall, we had some bright spots,” CU coach Anthony Pham said. “It's early in the year, we want to keep building through the weekend.”
Colorado opened the day in doubles at 9 a.m., and the returning duo of Alexin and Bubalo set the tone with a 7-6 win over Illinois’ Ariel Madatali and Cara Mester. Crncan and newcomer Ternstroem were right there as well, but Wisconsin’s Karolina Jacobson and Gabriela Skrabalova edged them 7-6.
The singles swings came next, and the Buffs split early before turning things around in the second round. Bubalo fell to North Carolina’s Anna Frey, Alexin lost a third-set tiebreaker to Purdue’s Kathryn Wilson, and Crncan dropped her opener to Illinois’ Madatali. Ternstroem was Colorado’s lone winner in that first round, beating San Francisco’s Sienna Leeson in a third-set tiebreaker.
Then the response came. Bubalo bounced back with a third-set tiebreaker win over Milwaukee’s Natalia Castaneda Guerrero, Alexin also needed three sets to get past Navy’s Peyton Amspacher-Philemon, and Crncan handled Kansas State’s Diana Smolinska. Ternstroem had another grind on her hands against Purdue’s Reese Frank, with the first two sets going the distance before Frank took the third-set tiebreaker.
Colorado moves into Saturday with another packed day ahead at the Milwaukee Tennis Classic, one that is scheduled to include two doubles rounds and two singles rounds for each player.
“Tomorrow, the focus will be on the adjustments we talked with each of them about,” Pham said. “In both singles and doubles. I'm not a fan of having four matches in a day, that's a lot, but we'll see how they respond.”
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