SAN DIEGO - Colorado’s fall tennis season ended the way the Buffaloes wanted it to: with a clean doubles sweep and a pile of wins at the San Diego State Invitational.
The Buffs collected six victories Sunday at the Aztec Tennis Complex, taking all three doubles matches for the second time in three days and then adding three of four completed singles matches. By the time the weekend wrapped, Colorado had piled up 14 total wins across the three-day event, split evenly with seven in doubles and seven in singles against Colorado State, Denver, UC San Diego, San Diego and Stanford opponents.
The headline result belonged to Lera Alexin and Ema Bubalo, who stayed perfect together on the weekend and claimed the top-flight doubles title with a 6-1 win over Colorado State’s Sorcha Caves and Annika Planinsek. That gave the duo its eighth straight doubles victory heading into the NCAA Individual Championships later this month.
Bubalo’s day wasn’t limited to doubles. She also reached the top-flight singles final, where Stanford’s Caroline Driscoll came away with a 6-2, 6-3 win.
“Overall a good day for our Buffs,” CU Head Coach Anthony Pham said. “We made some significant progress the last couple of days, and Erick (Garcia, assistant coach) and I were pleased to see us play with such great energy and purpose today.”
Pham also pointed to the bigger picture after the tournament.
“This team has grown a lot since we started back in late August, but we also know there is much work to do ahead,” Pham said. “We are eager to tackle the challenges ahead and prepare for our spring campaign.”
Colorado’s other doubles teams finished the sweep in convincing fashion. Yukiko Ikedo, making her first appearance of the weekend, paired with Pia Rebec and beat UC San Diego’s Neha Guru and Sonya Goldberg 6-3. Willow Gretsch and Heidi Crncan then closed out the fall by overwhelming Denver’s Yunfei Cai and Francesca Tye 6-1, a result that also served as payback after Cai had been part of the Pioneer pairing that edged Gretsch and Crncan at the Colorado Cup in October.
Singles brought more good news for the Buffs. Rebec, after losing her opening singles match to Driscoll on Friday, finished strong with a 6-3, 6-4 win over CSU’s Leyla Tozin in the backdraw final. Alexin kept rolling as well, following a three-set loss to UCSD’s Cassie Blakey on Friday with a rout of CSU’s Zaria McGinty on Saturday, then backing it up with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Denver’s Ruby Hansen.
Gretsch also picked up her first singles win of the weekend, outlasting DU’s Remy Nguyen 6-4, 7-6 (2). Crncan was scheduled to play San Diego’s Anna Linn Moll but withdrew before the match.
Bubalo’s run through singles ended in the final against Driscoll, who built the early lead and held it together through the second set. The runner-up finish left Bubalo with a 2-1 singles weekend, and she’ll head to Athens, Ga., with the doubles title in hand.
Alexin and Bubalo now turn their attention to the NCAA Individual Championships, which begin Nov. 17 in Athens. The rest of Colorado’s roster is done with fall competition and will return when the dual-match season starts in January.
“Ema and Lera got tested this weekend in many different ways, and that will serve as excellent preparation for NCAAs,” Pham said. “They are excited to test themselves against the best in the country and represent the Buffs on the national stage.”
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